It came out in a clear cup, dry. They picked pieces up, listened to them crackle, looked at the shape, held it up to a nose. A small piece went into a mouth — crisp.
Then the water went in.
“It got bigger!”
“It's long!”
They watched it swell and soften, and pulled at it to see how far it would go.
A child found the bag inside a fishing net and pulled it out.
“Ooh — snacks?”
It crackled when they handled it, so it went up against an ear, and they did it again, and again.
“That's seaweed.”
“Shall we cut it? Shall we open it?”
The others came over. Some rubbed the bag between two palms for the sound, some slapped it flat-handed. Then the whole bag went into a toy pot and they stirred it with a spoon.
“Yum yum.”
“Snacks.”
The dry seaweed came out and nobody would touch it.
So an adult picked a piece up, turned it over, smelled it, put it on their own head — and let it fall off.
That got a laugh, and then it got copied.
Toy dishes came out, and an adult said that if you soak this and boil it you get seaweed soup. They filled a bowl and held it out.
“Ahh.”
The soaked seaweed went into a bag, sealed shut, so it could be handled without being touched.
One child rubbed the bag flat with a palm and felt it slide, then picked the whole thing up and threw it sideways.
“You threw it. You're strong.”
Another child would not touch it at all and watched from where they were sitting. So an adult slid a hand along the top of the bag — “slippery, slippery, whoops, I've fallen over” — and fell over.
That got a laugh. Then the bag went under that child's feet and moved about, and after a while they picked it up themselves, shook it with both hands, and set it down on their own legs.
A child found it on a tray, held it in both hands, bent it, shook it, brought it up to a nose.
Then the layers — stuck together, and coming apart one sheet at a time when pulled.
Then a piece went between two toes, and the big toe and the one next to it moved around it.
Then another piece came out of the basket and went between another child's toes.
That child pulled it out, held it up close to look at, and started peeling the layers apart too.
Dry seaweed went on top of a big drum, and the drum got hit. The seaweed jumped.
They watched it, and listened to it rustle. One child took a piece in both hands and snapped it in half, and then did it again.
“It goes tok when you snap it.”
One child who had been away a while did not want the drum noise at all and stayed on an adult's lap. A little seaweed went onto the adult's open palm instead, close enough to touch slowly.
After that other toys started going on the drum too, to see what would jump.
There was a see-through tunnel in the room. A child went inside it, looked out through the wall, and knocked on it like a door.
Then an adult put wet seaweed in there with them.
It stuck. It came off. It stuck again — and each time it stuck, the part of the room behind it went away, and each time it came off, the room came back.
That was the game.
A crab, a fish, a starfish and a seahorse went in underneath the soaked seaweed.
They pushed the seaweed aside and lifted handfuls of it to find them, and an adult said the names as they came out.
Two of them used a net and fished the crab and the fish out that way, then went back in for more.
One child found the baby shark, held it straight up over their head, and shouted.
“Shall we hang the seaweed out like washing?”
A child took a big piece in both hands and went over to the drying rack. It went over the rail — and slid straight off.
They picked it up off the floor and tried again, slower this time.
“You hung it up yourself!”
They stood and looked at it hanging there, and then went back for more pieces, one after another.
Dry seaweed went down across the whole floor, and they walked on it barefoot.
At first it was careful walking — the sound of it under a foot was new. Then they were walking the length of it, and then running.
Some of it got snapped by hand. Some got stood on.
When they started throwing it, a long washing line went up. After that the seaweed went over the line, and they walked underneath it and pulled on it.
A child picked up a long piece, held it up, and moved their body from side to side with it.
“I'm seaweed.”
There was a tunnel with seaweed hanging down from it. One child went in, sat down in the middle, and stayed there a long while, in among the strands.
Soaked seaweed went onto balloons, strand by strand, for hair. Then a spray bottle came out, and two of them misted the seaweed hair and worked on it.
“It smells like the sea.”
One child had the seaweed fall down over their own face, and went looking for the eyes and the nose that had gone missing, laughing.
When the seaweed ran low, one of them went to a friend for more — “I need this, I'm taking it” — said first, and then taken, carefully.
There were potatoes out as well as seaweed.
A child snapped the seaweed and put the pieces into a kitchen bowl. Bottles of different shapes were standing about, so a child filled a small one with seaweed and shook it, for the sound. Then a spray bottle, and the seaweed went wet, and grew, and got squeezed in a fist.
Then a wide piece went over a potato, wrapping it.
“The potato has a seaweed blanket on. It must be warm.”
After that every potato got one, one at a time, carefully.