This summer, I learned so much alongside the children as we explored our surrounding community at Centre de Santé at Gage Park. I was reminded that learning doesn’t just happen within four walls, it unfolds through the spaces, places, and people that weave our community together. Everything around us, from the natural beauty of the park to the whimsical environment of the splash pad, offers a rich landscape of discovery about care, feeling, and belonging.
Through an exploration of texture, sound, smell, sight, and imagination, we worked together to unearth new information about how we interact with the world, and how the world interacts with us.
While exploring the space within Gage Park, the children investigated their environment in all-new ways. They peered up at the vibrant gardens, observed the bustling pathways, and paused to wonder about all the plants and creatures that live within the park.
We used texture passports, paint, sponges, and found objects to create texture prints, which allowed the children to interact with the nature of the park in a new way. The children quickly filled their books with prints of leaves, bark, rocks, flowers, and grass, asking questions such as “Est ce que les arbres peu nous sentir?” meaning, “Can the trees feel us too?” I explained that trees, like us, are alive, and do have their own systems of “feeling.” This was a clear example of children going deeper and investigating not only what the textures around us are, but how those textures might interact with us, rather than focusing how we interact with them. A great level of intelligence and empathy was displayed by these children who showed up every week to explore the five senses with me.
They used the world around them and their own personal experiences to investigate sound, sight, and smell, too. One girl told a story of how the wind carries scents, by drawing the swirls of the wind in the sky, telling me, “Le vent nous apporte les odeurs.” An apt observation about how we experience scents because of the nature that surrounds us.
I learned so much from the francophone group at Centre de Santé, who were very optimistic and always open to experimenting with new materials, and exploring new senses.