The k/1 class has begun a wonderful practice of “writer’s workshop” during the school day. The kids take time every day to create their own stories. While for some of the kids this may look like traditional writing (with letters and words) other kids express their ideas visually through drawing. As we know, drawing is one of the very first literacy skills our kiddos master. It was a lovely practice to observe and most of the kids were super excited to share their drawings with me. However, some of them were a bit more reluctant. Initially I sat down with three boys to observe their writing practice. Though they were each working on their own drawings, they were collaborating: “we’re working on a book.” They narrated their story as they drew, and sometimes added elements to each other’s drawings, collaborating even further.
Their story was about good guys and bad guys, dragon warriors and ninjas, battles and bombs. There was a lot of action, narrated by the writers as they drew. It was amazing to watch these three kids create a story together, each element of their own drawing being inspired by the ideas of their friends. As I was taking notes and pictures of their work, the boys decided that they didn’t want me to photograph their work or write down their words, and that they “didn’t want me to put them online.” I was so bummed when they said this! Their words and drawings were so fantastic and I love the opportunity to highlight the work of our students in this space. But I didn't feel okay publishing their ideas without their permission. In my other life at the UofA as a PhD candidate, I engage in research with young children a lot and help to teach art education students what it means to teach and work with young people. I feel strongly that it is our job to engage in respectful and ethical practices with children, and publishing children’s stories against their explicit request not to do so not jive with this approach. When I asked the boys why they didn't want me to publish their work, they said, “grownups don’t like killing and these are about killing.” Children understand what we (as adults, parents, teachers) are comfortable with and what we are not, and they will censor their own work to meet our expectations, whatever they may be. How can we create a classroom culture where our students feel comfortable to share their drawings “about killing” and not feel the need to censor themselves? Perhaps it starts with listening to their requests about how and where their work is shared.
0 Comments
Since the kiddos have been spending even more time outdoors and at the wash lately, we’ve started to do some scheduled wash clean up times. Last Friday, after a pretty amazing dance party, the kids went out to the wash to clean it up. The little kiddos stayed behind in their room to decompress a bit after all that dancing and talk about why we should clean up the wash at all: “because there’s people that have been putting trash in the wash and it’s dirty.”
Adrienne asked if it bothered the kids that the wash was dirty. They had different ideas: “Not really, because the trash is in a place where I don’t play.” “[It bothers me] because I can see it. There’s trash all over the place!” It looks like to me that no one is picking up the trash and I don't want the animals to get hurt.” “Or they [the animals] might die if they swallow glass.” “To me it looks like a junkyard.” “Junkyards are awesome because you can use all the stuff.” I was struck by this last comment and it got me thinking about the kinds of spaces that children play and what is so special about our wash. There are many contemporary play scholars and researchers who have been writing for a while about the benefits of children’s free play in spaces like adventure playgrounds. These playgrounds have lots of loose parts that the children can manipulate and often no structured play equipment. Rather, they look kind of like junkyards as the kids described above. In these spaces, the kids are not so much playing with garbage, but things they can engage with in a variety of ways, and use in pretend and exploratory play. Our wash is full of these kinds of objects: rocks, leaves, sticks, and perhaps some non-natural unexpected finds too. These are the kinds of spaces where children’s play can flourish. And kids understand this. As they said, junkyards are awesome! We know that it’s not really the “junk” that entices them, but the freedom and openness of space and materials. And our wash provides such a wonderful example of this space. It’s great to see the kids value their space enough to take care of it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adventure_playground https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Playwork For their project work, the younger kiddos are thinking about our desert habitat. On Friday I was able to observe them reflecting on and drawing desert animals. The kids are usually excited to see me, and as I walked in Bentley called me over. He showed me a map layed out in front of him. It was a desert scene that contained plants and animals. He was working on drawing different parts of the map. He looked at it very closely and would point out small details. We would exchange some thoughts about what he noticed, and then he would add it to his map. He pointed to a small animal: “what’s that? Name?” I wasn’t sure! “A squirrel? Or maybe a field mouse?” He agreed: “field mouse! Field mouse!” His drawings were careful and detailed. He thought a lot about where he was placing each object on his paper in relation to its placement on the map, and added small details.
The other children were drawing from small cards that each featured a different desert animal or plant. The cards had images and facts. The kiddos were working in various mediums – some paint, some marker, some pencil. Adrienne worked with them to help them add words to their images if they wished, and then they pinned their drawings to a large board featuring questions, facts, and images about desert animals. Their drawings were also very detailed. It was clear that the class had been spending time practicing looking closely and adding small elements to bring their drawings to life. A few weeks ago (I’m a bit behind on my posts!) the kiddos had the opportunity to create sculptures using natural materials and the hot glue guns. Lilly, Juliana, Ian, and Grayson were the first ones to build. Grayon seemed inspired by the natural materials and worked for a long time building “a tree.” He started by stacking small wooden slices on top of each other: “look at how big my tree is!” He then added a pinecone at the top and two branches on either side. Then he had to figure out how to make it stand up on it’s own. I asked him how he solved this problem and he replied “by putting rocks to hold it up.”
Lilly, Julian, Ian, and Bentley (who joined us later) were interested in creating vehicles. Ian made a boat that serves drinks and runs on chocolate milk: “This is a race boat. And guess what? People can get drinks and smoothies and any kind of drink in it. And the engine has chocolate milk in it and it sprays chocolate milk.” Bentley created a plane: “it’s an airplane and it shoots and then it poops!” Lilly made a few sculptures, on which was also a plane: “I added this. These are the wings and this is the part of the airplane that shoots and flips up to the air. And it’s a bird!” Jake took Ian’s place at the table once he was done and seemed much more interested in exploring the properties of the hot glue itself rather than creating something specific. He began with layering glue on top of some flat branches/leaves, adding some sticks, small rocks, and pods. “Look at my scary thing. It looks like webs!” I asked him if it was a home for a spider, and he replied “no. It’s just like a spooky decoration thing.” The various works that these kiddos made expresses a great lesson about open-ended materials and loose parts. When you offer children materials that can be used in a variety of ways, they are allowed to make their own artistic choices and decisions – empowering actions! Last week I entered the k/1 classroom right in the middle of their Creative Time! The kids were hard at work at three different stations: clay, sculpture, beading, and play dough. I sat down next to Ender who was already hard at work on a clay sculpture. I asked him what he was making. “This is a target (Target) with a basketball in it.”
Okay. So I knew that many of these kids were interested in guns, war, fighting, etc. (which we know is normal!). So my first instinct was that this “target” was a target you shoot at. Next to me Clayton describes his sculpture “Isn’t this awesome? It shoots bullets. And look at it. It can also turn into a sword!” So my assumption that this “target” was for shooting was grounded in prior experiences! As I questioned Ender further about his work it became clear that this was a Target – the store! Ah! Now it made sense (how could a target have a basketball in it?) Ender pointed out the shelves he had made on each side of the Target and informed me what was on each shelf: “Look. A Pokémon card! But there’s one more thing…it’s a basketball, a Pokémon card, and a cell phone!” At the same time, Ender was also constructing a self-portrait out of clay: “Look it. I’m already a teenager!” I asked him what he liked to do as a teenager: “I like to go to Target and buy basketballs, Pokémon cards, and cell phones!” Ender worked tirelessly on this sculpture. He added another shelf with a Hershey’s bar on it, and then added price tags for each product being sold in the store, drawing numbers on each tag. There are lots of things we could talk about in response to this work: the way children incorporate their interests and daily experiences into their artwork, the way they think about their future selves and roles, the presence of consumerism and money exchanges in our lives, etc. But for now I will leave you with a simple idea – it’s okay to ask children what they are making! Sometimes I think we fear this question (will they feel bad if they think we don't inherently understand their work). In my experience this is not true, and we often miss so much by remaining silent as children work or thinking we understand. This exchange with Ender is a great reminder that the child is always the expert on their own work and it is often more interesting then we could ever imagine! On some of the days that I come to school to observe and document, I have the pleasure of setting up some provocations for the k/1 class. These are always some type of creative/artistic offering. After thinking about the challenges they faced when I asked them to draw the rocks and minerals a few weeks ago, I thought I would challenge them with an observational painting activity. Inspired by the season, I collected various gourds and asked the students to look at them closely and paint what they saw. I had prepared paint for them that matched the colors on the gourds as well.
Before they began, I asked them to look closely and talk about what they noticed. “It has patterns – orange and yellow!” “Mine looks like a watermelon!” Then they began to paint. Lily asked me right away if she could trace her gourd. I told her that I wanted her to try painting what she saw instead. Without hesitation, she moved forward and began painting stripes of various colors on her paper. Though she didn’t paint any particular shape, it was great to watch her think about color and pattern! Ian was particularly proud of the likeness he was able to make. “Look! Mine looks exactly the same!” Emma worked slowly and carefully on her work declaring, “I’m doing a little bit of shading on this.” As always happens with any kind of painting, the color of the water was of particular interest for the kiddos. “Look at this! Green! It’s as light as a popsicle.” “Mine is orange like orange juice.” Many people question the role of art in early childhood. Is process more important than product? How involved should adults be in children’s artistic work? Should we simply step back and observe their inner creativity? These are delicate balances to be engaged in. The children were happy with the challenge of observational painting, but I wonder if I had not offered that challenge how long they would have continued with the act of tracing. This is not to pit tracing vs. observational drawing, but the outcome is quite different. As important as the process is for children, they are connected to their final products often as well. I wonder what they think about each… The overhead projector gets a lot of use in the k/1 room and for good reason - it’s a great tool! Not only can it project color and shape, you can also use it to project images on transparency sheets and you can experiment with the placement of the projection itself. During my visit last week, the kids were using images, tapes, and loose parts to explore the possibilities of the projector.
They started out by looking at a few transparency images and thinking about how they could add on to them. “Let’s put all the gems like to see what it looks like.” “It looks like poop all over the place!” “It looks like a beautiful flower.” They added colored gems and magna-tiles on top of the image on the projector. “Cause, look! Magna-tiles!” “Put jewels on the magna-tiles.” Some of the kiddos also worked to add onto the images by working on the wall itself, rather than at the projector. They created designs using tape directly on the wall, with the projection shining over them the whole time. They explored lots of different images, and used the loose parts differently for each one. Their eyes often moved back and forth between the designs on the projector itself and the projection on the wall. Though they utilized the same materials, each space had a different look. “Look at that. It’s a piece of art!” Upon hearing this declaration I asked the kids what was the art – the design on the projector or the projection? As expected, they had differing opinions! “Both!” “It’s the projection.” I love that the kids are thinking about what makes something art. Does it have to be something you can take home (a projection)? Is it something permanent (i.e.: tape on the wall)? Can it be collaborative? These are big questions to consider… On Friday afternoon all of the IS kiddos had the chance to spend time in either room. Many of the younger students went over to the 2-6 room, so there were not many kids present to work in the k/1 space. Because of this, I spent some nice quality time with Sol, Emma, and Jake at the light table. There were a small variety of materials in use, all of which spoke to the nature of the light table itself: small pink cups, cut pieces of straws, colored tissue paper squares, brown plastic bottle bottoms, gold tubing, and little plastic shapes. All of the items were transparent, so they looked lovely and inviting on the light table.
Though these loose parts lend themselves to many different uses, I had thought perhaps that the kids would use the cups to build with. However, Sol and Emma were drawn to them immediately and engaged with them as simply cups, but cups for smoothies! “We’re gonna make smoothies.” “We’re gonna sell some drinks.” “We don’t have any water.” Though the cups were used as traditionally intended, all the other loose parts were imaginatively utilized. The bits of straws became fruit and the tissue paper was topping – “I’m putting cookies on top!” Jake eventually came over and wanted to play, but he wasn’t quite sure how to use these materials. The girls showed him how they made their smoothies, and he got right to work. He was excited after his first one – “Look what I did!” What is it, I asked? “I just made it!” While the girls mixed and shifted materials freely, Jake was more methodical in his approach. He would create a smoothie – first adding tissue paper at the bottom, then straws, then tubing, and then a plastic shape. He would put each cup to the side, and begin a new one. At one point he turned to me and declared – “you take the order of the kids that come here.” This work is a lovely reminder that social pretend play can happen anywhere with lots of different materials. You don’t need plastic food or a kitchen to cook, or a store to sell! Continuing the exploration of natural materials that I offered last week, I set up a provocation this week based on rocks and minerals. I brought in some pieces from my own collection: amethyst, amber, ocean jasper, petrified wood, and unknown beautiful mineral. I asked the kiddos to look at the pieces closely with a magnifying glass (“Look! There’s stuff inside!”), draw what they saw, and then add liquid watercolor to finish their work.
When children are practicing drawing, they can sometimes get discouraged that they “can’t do it.” Their work doesn't look the way they think it should and they will often ask us a) to do it for them or b) how they should do it. In these moments I usually help kiddos by asking them to think about the object they are hoping to draw, name different elements, and then ask them what should come first; then I’ll sit with them as they draw bit by bit. While I think our k/1’s were a bit intimidated about how to draw these specimens, they didn’t let on. But, with the exception of Jake, none of the other four kiddos drew based on what they saw – they traced instead! “Look, I made a rock! I did lots of different kinds of rocks!” Once they began painting their work, they (unsurprisingly) became just as interested in the water used to wash their brush as in their work itself. “Wow, it’s turning black!” The liquid nature and vibrancy of the paint interested them as well. “It’s bleeding!” “My rock is bleeding!” “Rocks don’t bleed.” “I’m just pretending.” Sequoia took a break after tracing his specimen to play with the water table, but returned once the paints were brought out. He worked to paint his picture and then became engaged with pouring the dirty water from one jar to another, ultimately combining three jars of water into two. He was quite proud of this feat – it was as if he knew that the water would fit into two jars. This week rather than documenting the play of the children in the k/1 room, I set up a provocation for them and observed the way they interacted with my offering: there were several baskets, each full of a different natural material, and black pieces of felt for each child to design on. Additionally, I included some small images of artwork created with natural materials as inspiration for them.
Initially Ender, Jake, Lilly, and Juliana joined me. They were excited about the materials and began to build right away. Ender’s design was in a constant state of transformation. “It’s some kind of tower…I’m making a green background…Hey look! I made a tree. I’m gonna add more to it…it’s a giant tree. It’s basically a bush.” He started with one idea and it transformed as he added more materials. Juliana’s work was also flexible. “Look what I made! I made a castle…a world. I made a world. These are the people.” As I wrote down their words and took pictures of their work, they became interested in photographing their own work. As someone who LOVES child documentation, I happily handed over my phone and Ender and Lilly engaged joyfully in photographing their designs. As the first group of kiddos wandered away, Emma and Sol took their spots. They seemed to have plans in mind before building, perhaps because they had the opportunity to explore the materials beforehand. As they came to the table, I was deconstructing the previous designs and sorting all the materials back into their original baskets. The girls happily helped me with this, so they had the chance to look at and touch the materials before beginning their designs. “I’m going to make my backyard!” “I’m going to use some rocks to make a flower.” Emma and Sol stayed at the table for a while, playfully negotiating how many materials each of them were using – working on sharing while each of them also had what they needed to continue. “Sol, You’re taking too much!” Emma declared as both girls laughed. They were also very engaged in sorting and organizing the materials after each design. They built and then cleaned up at least three times in the short time I was there. Though I don’t share all the details within this narrative, during this short time with a simple offering of five materials, these children engaged in design/construction, exploring temporary artwork, material sorting, digital documentation, negotiating sharing, scale, memory, balance, and numbers! |
Archives
December 2016
Categories |