E19: Secret Hideouts and Shelters

The Speckled Bees: A Celebration of Childhood

Did you have a secret hideout when you were a kid?

November is the time of that we seek out warmth, comfort, and security. It's the perfect time to build secret hide-outs with children! Creating secret forts, dens, hideouts, and playhouses isn’t just any random kind of play. Studying shelters gives the children an opportunity to explore the ideas of protection, safety, and structure.
We can find so much wonderful inspiration for these projects by familiarizing ourselves with our local tribes! For our project, we looked at the Doeg/Dogue Tribe and worked to build Yi-hakans (stick structures covered with woven mats). We then collaborated to make a sculpture inspired by western Native American houses called Wickiups. The children picked grass and dug dirt to add to water and then mixed it up to make a clay to build up on the stick structure.

There are many benefits to making and playing in forts. Many of them overlap with previous subjects (go back to E1: Messy Play, E2: Risky Play, E8: Real Tools and Woodworking), but children need repetition to strengthen those neural pathways. It encourages independence and confidence, problem solving skills, literacy skills, social skills, motor skills, and a love of the outdoors. We provide a list of ways to encourage this type of play in your homes and in your classrooms.
Don't forget to Leave Your Leaves this year!!

Picture Book List:
Shelter by Celine Claire
Once I was Very Scared by Chandra Ghosh Ippen
A House is a House For Me by Mary Ann Hoberman, Betty Fraser
Chapter Books:
Magic Tree House Books by Mary Pope Osborne
Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
The Egypt Game by Zilpha Keatley Snyder
https://native-land.ca/

https://www.nwf.org/Home/Latest-News/Press-Releases/2019/09-25-19-Leave-the-Leaves

https://www.paulaspencerscott.com/single-post/kids-forts

https://phillywaldorf.com/building-forts-minds-importance-child-built-space/

https://www.encyclopediavirginia.org/Houses_in_Early_Virginia_Indian_Society
https://www.journalofplay.org/sites/www.journalofplay.org/files/pdf-articles/10-2-Article4-role-playing-childrens-literature.pdf
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Z_vc7769QPludzCXU33MmkKOdQcLeX3f/view?usp=sharing

https://books.google.com/books?id=Lmg142dU3wQC&pg=PA8&lpg=PA8&dq=wickiups+covered+in+mud&source=bl&ots=X2FNNj3O9Z&sig=ACfU3U0UWV40XGBnyXFC-RGPMhyHlNWQag&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjNmrGlrcDqAhXumHIEHa4LDLAQ6AEwFHoECAsQAQ#v=onepage&q=wickiups%20covered%20in%20mud&f=false
"Wholesome" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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