negotiating a shared space

In the middle of a disruptive studio move I decided to escape the chaos to visit my school in person today.
I was interested to revisit the work we had done in the previous week around a shared space and examine this in relation to the classroom a little further. I decided this week that we would look at how the space is used, and examine how each individual negotiates this shared space during their daily routine. On Wednesday before my arrival I asked the children to record all of their movements within the classroom throughout the day. We looked again at the layout of the space, and created a map of it together using the interactive whiteboard. Each person used this as a guide to make their own map and on this they marked out their movements from the list they had made the previous day.
In the GP room I also used it as a guide to draw a large floor plan of the classroom using masking tape. I then invited the children to join me there.

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Following the lines of their movements on their individual maps; they used coloured tape to mark their routes on to the life-size floor plan I had prepared. The children were focused and the paths were carefully marked out. The final drawing clearly revealed the most active spaces within the classroom. Small groups returned to their spaces on the drawing and attempted to retrace their steps. Finally the entire group found their space on the drawing and tried to follow their paths, the crowded assembly and difficulty of movement led us to look at and discuss the complexity of the classroom as our shared space.

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