The Cupboard of Doom

Picture it, the happy, joyful Foundation Stage Unit, all morning there is mess and play and laughter. Then the afternoon arrives, the setting up for the next day begins, the observations are discussed, the play shared and reflected on, and ides are generated.  The magic needs to be sprinkled.

A lone, brave member of staff decides to face the long and dusty journey to the store room, affectionately known in all schools as the Cupboard of Doom (Cellar of Doom, Room of Doom, Attic of Doom, I have known a few variations!) She laughingly tells her colleagues “If I’m not back in 20 minutes send help!” Laughing, but meaning it.

On entering, there are clouds of dust, several baskets of disused multilink, exercise books from 1972 and incomplete ICT equipment. She forces the door, leaps over the discarded debris from the Christmas performance and Year 3’s, fabulous at the time but now mouldy and infested, Volcano display.

She has no idea what she will find……

she has no real idea what she is looking for….

Sounding familiar? It’s been a feature of all the Settings I have worked in! And, to be honest, I am a lover of The Cupboard of Doom. Not necessarily the spiders and the broken bits, but when you uncover something its like being a Pirate of the Caribbean! I am going to share with you some of my best finds.

I give you the Family of Bob

I mean, who in their right mind discarded these beauties! I discovered them as they fell from height whilst I was attempting to fetch down what I hoped would be more vehicles. They scattered over me, ribbons fluttering and floating. Obviously, I moved like I was been attacked by a swarm of wild beasts, but once over that, I was pretty excited. Ribbons trimmed, and a dust down, and the Family of Bob was staring to grow as an idea. I was delighted that there was a huge amount, and counted out one for each of my children. The next day the scene below greeted them, along with a photo on SeeSaw captioned ‘Help! We have been taken over!”

Over the week, the little Bob Critters (an apt description from one of my children) did a whole host of mischievous things. They spilled paint, they destroyed the Pop-up Lidl we had created, they wrote cheeky jokes and even went missing…. You can imagine the opportunities we had for PSED; we had to care for them, we had to befriend them and we really had to sort out the way they messed up or Classroom. The conversations generated were golden, along with the imaginative narratives that sprang from that. Our Story Scribing Book as filled with where the Bob Critters had come from, who they were, what they were planning!

Mark Making was rife, signs were a good start; ‘Danger’, ‘Cleaning in Progress’ and ‘Please Don’t Touch’, all featured, and a personal favourite, letters to the Bob Critter’s Parents to tell them of their appalling behaviour! Maths was a strong feature too; are they all here?! The end of the day took on a new mathematical focus and urgency (We found them scattered far and wide!) The list of learning opportunities was endless.

Finally, on Friday, they left us a tricky challenge; to build an enclosure they could travel in. Successful enclosures could then be used to transport home a Pink Critter to keep! Excitement was high (Staff and Children alike) and the Creative Workshop was decimated, along with the Lego, Duplo and play dough.

As each child took away their chosen ‘Bob Critter’ we felt that indescribable feeling of coming to the end of a week in Early Years; exhaustion, the warm fussy feeling of satisfaction, a lingering desire to ‘deep clean’ and a little bit of love for our Children, who once again had, as the unique individuals they are, taken something and made it magical for all.

Written in homage to the Cupboard of Doom, ours and everyone’s around the World