Misty Paterson - Pop-Up Studio

🤷‍♀️ What do you do when children’s worries start to shape the learning?

🧠 This is something I found myself navigating in my recent work as a Thinker in Residence in an incredible School

🤸‍♂️ We are currently building a student-led, interactive “conference” a.k.a The Joy Experience—where children are designing immersive encounters with JOY for their caregivers.

❤️ But as the process deepened, worry began to surface:

“What if my caregiver judges me?”
“What if it’s too messy?”
“What if they get mad at me?”

💛 Instead of reassuring these fears away, I paused the design process and hosted a worry talk.

💙 This approach is grounded in my work alongside fearologist Dr. R.M. Fisher, whose research into fear, violence, and conflict in schools reminds us that fear isn’t something to eliminate—it’s something to mediate into more life-affirming emotions.

💙 If you’re an educator, you’ve likely seen this too—moments where fear quietly shapes participation, risk-taking, and expression. And I know you're looking for ways to support children through that fear.

👏 This post shares three shifts I use in these moments—drawn from decades of therapeutic work I've engaged in and my forthcoming interview with Dr. Fisher—to support children with care, curiosity, and critical thinking.

💭 Which tip resonates most with you? Drop a 1, 2, or 3 below.
Your reflections help shape what I share next.

We don’t always need more… just something that fits better.

Tell me what you’re craving—

I’m listening 💛

✨ Today’s Living Inquiry workshop closed with one simple invitation:

💭 Name what you’re taking with you today. That might be a feeling, a thought, an action, or something else.

💬 Here’s what I heard…

“Nourished.”

“Motivated to be present.”

“Challenged to move against the rush and create more flow.”

“Reminded how much I love working with children.”

“Slow down. Be present. Enjoy the moment.”

“Even simple daily experiences can be healing.”

“Take a breath… you never know what you’ll notice.”

🌿 This is what happens when educators are given space to experience inquiry — not just talk about it. Experiential + contemplative + arts-based learning is my favourite place to be!

🌊 When the pace softens.
Attention deepens.
And the ordinary becomes something to cherish.

💛 I’m so grateful to have spent this time with such thoughtful educators. Thanks to for inviting me to return as a speaker for 3 years in a row!

💌 Please drop a heart or comment if you’re into creating spaces where inquiry is something we can feel, live, and carry into our everyday work with children. I’d love to collaborate!

🎉 Somewhere between floor books, playful provocations, and big questions like...

“Wait… this counts as assessment?!”

magic happens. ✨

❤️ I LOVED my session with Sooke teachers! We mapped play, named learning, and found that sweet spot where mandated curriculum and JOY meet.

😍 There’s something really special about being in a room where:

Ideas are flying.
Teachers are laughing.
And someone proclaims,

“Oh… I know where to go next!”

❤️ That’s the work I love.

👏 Designing spaces where educators feel inspired, clear, and ready to move forward — without losing the joy that brought them into teaching in the first place.

I have SO MUCH gratitude for you
and the work we do together. 🙏

If you value purposeful, playful PD, please share the love so we can remember that PD can be magical 💛

🧠✨ What kind of play are your students craving? ✨🧠

👀 Find the first word you see
That’s your students’ play signal right now.

💡 What your word might mean:

Wonder → They’re ready to ask big questions

Explore → They need hands-on discovery

Smiling → They’re craving lightness and positivity

Silliness → They need permission to be playful

Joking → They want humor and connection

Creating → They need to make something meaningful

Choices → They want more voice and autonomy

Celebrate → They need recognition and shared joy

👇 Drop your word below and ⌯⌲forward this post to other play advocates you know. Let’s grow play in all the grades!

🤷‍♀️ Play is a child's right but how does it live within a full curriculum?

👏 As a Grade 6/7 teacher, I knew play was important, and I was working to nurture it in my classroom.

🤸‍♀️ At the same time, my image of play was shaped by the early years —
sandboxes, house corners, open-ended centres —
or by more structured forms like competitive sports and commercial board games.

🤔 I found myself wondering what lived in between.

🎯 And more importantly… how to design for it during instructional time —
like when we were reading a class novel…
or working on math facts?

💫 Everything shifted when I learned the Playful Learning indicators from Project Zero during my week at Harvard in 2018.

💥 I had a new language.

😍 Words like curiosity, spontaneity, choice, and competition were already familiar to me and my learners —
and, to my delight, already present in my classroom.

💭 Curiosity in the questions students asked about topics like puberty and social justice.
😊 Wonder in the way they lingered over the moldy sandwich found in someone’s locker.
👀 Observation in the details they noticed in a friend’s drawing of a sports car.

👏 Play was there.

🔥 Now I could recognize it.

😍 And once I could see it, I could design for it with more intention.
I could nurture it.
I could map it directly to our curriculum.

🌎 Here in British Columbia, playful learning lives within inquiry —
and these qualities are named across math, art, language, science, and more.

🎉 I'd love to hear from you: Which play "move" do you see in your practice already? Let's celebrate and expand the play movement in older grades!