1. We began our year inspired by the words and work of children’s author, Mac Barnett. We
were enthralled by his ideas of breaking the fourth wall and creating a place of wonder
for children and adults to explore. When we observed the children’s interest in sea
animals at the beginning of the year we made the purposeful decision to dive into one of
the magical worlds of Mac Barnett by reading the book, Billy Twitters and his Blue Whale
Problem. On the inside cover is an advertisement which we read to the children. It said
that by sending a self addressed envelope we would receive our very own blue whale to
care for. Some of the children were excited by the idea.
“Yeah we could keep it at our school!”
Others were more hesitant and nervous.
“We will have to ask Gillian if it is okay.”
“I’m not sure that this is a good idea.”
A few months after sending the envelope we received a letter from the law offices of
Magnusson, Olafsson, and Oskarsdottir letting us know that our blue whale, named
Olsen, was indeed on his way, but was stuck in customs in Sognefjord, Norway. Upon
reading the letter the children began to imagine Olsen being physically stuck in Norway.
They immediately developed ideas and theories to get him unstuck and to our school. As
teachers we were energized by the excitement of the children and we believe that in turn
the children were encouraged by our energy. This mutual motivation produced an
environment ripe for seeking knowledge.

2. “Emergent curriculum is not a free-for-all. It
requires that teachers actively seek out and chase
the interests of the children. This kind of teaching
environment demands a high degree of trust in the
teacher’s creative abilities, and envisions an
image of the child as someone actively seeking
knowledge.”
- Inspired by Reggio Emilia: Emergent Curriculum in
Relationship-Driven Learning Environments

3. We moved forward in developing and guiding this emergent project and the question came
up, “Why would you focus on developing ideas around Olsen when you know he will not
be coming to your classroom?” This was a valuable question and made us think further as
to why this work was important. We went back to Mac Barnett’s TED Talk for guidance. In
his presentation he says,
We took this idea and went even further to believe that when you wonder, your mind is
open to all the possibilities of learning. We approached the work of Olsen with a playful
attitude and created a low risk, high challenge environment for the children to wonder and
learn. Our excitement about the work seeped into the larger community and we began
getting feedback from parents, colleagues and the other children at school. Olsen has
worked his way into all aspects of the classroom and in turn has given us the perfect
umbrella to work under. Olsen appears in our literary work, in our science and research,
our theorizing and engineering, our dramatic play, in our artwork, our walks in nature, and
anywhere else you could imagine. Through all of these experiences the children are
developing creative confidence and the knowledge that they are active participants in their
own education.
“You’ve got truth and lies and that little space, the edge in the
middle, that liminal space, that’s art. . . That place which we can call
art or fiction, I’m going to call it wonder. It’s what Coleridge called
‘the willing suspension of disbelief’ or poetic faith.”