Materials Set the Mood

 In After School Studio it was interesting to note a change in the overall energy in the room once the group moved from creating collage covers for their sketchbooks to working with clay. The artists were silently engrossed in fashioning the front of their sketchbooks in ways that truly made them their own.

During collage, the girls chose small scraps of paper as well as other hodge podge materials and strategically arranged them in ways that express their individual identities. This required deep focus and, judging from the silence, a lot of inner dialogue with the pieces. Once finished with their covers, most artists moved on to work with clay.

A shift in materials seemed to lead to a striking shift in energy! After switching to clay, a material that really requires a lot of manipulation and physical activity, the group became excitable and energetic, laughing and socializing with their peers. The transition in materials lead to a transition in mood and energy.

Kathryn mentioned this shift in energy to the group, allowing them to process the ability of art materials to have an effect on their moods as well as how they interact with each other in the studio. Their reply that you "have to talk" when working with clay, suggests that the fact that different materials elicit different emotions and moods is intuitive to these young artists!

Exploring Tools and Mark Making with Paint!

Offering a wide variety of brushes allows young artists to explore the many mark making possibilities when painting. These two girls have experimented with several brushes as well as their hands to see the results of their gestures and  actions on paper.

Using these different brushes to make different marks yourself is a good way to encourage exploration. Children are always observing their environment. This close observation is key to their development. Modeling with different art tools and materials is a great way to support this learning. You don't have to be an expert to model artistic behaviors! Experimenting with the materials together can lead to many exciting discoveries! 

A visit to Beverly Hills Church Preschool and discussion of Infant-Toddler Center in Reggio Emilia, Italy

I recently attended the Reggio Emilia Study group which this month was held at Beverly Hills Church Preschool in Alexandria, Va. This is my first experience at a Reggio school. First impressions: many of their stations included natural materials and the organization of the classrooms were very organic. One of the first things I noticed was that art and expression is included in every aspect of the children's day. The group watched a movie focused on observing children at the Infant-Toddler Center in Reggio Emilia, Italy throughout a year. The film was organized not chronologically but according to activities throughout the day. After viewing the film, we split into groups to discuss it and the article "Participation in Progettazione: The experience of the Infant-Toddler Center and it's contexts" from Innovations in early education: the international Reggio exchange. One of the things I noticed during the film, and that was discussed after, was the small amount of verbal communication and how calm and unhurried the environment was. A lot of discussion revolved around how it was possible that the teachers stayed so calm and the fact that here in the states we get so caught up on scheduling and staying on task that we feel we don't have enough time. Some mentioned feeling pressure to make sure children all get a chance to have the same experiences so that they "don't fall behind." A comment was made that we always have time, time is steadily there for us to fill, but our choices on how we use that time is what we should be concerned with.

The fact that we couldn't understand what was being said in the video really moved observation to the forefront, so I feel the group focused on how the teachers were able to pull off such a calm environment without feeling the need to intervene and without pressure of time constraints. But I think even without understanding the very little that was being said verbally, it was easy to see that they were not using verbal language as direction, instruction, or even leadership, but rather as expression and support. The children are not being told "Put these feathers in one bucket and these stones in another and notice the difference in weight." They are being encouraged to experience the materials in a way that is natural for them and at their own pace, developing languages and vocabulary in the other senses, and communicating non-verbally. What they take from the experience of playing with transparent green bottles and a projector on one day may not be what the teachers had intended or assumed would occur, and that is perfectly fine and actually a learning opportunity for the teachers.

In the article, the researchers cover a room in white paper to see how the children will react to the environment changing so drastically. They were shocked when the toddlers did not show surprise at all but began exploring as normal and they attribute this to the fact that everything is new and amazing to young children. The boy who eventually did pull off a piece of paper and began hypothesizing that a marker would flow down through the tube that was formed demonstrated that he had a sense of equilibrium and balance, as it was quite larger than he is and he didn't crush it although it was frail. So because the teachers did not pick up the markers to show them, "Look you can make marks all over the room," as I suppose is what was assumed would happen, the child was able to explore the environment and his experience was much more meaningful. The teachers were also allowed to observe and learn more about this child as an individual. Much of the video exemplified this as well. When allowed to explore the environment on their own, the naturally curious child will find ways to experiment and explore, learning what he needs to learn in such a way that a relationship between the child and material are formed. I could really see the idea of "children as capable" coming to life in this respect. Relationships could also be seen between the child and every other entity: the materials, the environment, the teachers, and the other children.

So when addressing the concern that all children may not get the same experience or "fall behind," which creates this need to direct and control activities for toddlers, my experience from working at Art at the Center has helped me to understand the value of providing an environment conducive to learning and allowing children to explore that environment naturally and at their own pace while offering support and expressive language to encourage their development.

Links:
Beverly Hills Church Preschool 
Art at the Center 

Thursday Explorers!

These artists knew exactly what they wanted on the first day back in the studio since 2011... clay! Clay tools such as popsicle sticks and various sized caps from jars and bottles take on distinct uses for different artists.

In the picture to the left, a returning daughter/father duo complete a routine of representational objects that has become the norm for the beginning of each class. Dad makes a bee while the young artist sets to work creating a flower for the bee (ball with several sticks pushed into it).  And what better for the bee to munch on but a pizza complete with butter and steak toppings! 

Later, the same artist continues to use the sticks, but this time energetically cutting a snake, or coil, into tiny pieces.

Another young artist is seen here designing with sticks by poking them down into a coil. While he is keeping close observations on how the sticks vary from standing straight up to leaning in either direction, it seems important to him that they all be similarly placed.

Bottle caps and jar lids are also a much appreciated clay tool. A young girl explores the possibilities of texture from different lids by rolling them along a coil. This gesture leads to the idea of a wheel following a track, and the action is repeated with joy and enthusiasm.

She later discovers (or rediscovers) that the jars that hold the sticks can be used as tools themselves! She pushes the lip of the jar into clay to cut out shapely circles that are then mushed back together, flattened, and cut again.

This repetitive and energetic work with clay helps children really get to know the material and it's unique traits.

These young artists are using tools to explore,
manipulate, shape, design, and represent objects with clay.
Artists often naturally move back and forth through these
different developmental stages in their artistic process.

Monday Explorers!

     The first day of Art Explorers for Winter Session was this week! Familiar faces along with a few newcomers marched into the studio fresh and rearing to go! The inquisitive energy saturated the studio as young explorers visited pastels, watercolor, clay, building, and books.

     Artists and caretakers gathered around the light table to experiment with the colorful building materials available. The qualities of the blocks and other light table materials seem to organically offer explorers a chance to interact with one another, a skill that paint or clay might not so readily elicit.

Here, two artists take turns viewing each other through different color light filters. Holding them up to one eye while closing the other allows the boy and girl to see each other and the space around them in the color of choice.

     This interaction led to an expedition through the studio to discover what else could magically take on red or blue tints. Drawing their attention to the ceiling, the boy exclaimed, "The sky is red! I'm painting the sky!" The girl joined in on the excitement, and the two painted the studio red and blue until it was time to clean and put materials away. These shared discoveries and focused observations are those that begin to build an artistic community that fosters learning and development.

Building a Landscape of Clay

As young artists move about the room to explore different materials, remnants of works from many different artists start to collect at the clay tables. This young artist saw the possibilities of the large variety of shapes and materials. He began rearranging snakes as "blades of grass" and popsicle sticks with balls as "trees and bridges". Maneuvering around the entire clay table, the young artist created a landscape from collected clay bits and tools!

Collaborative Maps and Mazes Continue!

(See previous blog following these artists!)

These artists maintained a steady interest in collaborative work on large maps/mazes throughout the session. Not surprisingly, a majority of the students chose to create one last collaboration on the last day of class. The finished product was complex and detailed, and the descriptions given for each artist's contribution just as detailed. There was a need to narrate what was occurring in the drawing as it was being drawn. This verbal description, initially directed toward an adult who could transcribe the goings on, began to establish a communication between the artists. This imaginative discussion is encouraged in young artists and it allows for reflection and the building of vocabulary as well as the development of social skills.

Exploring Together

Very attentively, this young artist creates purposeful marks with a variety of brush strokes. Using tempera paints, she creates arches uses distinct colors and then adds strips of colorful paper using the paint as glue. The process is enthusiastically shared with her mother, who offers support in the studio, and the duo discover together as the young artist explores the materials.

A gallery of artist statements

To wrap up our session, parents are asked to join the studio for the last fifteen minutes of class as young artists prepare and display some of their art work. Students go through their portfolios and choose the pieces they wish to display accompanied by short artist statements. One student chose to show a blue color field painting and explains, "I thought the texture of this was very interesting and I also was thinking I could use it as a mouse pad." These statements help the artist reflect on their process through out the session and offer insight into the young artists' thought process.

Drawing from other's creations

Young artists in the studio are inspired by each other and are given the opportunity to learn from one another's creations. After one artist carefully builds his construction with blocks, another chooses to draw the dynamic construction in his sketch book. By observing the other artists work, he is learning from his classmate as well as experiencing the three dimensional piece in his own way by transferring what he sees into a two dimensional drawing.