When they won't share

Toy trains

We could set a time and swap

The track was long by then, and the trains were lined up along it. The red one and the blue one were the ones everybody wanted.

Two of them grabbed for the same train.

“I saw it first!”

“I was playing with it!”

They pulled, and the track shook, and the train nearly went off the edge of it.

Teacher Yubok came over, said something quiet about keeping it safe, and then asked the question.

“Is there a way you could play with it together?”

“We could take turns.”

“How about I have this train and you have that one?”

“We could set a time and swap.” That one pointed at a wrist.

They ended up doing both. On one side of the track everybody ran a long train together; on the other, the popular ones went round in turns.

After that the station needed a platform and a ticket window, and the line needed a tunnel, and then a bridge.

What kept it going The train did not get taken away, and no turn order got handed down. One question went in, and three answers came back out — and the two who had been pulling were the ones who thought of them.

Colored paper cups

Those two are not for the game

The cups had family photographs on them. Mum, dad, an older sister.

“Mum.” “Dad.” “My sister.”

They found their own and carried them over to be looked at. Then the cups went up in a stack, and came apart, and went up again. Teacher Yepark's stack got knocked over, and that was the best part, and it all went back up.

Two of them were crying.

They had found their own families and they were not letting go of them. Not to be stacked, not to be knocked down, not to be touched.

Teacher Yepark told the others. Those two cups were out of the game. They belonged to the two children whose families were on them, and that is who played with them for the rest of the morning.

What kept it going Nobody was asked to share. Two cups came out of the game and stayed out, and the game went on with the ones that were left.

Play tents

It's so cozy in here

It had all been made the day before — the shop where the fish would get fried, the tent to rest in, the ice with the fish set into it. This was the morning it opened.

They walked round it first, checking, and set the rules while they went.

“This is the shop. We'll fry the fish here.”

“You can't go that way from the fishing hole.”

Then it opened, and the rules held. What nobody had made a rule about was where everybody would want to be.

The shop filled up. The fishing hole did not. The ones in the tent lay back against the sides of it and stayed there.

“It's so cozy in here.”

Whoever did catch a fish carried it over in a basket.

“Here you go, boss, I brought you a fish.”

And then sat down at the table with whatever came back out of the fryer, and talked while they ate it.

Which is how the fishing hole ran out. Every fish that got caught went to the shop, and stayed at the shop, until there were none left in the ice to catch.

“What about taking just one fish over each time?” said Teacher Yubok.

Some of them nodded.

“This one's mine, though. I caught it. I can't give it back.”

Building bricks

No. I need it too

“I need this one. Can I borrow it?”

“No. I need it too.”

Chaewon went back to it and got another go in.

“Just two. Lend me two.”

The one with the bricks stopped and looked at what was in front of them for a moment.

Then two bricks came across.

They went into the build, and when the build was done they came back across the table again, without being asked for.

Dinosaurs

Can I have this one, please

A tower of blocks, with a hand holding the bottom of it steady. When it was done, a dinosaur went up on top.

“This is the dinosaur shop.”

Another child came over and reached for one.

“Don't take it!”

“It's a dinosaur shop at the moment. If you want one, try saying: can I have this one, please.”

A nod. “Can I have this one, please.”

“Yes, here you are.”

After that the others came to the shop for them instead of taking them.

What kept it going Nobody was told to share. The shop was already standing, and a shop is a place where things get asked for — so the asking came out of the game, and the shop stayed open.

Puzzles

Wait, and I'll give it to you

“This one's a cat. This one's a tiger.”

Somebody who had not been interested came over. “I want to do one.”

The sheep puzzle came out of the basket.

“Teacher, where does this go?”

“That's the animal's leg — so is it the top or the bottom?”

Bori looked at the board, and at the piece.

“There.”

Once it was finished it got tipped out and started again.

Then another one came over, having finished their own.

“Look, I've done mine. I want to do that one.”

“No.”

“They want a go too. It would be good to play together, wouldn't it? Instead of no, you could say 'wait a minute'.”

There was a pause for that.

“Wait, and I'll give it to you when I've finished.”

And when it was finished: “Here.”

Hand puppets

The puppet's doing a poo

One of them laid the puppets out along the table. “Come and buy a puppet.”

Another chose the one from Japan, and a third started to cry about it — “I want that one.”

“Ask for it when they've finished with it.”

The crying carried on for a while. Then it did get handed over, and that one went and sat down next to the first one and copied what was being done.

Then a play bowl came over to be the toilet.

“Yodel-ay-ee-oo! The puppet's doing a poo.”

Snowflake blocks went down inside the puppet, a lot of them, and that was how much poo there was. The one who had been crying laughed out loud at it — and the first one did it again, to see if it would happen twice.