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.
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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! |
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