Facilitating Educational Play with the Magic Cauldron
A number of design choices made to help shape encounters
with the cauldron were intentionally done to stimulate
learning through creative play. Firstly, the cauldron room
featured a large glass display case that contained a curated
collection of taxidermy animals and fossils drawn from the
GNM holdings and archives. This macabre collection
evoked traditional witchcraft, and while the items contained
were too delicate to actually touch, their presence in the
space was intentionally situated to provide material to
stimulate children’s imaginations when play-acting at spell
casting. Secondly, one wall of the chamber was decorated
with a variation upon the Macbeth text, “Hubble bubble,
toil and trouble…” the intention being that this reference
might encourage children to incorporate literary concepts or
references into their creative play.