When they won't touch it

Seaweed

The one who cried at it

The bowl came out with the seaweed already soaking in it, and for a while it was a thing to look at from where you were sitting.

Then Teacher Yepark put a hand in the water. One of them put a hand in beside hers, took hold of a piece and shook it.

So more of it went down onto the floor, soaked, in armfuls.

Bori took one look at that much of it and cried.

Nobody took it away. Nobody carried Bori over to it either. What happened was that the child sitting next to Bori carried on — grabbing a piece, shaking it hard, throwing it down.

Bori watched that happen a few times.

Then Bori took a piece, shook it hard, and threw it down on the floor.

What kept it going No grown-up talked Bori into it. The way in was the child sitting alongside, going at it hard and not looking up.

Play scarves

One of them put it straight back down

The scarves came in a box with a hole in the lid.

Bori got one out through the hole and held it up to be seen, and then felt it for a while — all of it, corner to corner.

Then it went over a face.

“Peekaboo, Bori.”

That got done again. And again after that.

Somebody else pulled one out and shook it about to watch it move, and then stopped, and made a face, and put it straight back down on the floor.

“You don't like how scratchy it feels.”

Cucumbers

Somewhere that is not your face

The cucumber massage shop opened, the thin round slices came out, and they came over and lay down on the bed.

Two of them got slices on their faces and took them straight off again. Cold.

Then not so fast. Then they were laying the slices on themselves, and touching their own cheeks afterward to find out what had changed.

Three of them wanted it nowhere near their faces. Each of those three picked somewhere else — an arm, a leg — and put a slice there.

And then slices went onto Teacher Yepark's arm as well.

Seaweed

Whoops, I've fallen over

The soaked seaweed came sealed inside a bag, so it could be handled without being touched.

Bori rubbed the bag flat with one palm and felt it slide about under there. Then picked the whole thing up in one hand and threw it sideways.

“You threw it. You're strong.”

Another child would not go near it, and watched from where they were sitting.

So Teacher Yepark slid a hand along the top of the bag.

“Slippery, slippery — whoops, I've fallen over!”

And fell over.

That got a laugh. Then the bag went down under that child's feet and moved about under them, and after a while the child picked it up — both hands — shook it, and set it down on their own legs.

Flour

Whatever goes in stays there

The flour came loose, in a bowl.

Bori pressed a finger down into it and left a dent.

Teacher Yepark put a finger in as well and swept some of it flat, and Bori watched that, and then started sweeping.

A line drawn with a fingertip. Then dots. Then a hand across it, and the flour flat again.

One child would not go near it. So Teacher Yepark's hand went in first, and the two of them went in together.

What kept it going Teacher Yepark put a hand in before asking anyone else to. Flour takes a mark and gives it straight back when a hand sweeps across, so there was nothing in there to get wrong.

Mirrors

Teacher Yepark put one on first

The lotion had been a hand thing yesterday. Today it came with hairbands and a mirror.

They sat in front of the mirror with the bands on, looking.

Bori got one on and had it straight back off — it did not feel right there.

So Teacher Yepark put one on her own head, and put lotion on her own cheek in front of the mirror.

“Tap, tap, tap. Don't I look nice? Shall Bori do it like Teacher Yepark?”

The band went back on, and Bori watched her do it, and then the two of them looked in the mirror together.

Lotion went on cheeks and foreheads after that, and got rubbed flat with a whole palm, and faces came right up close to check.

Corn blocks

It's on my hands

“Soft, isn't it. Squashy,” said Teacher Yepark. “And all different colors.”

They were squeezed for a while before anything else happened to them.

Then Teacher Yepark showed what a bit of water does, and two corn blocks that had nothing to do with each other became one thing.

That got watched very closely. Then it got done — two at a time, then three.

“Green.”

“Yellow.”

“A yellow ant. And now a green and blue and red ant, look.”

Then the water started dissolving them, and what had been a corn block was on their fingers instead.

“Ugh. Ugh!”

“It's on your hands and it doesn't feel nice. Let's finish these and go and wash them.”

Some of them went back to it with their hands like that. Some could not. Those ones went and got washed and came back.