{"id":2135,"date":"2022-09-14T20:40:39","date_gmt":"2022-09-14T20:40:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/livingwithplastics.climateactionchildhood.net\/?page_id=2135"},"modified":"2022-09-23T09:30:03","modified_gmt":"2022-09-23T09:30:03","slug":"zigzag","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/livingwithplastics.climateactionchildhood.net\/index.php\/documentation\/zigzag\/","title":{"rendered":"Zig Zag"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Zig Zag Choreography: Moving with Bees<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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We inherit the outdoor compost bin that the children from the previous year have gifted us. With the compost we also take up the practice of adding scraps for future life. Children and food scraps travel to the compost bin several times throughout the week.<\/p><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Each day we bring a bowl of scraps, we notice that the scraps don\u2019t live alone. Bees, flies, bugs, worms, and fuzzy mould also share the lively communal space. Every time we open the composter lid to add the scraps from the classroom, we encounter a new inhabitant.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cThere are too many bees.\u201d
– Cameron

\u201cJust stand like a statue.\u201d
– Lola

\u201cThe bees live in the
composter because it\u2019s dirty.\u201d – Emmanuel

\u201cI think the peels are their
home.\u201d – Cindy

\u201cBees die when they go in the
beehive.\u201d – Emmanuel

\u201cThe bees are checking out the food scraps.\u201d – Don

\u201cMaybe they are going to eat them.\u201d – Pierre<\/p>\n\n\n

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The frenzied movements of bees catches our attention. They are fast and we have difficulty following their path.

“The bees fly really fast!”, says Cameron. “The bees do a zig zag every day!<\/em> <\/strong>– Don observes, – Bees fly like this: bzzzzz”.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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The bees fly frantically in and out of the food scrap bucket and composter, inviting conversations among the children. The children wonder how to move around the bees, where they come from, and what the bees are doing in the compost.<\/p>\n\n\n

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We invite the children to think with and embody the flight of the zig zag as a way to pay attention to bees.

\u201cA zig zag is up and down.\u201d – Pierre

Bodies jump and twist , run fast, and skip high.

Don and Cameron bend down and tuck their heads to do somersaults round and around.<\/p><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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As we project a video of moving bees on the wall, we move with the bees, zig zagging around the classroom. “This is how a bee jumps,” says Cameron. Lola offers: “My sister knows how to draw zig zags. You go up and down.”<\/p><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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To intensify the embodied zig zag movements, we invite the children to draw them. As pencils touch paper and the children trace the bees in the projection, multiple zig zag stories emerge and become alive.<\/p>\n\n\n

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“The bee is on me!
I can’t make them move on the paper when they’re on me.”
– Cameron<\/p><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Some zig zags move diagonally, some move vertically, some move horizontally, and some combine directions. Some move fast while others move slow. A zig zag choreography emerges.<\/p><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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“I\u2019m doing up and down.” \u2013 Cindy <\/strong>
“We’re drawing with the bees.” – Emmanuel<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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We invite children to retrace the movements to attend to the singularity of each zig zag. This requires slow and careful work, paying attention to how each line was created.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Markers make zig zags. Zig zags quickly become flying bees. “I\u2019m doing circle zig zags\u201d, says Cameron, “It’s not a circle, it’s a bee.”<\/p>\n\n\n

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Zig zags also acquire speed. The fast zig zags exert high energy and are frantic like the bees when we lift the lid off the compost.<\/p>\n\n

“Zig zags are fast!” – Cameron
“They zig zag really slow.” – Joe<\/p><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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To bring to life the bees that emerge in the drawings, we introduce Charmaine Lurch\u2019s Wild Bees<\/a>. We notice that each bee is different in Charmaine\u2019s sculptures. The children give names to the bees.<\/p>\n\n\n

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We invite the children to create bees out of wire as a way of conversing with Charmaine\u2019s work and returning to their drawings. The children struggle to twist, pull, pinch and hold the unfamiliar material.<\/p>\n\n\n

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“Cindy’s pinching it with her fingers.” – Lindsay
“I don\u2019t know how to make a bee.” – Don
“I’m making a slow bee.”
– Cindy
“Make the green bee.”
– Don
“How do I twist it?”
– Roberto<\/p><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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The protagonists of the bee stories<\/p><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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The story of fast bees<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

“Fast bees go really fast, like
zzzzzzzsh !” – Don
“Lots of flyers help them fly so fast. They need 3 wings.” – Cindy
“They have 3 wings!\u201c – Cameron
“Eat every fruit and every fruit scrap” – Cindy
“Has lots of flyers. Five of them” – Roberto
“3 wings so they can fly good” – Cameron
“3 Hands and fingers” – Pierre
“It has 3 eyes” – Cindy
“It is a fast bee so has lots of flyers and 5 isn’t a lot so it needs 10 flyers” – Don
“Pineman is only for fast bees and it makes their belly not sore. It’s a circle when it’s not fed and a square when it’s fed” – Don<\/p>\n\n\n

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The story of slow bees<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

“The slow bee doesn\u2019t move fast like the fast bee.” – Cameron
“One flyer and they go slow. They need two wings on each side.” – Cindy

Moves in slow motion
Is quiet
10 flyers
Lives in the garbage, the beehive, and the compost
Takes little steps to move
Extra muscles to go extra slow
Has fingers (13 on bottom, 11 on top)

“A slow bee goes very,
very slow” – Cameron
“A slow bee is in slow motion. It’s when people go super, super slow” – Cindy<\/p>\n\n\n

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The story of slow bees<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

“It is the up and down bee. It flies
up and up and up.” – Don<\/p><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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The Story of Bad Guy bees<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

Inspired by our
previous work with
Charmaine\u2019s bees the
children bring wire
bees into conversation
with drawing to tell the
story of the bees.
Through storying,
more kinds of bees
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“We need to make bad
guy bees. We need 100″
– Cindy<\/p><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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To think with the bees and their specificity we sketch a collective drawing.<\/p>\n\n\n

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“A bad guy bee is a small circle”
– Pierre

“2 arms so that they can get the food scraps” – Cindy

“They have a stinger that’s really big like the wings” – Darius

“They have a force field” – Don<\/p>\n\n\n

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The bad guy bees become the antagonists of the story and start to threaten the existence of the compost bin.<\/p><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Choreographies with wire bees<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

We return to the zig zag
drawings with the wire
bees. The wire bees zig
zag through our map
and follow our markings.
Circles and lines, up and
down, fast and slow
movements.
Soon the bees jump off
the map to search for
the compost bin.<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cThey need to zig zag to the compost bin. I want to take the green bee to the compost. It moves the fastest.\u201d
– Don<\/p>\n\n

We bring the fast bee, the green bee, and the slow bee to the composter, using their fast and slow zig zag movements.<\/p><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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“They have to be stuck under
the compost because they’re
still eating.”
– Don<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The wire bees stay buried in the composter for a few days before we dig them up and bring them back to the classroom.

We speculate with stories about the lives of the bees in the compost.<\/p>\n\n\n

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“I’m flying!”
– Roberto

“A bee is coming!”
– Don<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Bodies and wire bees come to life as they zig zag in and around the classroom scrap pail. As we elaborate the story, the narrative turn towards the composter as a dwelling place for bees.<\/p>\n\n\n

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“We have to bring them to the compost bin.”
– Cameron<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Bees Zig Zagging<\/p>\n\n\n

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We draw the stories of the bees and the compost.<\/mark><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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The bees zig zag through the paper<\/mark><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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One other protagonist with special power emerges: the camouflage bee. The camouflage bee moves the story\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n

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Quickly we notice that the camouflage bee would make the compost bin invisible to all the other bees. Another twist to the story turns up.<\/p>\n\n\n

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“This is the fast bee and slow bee\u2019s compost, and these guys are breaking it. The bees come just in time to save the day!” – Don

“We need to hide the composter from the bad guy bees.” – Cameron<\/p>\n\n\n

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“This is the camouflage bee. We need to camouflage it.” – Don

As the other bees zig zag around the composter, the camouflage bee tightly zig zags over the composter and hiding it from sight.

\u201cBut now no bees can find the compost\u201d – Cindy<\/p>\n\n\n

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Experimenting with the concept of camouflage, Cindy offers an alternative idea: \u201cCover it with paper\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n

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“The bad guy bees will have their own compost.” Darius

“It’s a rectangle.” – Darius

“It has holes in it for the bees to go in.” Pierre<\/p>\n\n\n

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However, the children suggest that these holes are blocked.<\/p>\n\n

“The bees can’t get in these holes because they’re blocked by all the food scraps” – Don<\/p>\n\n\n

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We think about how the blocked holes stop all the different bees from zig zagging in and out of the compost bin.<\/p><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cThe bees can\u2019t get in the holes because the food scraps are blocking them\u201d \u2013 Don

\u201cWe need an excavator\u201d \u2013 Adam

\u201cThey can still get in the holes at the top\u201d \u2013 Don<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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The fast bees, the slow
bees, the green bees and
the bad guy bees come
together to zig zag in and around the bad guy bees\u2019 composter.<\/p>\n\n\n

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“The bees are in the bad
guy’s home” – Don

“They’re having a dance
party” – Cameron

“This bee is coming too.” – Cindy<\/p><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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The bad guy bees zig zag to the composter and land on the ground by its blocked holes, waiting. \u201cSee, down here, it\u2019s broken\u201d, notes Don. Cindy offers, \u201cThe bad guy bees broke it, here, see!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

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Pedagogical
Gestures<\/p>\n\n\n

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Through this inquiry, children attend to the complexity of bee movements. Enacting zig zag stories offer multiple ways to make visible the relational process of collective liveability amongst difference.

As an ecological community, the food scraps, children, and bees (amongst many other species) are in constant movement. By engaging with and through the intricacies of these dynamic movements we rethink care as deeply relational processes.<\/p><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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