Sarah and Mary are playing on the beanbag, jumping around and landing on top of each other. This is fun for a few minutes, then Mary says, “Stop! I don’t like this.” Sarah says, “Okay.” Then a pause and she says, “How about you land on me?”. This works, and Graham and Amy join the game too. The kids continue to communicate about their body’s limits and the game morphs into a hide and seek type thing with a “squishing” component, with relatively little scaffolding from the teacher. At one point it gets a little rowdy again and Graham says, “Everybody, take a break!” It is so impressive to see kids learn such powerful strategies for advocating for what they need, and listening to each other this early in life!
