Inside Minecraft

Friday’s lunchtime Minecraft Club was interesting in that it was the first that more than half of the Y6 children chose not to attend. This would usually be the signal that something was wrong. However, the thing that kept them outside wasn’t lack of motivation to participate – it was the rare chance to play outside in the newly fallen snow.

I was actually quite pleased to note that many of the children would choose this real experience over the virtual one being offered inside.

Nevertheless, I ran the club for the few Y6 children who wanted to attend (who cited ‘cold hands’ from the 30 mins they had already spent outside), and also invited any Y5 children to join in too.

This became slightly confusing in class, as I set up the two different servers – Bradborough for Y6, and the as-yet unnamed Y5 town. Children logged in and began participating in their respective Minecraft world.

The first thing that struck me was how vocal and excited the Y5 children were. This was at odds with the now established Y6 group, who now participate with a much more workman-like focus. This is very likely due to the comparatively small amount of time that the younger children have spent with the game. I spend much of the session reminding them to quieten down, which I have not had to to for a while with the older children.

I took the opportunity today to be guided ’round in-world, getting the few children present from Y6 to show me around their creations.

I was shown the theatre, where there had been the performance of ‘Mamma-Mia’ the week before. This included a well-concealed trap-door to enable ‘costume changes during performances’ (this, to me, mirrors out makeshift changing area that we used during the Class’ Christmas performance last month).

I was shown around the ‘B&B in a foot’ that was also mentioned last week. This is now a hotel rather than a B&B – whether this distinction is important I couldn’t say! At the beginning of today’s session this was a bedroom. However, by the end it had been transformed into the reception area. When I asked why I was told, quite reasonably, that you wouldn’t expect to go in the front door of a hotel and immediately find the bedroom!

I was also shown around another hotel (There are, you will have noticed, many hotels now in Bradborough. Are they expecting a lot of visitors? Will we see some rivalry for competition?) From the outside, this looked like a very basic construction. However, inside it was revealed that it has many levels of bedrooms, dressing rooms and a ‘roof-top conservatory’ (I wonder: how many of these ideas are from experience and how many spring from imagination?).

Back at the ground floor of the hotel, through a concealed entrance, I was shown by a number of children to the spa room! Children were very eager for my avatar to jump into one of the pools. I should have been suspicious – I plummeted through the water into an open-ended oblivion!

A TRAP!