The Temple of Flowers
imaginative Flower Play in THe Forest
The Wonder Kids After School is a space for creative, unstructured play brought to life by props, costumes, and mysterious missions. Once these elements are in motion, the Wonder Kids let the magic happen themselves, playing together in wonder. The content below captures the wonder witnessed during a recent session.
Two worlds emerge as the Wonder Kids start to arrive: there is a group tending to the home they have been building out of long, thick wooden logs, and there is a group visiting the Temple of Flowers, this session’s thematic space that a creative Wonder Kid began envisioning the previous week.
In front of the Temple of Flowers, two Wonder Leaders start setting up the clothing shop, a rope tied between two trees where the clothes, hats and jewelry hang for purchase. One Wonder Kid carries around a pumpkin that another wants to take as his own. A Wonder Leader helps facilitate a conversation around setting boundaries: if the Wonder Kid wants to borrow someone else’s pumpkin, he should first ask. The pumpkin’s owner feels more comfortable knowing her pumpkin won’t be stolen since her boundaries have been clearly understood.
One resolution managed but another conflict is on the horizon: little does the group realize there is a tornado coming! Two Wonder Kids slide seamlessly into the role of meteorologist, warning everyone the countdown is imminent—into the home for cover we go! The Wonder Kids want to protect the clothes at all costs, so everyone helps move the items from the Temple of Flowers over to the home. The Wonder Leaders try to join the home before the tornado arrives, but a Wonder Kid guarding the entrance lets the leaders know only the kids are allowed to stay dry from the storm.
“SORRY WONDER LEADERS!”
When the storm passes, a Wonder Kid begins to harvest a garden he is planting outside the home. He plants three carrots and an apple tree—there will soon be bountiful food for everyone! Wonder Leader, Alli, rings the welcoming bell, and everyone transitions to the blanket-lined living room for the opening ritual.
The group is antsy today (surviving a storm takes a lot of energy!), but everyone starts to settle as they go around and share names and what they are dressing up as for Halloween. In the background, Wonder Musician, Joel, plays an acoustic soundtrack as background music to our ritual. Once everyone takes their turn, Alli goes over the community agreements:
CARE, RESPECT, COLLABORATION,
LEAVE NO TRACE, AND FREEDOM
As the group breaks from the living room to continue open play, a mysterious scroll is found by an attentive Wonder Kid in the mailbox hanging from a nearby tree: a message from Gaia has arrived! The messenger who finds the scroll quickly zooms over to the group so the scroll can be read aloud together. He is also wearing a necklace with three keys on it that Gaia included with the letter. The letter encourages the Wonder Kids continue building the Temple of Flowers, even though the creative leader of the project isn’t present today. Everyone runs over to the Temple and starts to envision what the space could look like. The most immediate realization is that there are no flowers in the Temple. With paint brushes and watercolor palettes, the Wonder Kids decide to bring the Temple of Flowers to life on paper.
Part of the group gather back in the living room, where several carefully artistic Wonder Kids remain for most of the time, drawing beautiful flowers to decorate the Temple with. A few other Wonder Kids remember that the tornado’s arrival turned some people into zombies (of course!), and they identify Joel as a zombie. They continue to play around the home base, fighting humans v. zombies. The messenger and another Wonder Kid remain curious about the necklace of keys: what are they for? Why does Gaia give us these keys? They spend some time with the help of another curious Wonder Kid trying to find the key hole in trees within the perimeter. A few might work, but ultimately, nothing happens, so they feel stumped. What should they do next? Write a letter to Gaia, they decide!
They sit with Wonder Leader, Stacey, to write a letter to Gaia. It says:
“Dear Gaia, We need to know where the 3 key holes are. Thank you for warning us to protect our friends and thank you for helping us to have fun. From, the Wonder Kids”
They run the message over to the mailbox and include a few watercolor drawings of flowers to Gaia as well. Closing time arrives, and the group returns to the home base after cleaning everything up, singing songs with Joel and celebrating that everyone survived the tornado and made new friends. As families arrive and kids slowly parts ways, the Wonder Kid gardener waters the carrot and apple garden, already excited to be coming back next week.
If you’d like more information about our after school program, you can read more or register here!
