37 ShadowsListening to children’s stories from the woods

Deb Wilenski

Cambridge Curiosity and Imagination (CCI) isa not for profit organisation based in the Eastof England that has been working creativelywith communities since 2002. Skilled artistslead our carefully designed programmes. We enable children to be natural creative explorers and encourage adults to reclaimthese skills for themselves.

Deb Wilenski is inspired by the work of thepre-schools and infant-toddler centres of Reggio Emilia, the woodland nurseries of Europe and Scandinavia, and by projectswhich value children as makers of culture andmeaning.

Sometimes you need stories as much asyou need food and water.

Sometimes you need stories to see what happens next.

Sometimes the place you need to go to.find stories is the forest –

where old stories live and new stories are born.

Sometimes you just need to start listening well for stories to begin…

The stories in this book were collected over a16 week project, during which four classes ofthree and four year olds from Histon EarlyYears Centre, made eight half day visits totheir local woods in Homefield Park.

CCI worked in collaboration with the children’s usual educators and a group of par-ent volunteers, to support the children’s freeexploration of the woods and to help extendthe fascinations that emerged..

We were not looking for stories to begin with.But one of our core values was listening, andwhen we started to listen with concentrationwe were amazed at what there was to hear.

We listened carefully to the particular words children were using.

We listened to children imagining, investigating, speculating, explaining.

We listened to children make and remake and wonder about meaning.

And we listened to more than words.

We listened to the way children moved.

We listened to their fast running andenergetic exploration.

We listened to their quiet stopping and inhabiting of places.

When we began to collect the stories children were telling and read them aloud tostart and end the woods sessions, we listened to children listening.

You could have heard a pin drop or a monster roar.

They were fascinated by each other’s stories,and authorship spread like wildfire.

The following pages offer a collection of someof these stories. There is only room for a fewbut you can find more on the project blog at:

www.ccifootprints.org.uk

The First Stories

I’ve been to holiday and I’ve been lost so Ihave to find my parents. I didn’t get lost like that. But I did. Butsomebody did. I must find them straightaway – otherwise I be so frustrated. I hope I find them otherwise I be so sad.

I like going to the woods and I like going withmy friends. And I like going to my parents’ house, and I like being in the whole garden.And I love my friends.

On her third visit to the woods Ruby asks ifshe can borrow my notebook. I realise she isspeaking at the same time as writing in it andI ask what the writing is saying. I’m intriguedto hear two stories of losing and finding, dan-ger and safety. Both are beautifully, lyricallyexpressive: the story of being lost is full of am-biguity, changes, hesitation. The story ofsafety is sure and certain. These two shortstories wake me up – make me realize thatthese children are already exploring the kindsof stories that have lived in the woods a longtime.

These are small stories engaging with big ideas.

Ruby

Danger and the unknown – Greg’s stories.

Someone went to the woods in the night –called Greg - and he saw a shadow in thewoods, and then he saw a skeleton.

Once upon a time Ruby and me went out inthe woods in the night and we saw a shadowin the bushes and it was a dinosaur. And weran away as fast as we could and the dinosaur didn’t know, so we pressed the button – and we went home. And the dinosaur smashed the window, andwe went under my cover and the dinosaurcouldn’t find us so he went back to the bushin the wood.

Once upon a time a boy - called Greg - wentto the woods at night, and he saw thirty-seven shadows…

Greg

Mapping the emergence of story-making inthe woods, I’m struck by the generative powerof Greg’s first narratives. Beginning straightafter Ruby’s stories, and picking up some ofher interest in danger, they are told clearlyand expressively, with the smile of someonewho has found his voice, is being listened to,and is about to say something scary...

But just as significantly, they are open, gener-ous stories, inviting and inspiring others to joinin. In fact many of the children picked upphrases or important words form Greg’s sto-ries to use in their own: the darkness of nightwhen you can’t really tell what things are, therich possibilities of the ‘shadow’, the big ideasof danger and the unknown.

Once upon a time there was a little girl called Ruby and she went for a walk in the woods. She saw a shadow and it was inthe bushes coming out and it was a big di-nosaur, and she ran and ran through thewoods – she needed to find her way home.

She was lost in the woods, but she sawsomething in the bushes. It was hermummy.

Once upon a time there was a mummy anda little boy called James, and they went intothe woods, and they saw a shadow. It wassomething out of the bushes. It was a di-nosaur. And they found a pointy stick andthey made a big hole. And then they put himin it, and they put it all over him.

And then he was gone. And we never found him.

Ruby

James

The Stories That C

ame A

fter

Not everyone was interested in dangerous adventures and high action drama. Emily tolda story which began as a narrative of defeat-ing danger but transformed into a tale of friendship:

She saw a shadow and it was a dragon. And then when I went close to the dragon Ispat fire at the dragon and the dragon spatfire at me. And then the dragon ran away.

Once upon a time there was a little girlcalled Emily and a dragon came and hebreathed fire at me and I blew fire at himand then he became a kind dragon and wewent to a lake.

There was a group of story-makers who built their tales around friendliness, familiar domestic routines, and everyday life.

Emily

Once upon a time a mouse maybe went intoa deep dark wood and maybe climbed up atree….and then climbed down and walked all theway down the road and all the way down thepath – he was going to the shops to getsome bread… And a nut, some milk, and then go and pay. He lives in a tree and he went home with thefood in the bag.

He lived happily ever after.

Evie found the woods difficult to begin with, feltthe cold, and missed her best friend. Shespent maybe half an hour telling this story toJeanette and illustrating it in the notebook. Itwas important for Evie to feel comfortable.They sat on a rug in the afternoon sun, in asheltered homely space, with no hurry, nearto another group of children but not part oftheir play. The story opened an imaginativeway into the woods for Evie, that had not beenpossible for her to find through physical ex-ploring. Jeanette’s calm, patient, interestedlistening was crucial.

Evie

A S

tory From The S

ky

We wanted to give children more time to tellstories back in their classroom, and a numberof them had speculated about what might livevery high up in the trees. Working with anoverhead projector we offered images of thesky, the trees with their shadows, and theground. The sky image seemed to extendimaginations into a new element and allowedEllis to tell the ‘biggest’ story yet.

Once there was someone who walked onthe sky. He went bang. A giant came fromthe sky. He fell down the clouds, then hesaid ‘Fee fi fo fum, I smell the blood on anEnglishman. I will slice him into a slice ofbread.’

There was a birdy birdy in the sky trying tokill the giant. ‘You can’t catch me – I’m theking of the castle’ said the giant. Then thebirdy went flying up in the sky and down onthe ground here. The birdy killed the giantwith his gun. Then there were three birdybirdies. Then a big birdy birdy came. Thegiant fell down onto the floor.

The End.

That was a very big story.Ellis

Stories From

The Hole In The Tree

There were some places in the park wherestory followed story. They were often placesthat were not totally visible or defined, ambiguous places, where the imaginationcould take hold. The hole in the tree was one of these. It was big enough to be seen from far away, but too high to be looked into easily. It was consequently a place of great speculation…

Alice: I can hear the tree singing.

Ellis: Did you know, there is a fox living inthat hole?

Katie: Birds live in there with sticks andleaves.

Evie: I’ve found a treasure chest.

Claudia: All of these haven’t but only this tree have.

Avni: There’s a spider’s web – there’s a fly – it looks fantastic!

The birds are tweeting.

Can you hear a parrot?

Alice, Ellis, K

atie, Evie, Claudia, and A

vni

Tom’s Tiger

Tom had been tracking a tiger since day onein the woods. On the last day he found a deadbird in the hole in the tree…

Oh there’s a dead bird in there, I think thetiger bited him and now he’s dead…he’s notin there. I think he must be looking for morefood. Have you seen that tiger?...quick comethis way, follow my lead. I think he’s overthere. No Evan he’s not there. I think hemust be back at his home. Evan you knowthere’s a dead white bird in there.

I’m going to see how the tiger is getting on.That tiger hasn’t eaten his food yet. If I seethat tiger I’m going to chase after him. I cansee his footprints, he’s probably in a cave.I’ve made a cross so he knows where to go.

Tom, drawing his tiger in the classroom continued:

I couldn’t catch him. I was getting too tired.It’s a spiky tiger. He’s going to walk on thegreen grass. He’s running up the hill in thepark. At the top it’s all muddy. That’s dirt atthe top. That’s where he pops in. It hasleaves there to make him comfy…I wish Icould be a tiger because I like to go in holesand hunt all day …

Tom

Stories From

Stones

One group of children was fascinated by dig-ging, and by the stones that came out of theground. Tom called them Sharkies, and Rubytold this story about them:

These are all the sharkies, and they are lostforever in the deep dark woods. And there’sa big bad wolf, and he eats them. Then hegoes to sleep and the sharkies come out ofthe big bad wolf’s mouth, and they go to thebig bad wolf’s house, knock on the door, andhe puts the sharkies into the bed. Theywaked up and I taked them home, and I stillgot them at home now. This is my story andI was bigger and I went home all by myself.And the big bad wolf says sorry.

Ben and JJ spoke about other creatures:

They are the neeps…they live underground,they have heads that go up like this (stretching their necks up)…they bounce up out of the holes…and they are small with spiky hair. They make tunnels.

Ruby

Ben and JJ

Running S

tories

Some children wanted to run fast and rangefar to the very limits of the woods. Their run-ning was skilful, purposeful, often social, andpersistently energetic. As the weeks went bywe began to hear and see stories in their wide circling movements, and in the ways theywere choosing to run through and around the woods.

The lion in the woods

Once upon a time there was a scary lion. He lived in a cave. A lion cave. He liked eating grass, and saying RAAAH! Jamie heard a noise. A lion noise. Jamie was scared and wentrunning away.

The magic trick

In the tangled prickly parts of the woods mul-tiple paths crisscross and curve throughbushes and trees making invisible places in-between. Alex turned his knowledge of run-ning the wood’s winding paths into a magictrick.

Do you want to see my magic trick?

Alex

Jamie

He pointed to a place for us to wait, runningin a big circle and quickly disappearing. Then,like magic, Alex reappeared back where hestarted. The magic spread. Tilda, Toby and Eliinvented their own magic tricks, with additionsand variations.

Alex drew a brilliantly simple illustration:

That’s me, and that’s me, and that’s mymagic trick. That’s Toby’s magic trick andthat’s Tilda’s magic trick.

More children became interested in Alex’smagic trick, and in the place where it hap-pened - they talked about going to the MagicTrick. Toby changed the trick again, taking apath through the undergrowth, which Alexcalled a ‘shortcut’.

Alexander told Kate the new trick is like a cir-cle and a circle inside. He drew it in her note-book in the woods. A group of children filmedthe trick as they ran it, and mapped theirtricks on paper.

We asked if anyone had tricks at their houseand Toby told us:

You have to only open a magic door near myhome – do you know – I havea secret passageway and it actually gets outto the other side of the world.

TobyA

lex

The story of the magic tricks is one of skilledorientation in a complex physical environment;it is also a story of theatre, and illusion, a storyof differentiated knowledge between themagic runner and his audience. It became formany of the children a story of graphics, anexperiment and exploration in lines and dia-grams. And throughout it remained a storyof shared imagination, of magic and power.

Imagination is the hard centre of human think-ing. Children imagine in all areas of theirthinking: in play, in problem solving, in repre-senting their understanding of the world.When children imagine they build on all previ-ous experience. When children imagine theymake sense of big ideas. Rich et al 2008

Running into more magicIn the same group as the Magic Trick, another game of fast running began on thehill near the gate. It became the longest story of all.

It’s big, isn’t it? It’s the wicked witch’s tree. The wicked witch is coming!

…the horrible witch Laura – there’s an emergency – cos of thewicked witch. Come on – let’s hide!

1

The following week the witch is joined by thefairies:

There is a big tree and fairies live in it in thedark … just right here. And when it’s morning they don’t go outside. I can follow their magic from behind.

A stone becomes significant...

Holly and Tilda

This is a magic stone. Where will the fairies find it? … They will magic it withstars and it will sparkle and it will turn into areal star and it will go up, up, up in the sky.

The fairies will magic themselves to findsomewhere to hide from the wicked witchand the bears ... Raaah!That’s the wicked witch. Her eyes, her...mouth, lots of her nails.

Holly and Laura

New characters arrive from pirate play in thewoods, and from drawing in the classroom;the scary fairy, and Harry the dragon who willfly everyone to China. At first they have clearrelationships based on their essentially goodor wicked natures.

The wicked witch has to be far away from thefairy. The pirates can be near the witch be-cause they are also bad – they steal and fight.The dragon has to be on the fairy’s side. Thescary fairy has been too near the witch andthat is why she has become scary.

But this is a story in which children are explor-ing and re-casting the morals of characters,asking big questions about good and bad, honour and wickedness, existence and non-existence. The pirates are especially interest-ing because their badness can be put to gooduse:

Sam: I can see the pirates. Alex T-F: Over there. Tom: They are up the tree. Henry: The witch can turn the fairy into afrog. The pirates are going to fight with thewicked witch. Alex T-F: Cos the fairies are not going to die.

As the story develops the children begin toread signs of it in the woods…

Sam

, Alex TF, Tom

and Henry

Mysterious pink marks have appeared onsome of the trees.

Holly: Let me think – who could have done it? Laura: Here’s another one. The wickedwitch might have left them there. Tilda: The pink spots have gone! Laura: I can see some pink spots. I didn’tsee that one last time. It might be just paint. …Lexie: The wicked witch did them. Jeanette: How do you know? Lexie: I saw her go past. She was red.

Many children in the class become involved in the story: there are authors, illustrators, listeners, questioners, children who elabo-rate, children who exaggerate. Harry becomes especially interested in the change-ability of characters referring to an index ofgood and bad. He is able to voice subtle think-ing around these opposites, and link them toother pairings that have fascinated this classfrom the beginning: visible and invisible, day-time and night-time, ambiguity and clarity,truth and trickery.

Holly, Laura, Tilda. Lexie and Jeanette

Harry about the wicked witch: She says she’sgood when she’s invisible. And when she’snot invisible she’s bad.

In the end the two stories of the wicked witchand the magic trick meet:

Tilda: The pirates hurt her so she ran awayreally fast to these woods. Harry: And she vanished Tilda: So no-one could find her Holly: She magicked

But the end is also negotiable:

Tilda: But don’t worry she’s still coming nextweek. She stays up all night and all day, play-ing in her wicked bedroom. She doesn’t haveany toys. She just casts her wicked spells.And that’s the end.

Harry

Tilda, Harry and H

olly

The Story That D

idn’t Want To End

There have been glimpses of stories just beginning in the woods, and there have beenstories with important endings. There wasone story which had very assertively No, noend. A story that wanted to carry on. Hereis Kate’s account of it:

Jamie, in his first weeks in the woods was ex-tremely fast paced, running from area toarea, covering most of the park. We tried tokeep up and listen to what he was saying ashe ran, which was usually about finding theothers, being lost or looking for someonemissing. Despite this sense of urgency anddanger, Jamie himself did not seem worried,and although he seemed to be seeking outthe rest of the group, when Jamie met themhe would usually change direction and con-tinue running on alone. Sometimes other chil-dren tried to follow Jamie, but couldn’t keeppace or didn’t understand his personal quest.Ellis, for instance, asked me, Why is Jamie always going in circles?

Over the weeks in the woods that followed,Jamie introduced other quests into his move-ment around the woods, such as looking fortreasure and one day suggested that theremight be a monster.

The monster came from the gate. Heopened it. He gone back in the woods. Backall the way in. He lives in the woods.He eats children. Other children. NotJamie, me and Ben and Tom.I need someone to be in the monster’smouth. Girls be in the monster’s mouth.He’s not a friendly monster…

The monster booed down on the bells andhe rattled the leaves and everything fromthe woods. And he got bigger and biggerand he boomed down on the seaweed. It was yucky. He got all of it off. He ate it all up.Raaaaaaa.

Jamie

By the end of the project Jamie’s story hadgrown, and seemed as if it might need an end-ing. But Jamie was adamant that in fact itmust carry on…

Once upon a time Jamie and Ellis and Joe andAmarah went to a dark place with footprints.They had to be noisy so the monster wouldhear them, so they said, RAAAH! They hadgiant sticks for whacking monsters – reallyscary monsters. The monsters tried to takethe sticks away because they wanted towhack Jamie and Joe. Jamie banged themonsters and Joe shot them with the higheststick.

Jamie showed Joe his hiding place. They hadto stay there a long time, because the mon-ster was not there. It had to come in throughthe gate. And Jamie said, Abracadabra! andthe monster was there!Ready Joe? said Jamie. Yeah, said Joe. Yougo that way and I go this way. Joe and Jamie were the biggest. They werereally strong. They were the goodies. Theylocked all the monsters into the baddie cages.

Kate: Was that the end? Jamie: No. No End.

Jamie

Not the End

Long before I wrote stories, I listened forstories. Listening for them is somethingmore acute than listening to them. I sup-pose it’s an early form of participation inwhat goes on. Listening children know thatstories are there. Eudora Welty, 1985

The stories collected here are of course onlythe beginning. But to me, even months later,the learning in them is already immense.

Children became expert listeners to the stories that lived in the woods – discoveringnarratives in paths, hollows, tree-tops, stones.They used stories as invitations, extending fa-miliar friendships and encountering new ones.

Stories enabled children to explore the ambi-guities of their experience, the big concerns– in stories they could be both big and small,scared and courageous, wicked and virtuous,lost and found.

And if they couldn’t get near enough to immensity, they made it appear: Jamie said,Abracadabra! and the monster was there!

2

Children were fascinated by each other’s stories, recognising their authorship and giv-ing each story genuine, generous time and attention. They revelled in being scared, surprised, entertained, and comforted. Theyrecognised that stories have a beginning, mid-dle, and end – sometimes; that they have acrisis and resolution – sometimes. And thatany of these rules is also made for breaking.That stories are a potent conversation between knowledge and invention.

I didn’t know they’d got that many legs (drawing his twelve legged tiger) but I want him to have that many.

Tom

We would like to thank all the children who joined us inthe woods. Also the parent volunteers and all the staff, inparticular Kate Cowan who co-ordinated the project, tookthe children’s storying to the heart of her classroompractice, and wrote the account of Jamie’s monsterstory; Jeanette who collected much of the wicked witchstory in the woods and at the centre; and Wendy whosedetailed observations form the basis for Tom’s tigerstory.

And finally Mary Jane Drummond and Ruth Sapsed whowere invaluable in helping to shape the project and thiscollection of stories.

Greenfinch Room:Owen, Alexander, Thomas, Laura, Harry, Hattie, Holly, Lewis, Finlay, William, Lexie, Alexander, LukeLouis, Eliza, Alex, Henry, Samuel, Tilda, Toby, Avni,Jamie, Kaede, Riley, Jayden, Amelia, Thea, Jake,Zachary, Rubens, Elias, Cleo, Luca, Ciaran, Anya,Joshua, Evie, Claudia, Lachie, Jake, Samuel

Robin Room:Samuel , Ella, Jasmine, Arran, Benjamin, Lily,Divyanshi, Matthew, Ruby, Tom, Billy, Trudy, Kara, Daisy, Joshua, Evan, Esme, Elise, JJ, Benjamin,Alice, James, Ellen, Alfie, Paolo, Anna, Katie,Thomas, Harry, Ben, William, Ellis, Evie, Benjamin,Harry, Jamie, Emily, Ruby, Libby, Greg

Little OwlsEli, Amara, Vivek, Danielle, Gabriel, Sammy, William,Joe Ethan

1 Learning: what matters to children, D. Rich, M J Drummond& C Myer, 2008One Writer’s Beginnings, Eudora Welty, 19852

CCI’s vision is for communities that play, learnand work together throughout the year intheir local green space. Parents/carers andeducators determine in what way and howfrequently their young children access thesenatural spaces. Footprints projects work directly with these adults and children to develop their capacity and confidence to engage meaningfully in the outdoors.

For more information visit:

www.ccifootprints.org.uk

email: info@cambridgecandi.org.uk

Graphic design: Susanne Jasilek

www.cambridgecandi.org.uk