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!
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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! Sol, Juliana, Emma, and Lilly were all playing in the house corner of their classroom. As the space was small, I stood on the outskirts, observing them over the bookcase that was serving as Emma’s desk where she was working at her computer (aka – an old keyboard). Their play shifted back and forth naturally between “family” and “store” – it was never totally clear to me which theme was in play at any given time. I glanced down at Lilly and Juliana, their arms outstretched side by side, as they began to debate about arm hair - “Everyone has hair!” “I don’t because I have different skin.” “Brown people have no hair.” “Yes you do!” “No I don’t.” Sol was sitting across from them, quiet until this point. “You’re not in control of her body. Basically, if she doesn’t want to have hair then she doesn’t.”
Yes, we know that it is not possible to simply will our body hair away on a whim. But the idea of being in control of our own bodies and respecting each other’s opinions and physical differences is, from my perspective, a much stronger truth. This is what I think Sol was trying to share with her friends. Her comment successfully ended the debate and the family/store play resumed naturally…but what a big lesson to learn. Jake was quietly building with magna tiles on the light table. I walked over and sat down next to him. He looked at me and didn’t say anything. We had not yet met, so perhaps he was a bit unsure about my presence. There were four different sculptures in front of him. I asked him about the one he was working on at that moment: what was it? “This is a giant little squid.” Ah! I gently moved some of the other magna tile sculptures out of the way so I could put down my clipboard and take notes about his work. He kept working at his squid, carefully balancing each tile on top of the next, trying to figure out how to get them to stand up at an angle. Then he realized I had moved his work, and he calmly moved each piece back closer to him. I apologized for moving them. Pointing to the large flat work, he declared: “Look at this! It’s a squid popper. It’s a kind of squid that squids his arms like water, squirts bubbles, and squirts water out of his legs!” All of a sudden Jake stopped working and knocked all of his sculptures to the ground in one large crash. “These are my things. I crashed them.” Yes, he did. He began to play with Sequoia, who was showing me his weapon made from plastic blocks. Joining Sequoia’s imaginary play (at that moment he was a transformer), Jake came over to me. “Look at me, I have lasers in my eyes! They are red.” I asked what happens when he looks at me with his laser eyes: “Your skin turns different colors.”
During these short moments with Jake, I felt his desire to be powerful and to engage in acts that exercised this power: he rejected my movement of his work and put it back where he felt it needed to be, he took control and destroyed his own work on his own terms, and he invented an imaginary power (with a strong color!) that could physically alter anyone he chose. For small children, who are often controlled by those bigger than them, these are such important feelings. I’m glad I was there to witness them and record these moments of Jake being in control and powerful in his own small way. |
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