A Playful Place

Dear Friends,

Last Friday got me out of my admin head and into a place our school's mission invites us to land: a playful place. As a school we accepted the 6th grade's All School project prompt of Stuffy Day and followed their incredibly delightful instructions to make different tableaux using our stuffies from home or from our classrooms. The admin team was a classroom for the purpose of this assignment, and so, just like the kids, we spent Friday morning dressing up our stuffies and putting them in a scene. We chose Packing Boxes of Supplies for Ukraine as our theme. It was so fun to dress the creatures up in lanyards and walkie talkies and arrange them for dramatic effect.

Then over the course of the day classes could tour the school looking at the scenes created. The buzz was joyful, creative, playful, engaged, inspired, and collaborative. The toddlers were successful in carrying their own stuffies with them on their tour, a genius move from their teachers, as it meant they didn't need to touch or disturb the ones in the exhibits. And the toddlers were perfect candidates for using the classroom's... shall we say... low stakes stuffies for their scene, therefore not feeling sad that they had to leave them when the scene was complete and ready for primetime. The Uppers were deeply immersed in their toys' participation: the 7/8's library scene was extremely elaborate and, fittingly, included a G-rated love scene between a bear and a cat canoodling in the stacks. The developmental stages of childhood were on full display here at the Center School!

It felt so good to play and to share together. I left for the weekend with a spring in my step! I want you to have that feeling too, so here is a video of the creations for you to enjoy.

Playfully,

Charlie Spencer

Head of School

PS Here's the whole song from the soundtrack in case you want to skip around a little longer. It was one of my dad's favorites. I think that's another reason the day felt so sweet. It reminded me of my dad, Gilman, who loved stuffies and collected them into his 80's!