The date is September 9, 2005. This article is set in a rural Wisconsin community, a thousand miles north of New Orleans, where Hurricane Katrina is about to make landfall. The four- and five- year- olds in Mrs. Olson's classroom have never experienced a hurricane or seen flood waters rise to cover the farms and houses they know, but they cannot ignore the disturbing images on television of people and animals stranded on rooftops. Mrs. Olson is wondering how best to approach the subject--though she hesitates to bring up such sad events with children she is just getting to know. The children however have been together scarcely a week, and they have already begun to parcel out dramatic roles and learn one another's preferences for characters and plot. This article features Paley's observations and reflections of what she has come to recognize as the "theatre of childhood." Here she describes their play as she studies the uniqueness of each drama the children performed. Paley followed the sense of intimacy among the children as their play developed and they interacted with the teacher to reclaim play as an essential part of the curriculum, thus reaching the insecurities and curiosity of the children. Listening to their conversations, she thinks of the ways children communicate with one another so that she can develop ways to help young children deal with difficult situations through play.