ABSTRACT
On the playground of our university child-care centre a 4-year-old boy imagining he is Spiderman leaps toward me exuberantly. Though David 1 only grunts a ‘Gotcha’, I recognize Spiderman’s web-generating wrist flick as he pretends to throw a web over me while actually tossing some sand. I accept his move, hold my arms down, and pretend to be caught in a web. When I give a web-muffled shout, ‘Let me go! What did I do?’ he responds, ‘You’re a bad guy. You’re in prison.’ After pretending to struggle for a second, I relax my arms, and switch to speaking with my regular voice: ‘Hey, the sand might get in someone’s eye.’ I wrinkle up my face rubbing my eyes. Dropping the pretence, and flicking my wrist, I add, ‘How about you imagine the web without throwing the sand. OK?’ David leaps off as Spiderman, without sand in his hand.
