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!
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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… |
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