For generations the people of New Orleans have come together and used public space as a place to play, celebrate, and care for each other. Within the neighborhood of St. Claude this communal spirit is ever present in the multi-generational community despite hardships brought by Hurricane Katrina.
Harnessing that playful spirit, this project proposing a play-based Montessori program to supplement the traditional educational model of the existing charter school system.
Presented in the form of a coloring book and expansion to the classic Fröbel’s Gifts educational toys, this project seeks to educate educators on how to foster the community's innate ability to learn from the world around them through play.
The Stages of Lifelong Play
Psychologist Erik Erikson proposed a model of psycho-social development in which we all answer eight essential life questions. How we answer these questions then informs who we become as we age. Using this model the curriculum develops a framework to support the varying forms of play across all ages of the community.
Fröbel’s Gifts Expansion Set
Community Connections for Lifelong Play
New Orleans’ abundant empty lots and places of worship fill the gaps between formal learning spaces by providing public places to get together to learn, play, and care for each other.
A Place to Play
Through the collective efforts of students and community members of St. Claude, the scars of the past become a place where the community to come to learn and play. The structure of the school curriculum gives the community a tenable resource to shape and use the vacant lots as they need. As students rotate through the lots, they get to know their neighbors and the landscape they share.
