A Place For All

Lutruwita  📍

A group of three-year-old children welcomed a range of living creatures into their learning environment. Creatures arrived in children’s pockets, in their hands, and in the quiet corners of our environment, inviting moments of collective noticing and wondering. Together, we paused, listened, and researched – allowing each discovery to open new questions. Through mark making, storytelling, and collaborative representations, the children made their thinking visible, offering traces of their emerging theories and relationships … as they did, we listened. 

With the opening of our new outdoor playspace, our attention shifted to creating a ‘picking garden’ – an ever-changing landscape where children explored what it means to plant, nurture and grow a range of plants, and to invite other beings into a shared place. 

By observing this intentional exploration and following the children’s fascinations, we learned of their deep desire to coexist alongside and care for the creatures they encountered. The co-creation of a “bug hotel” became one expression of this intention, as the children avidly collected natural materials to furnish this new installation in order to welcome local insects and creatures, nurturing continuing opportunities for observation, care, and wonder. 

Alive with curiosity and shaped by thoughtful engagement, the children have generated ideas and experiences that reveal their growing sense of connection to the more-than-human world. These lived encounters have supported the group to engage with empathy, stewardship, and collaborative inquiry, as they explored what it means to be in a gentle and attentive relationship with the creatures who accompany us all.