The discovery of oil pastel

Early in September, Samantha came to the studio to make something. She didn't have a specific idea, and I had oil pastels out on the table, so I invited her to use them. She said she hadn't used them before.She selected a large, chunky brown pastel.

As she drew shapes with the brown pastel, she became more and more delighted, exclaiming "It's pony colored! Pony color orange! Hey, this color makes a path color. I made a path to a river", she said, coloring on the green tape she had added to her picture.

This small moment seemed important because of the way Samantha responded to the new media she had discovered. She noticed the rich color and creamy feel of the oil pastel, remarking at the way it got on her hands, which caused smudges on the paper.
After three weeks, Samantha came back to the studio just looking to 'make something'. This time she selected the oil pastels off the shelf herself and began to color with the same brown pastel.


 She asked me to write the story of her picture.

"Once upon a time there lived a lake. Then, one day, a board (with legs) came by. On top of that board lived a monster. They were in love, the board and the monster. They swam in the Lake, which made the Lake so happy, that they all lived happily ever after.                                                  The End.

I love this story very much, especially because it grew out of the interplay between Samantha and that brown pastel. How did she remember it after almost a month?

Superheroes and regular guys

I spent the last few days in Washington at the NAEYC conference. I learned a lot from things I saw and did there, most especially my breakfast with the NAEYC Teacher Research steering committee, and Alise Schafer's talk on Saturday.
(http://evergreencommunityschool.com)

But what I'd like to tell you now is about an exhibit I went to at the Renwick Gallery, the Smithsonian branch for crafts.While there I saw a screening of the movie Handmade America (which was good) and got to view the exhibit of the Craft Invitational, and the work of artist Mark Newport.

Mark Newport knits superhero costumes. In his exhibit were also comic book panels that show him knitting, with captions along the lines of  "He knew he could help, if he could just finish in time."

 
I have often worked with boys (and a few girls) who wanted to become superheroes. I believe it is important for children to work out their wonderings about power and their fears about bad things. As an Atelierista, I try to help them figure out how they can achieve some feeling of power. Sometimes that involves becoming a superhero.

Mark Newport's work reflects that desire to become super that so many four and five year olds have.By knitting his costumes he shows the sweetness of the yearning to become a hero, a good guy who can save the world.
That yearning is alive for Abel, Henry and Benjamin, who are looking closely at spiderwebs in order to learn what they need to become spider-men.


Sewing is a powerful tool for boys, who seem to enjoy the process and the equipment and concentration it takes.
Mark Newport's work is a combination
of the male stereotypes that inform our culture, and the idea of nurturing and coziness, which in a way is also what superheroes are about -taking care of the regular guys.  
.


http://www.marknewportartist.comhttp://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/QA-Mark-Newport.html
http://knitty.com/ISSUEsummer05/FEATsum05WTS.html

Drawing People in Motion

There is an interest in animation and flip books among the oldest children in the pre-school. I studied photography for a long time and had lots of resources and books on early film. However, after consulting with their teacher Nancy, working with them on both flip books and attempting a kinetoscope, I realized that I didn't really understand the process of drawing for this type of animation.
The problems of representation (of a moving object as well as the repetition involved in drawing an animation) were as mysterious for me as for the children in the group. We all felt we knew what to do, but then our animations didn't really work.
In Reggio they speak about how the teacher has 'extra pockets' in which to keep information that may be needed during an inquiry. I needed some new information and techniques for this one.

So, we made an appointment with a film-maker parent to come in and advise us, and we began a drawing group to practice drawing moving objects. This seemed like a good place to start.

These initial drawings of a model show the children's thinking about a body in motion. They indicate with lines or spirals the direction of movement. Above, you can see Dacy's purple lines showing head and arms moving, and she has captured the tilt of the body as well. In the first drawing below, Stella was spinning slowly on the table, and Ruby shows that along with the sound S. made as she tipped slightly. In the second drawing, lines indicate that Ainsley's arms were moving . In the third illustration Sam shows Elizabeth balancing on one foot.

I hope to learn from these children how they understand drawing motion, and will continue studio drawing groups with the children in this class.

The Circus set

Eventually, after interest in making a table top Circus waned, I asked
the children what they wanted to do with it.

Play with it! was the answer.
"Presenting! The flying Elephant!, said A, as he fixed his modeling clay Elephant to the trapeze we had attached to the underside of a shelf. B. exclaimed "And now, the BLASTING OUT FIRE CATAPULT!"

I said, "To bad we don't have any Circus music"  B "I could play it. I have a cello."
After working so carefully on the elements of the Circus, when it came time to play, the guys mostly used modeling clay, the canon and the trapeze. The Circus is a good example of the kind of project that is fun for a while, but probably isn't rich or a big enough idea for a long, sustained inquiry. However, it was engaging, a bonding experience, and allowed children to practice some skills and learn to use some new media.

Our school wide intention this year is to explore childrens concept of Place. 

I see children as very sensitive to their environment. They can create a relationship with it that is intimate and comfortable or fantastic and outlandish by turns. I think children interpret place differently than adults because of their unique scale, and their capacity for imagination.

In the introduction to her book Secret Spaces of Childhood, Elizabeth Goodenough compares  childrens desire to find places that are magical (and all their own) with their creation of stories. "By assembling words -much like balancing twigs or arranging 'loose parts' for a little house" children "negotiate boundaries between what is real inside themselves and the world outside."
We adults may learn more about the relationship between place, story and magic as this inquiry goes on. I sure hope so.

Place and Mapping -The Shelter of the Imagination Itself?

Teachers in different classrooms have noticed mapping as a thread running through our exploration of Place. Teachers listen closely to the children as they make maps,and they are noticing that the adult assumption of what a map is may be very different from childrens ideas about maps.
Children have been describing and/or making maps that contain standard memes like roads and buildings, but also non-physical place markers like smells and textures.

The Rainbow room children have centered their maps (mental and made) on a cave which is a product of their storytelling, a place that might be deep and dark and scary. Other maps describe feelings and elements like wind.

In The Poetics of Space, Gaston Bachelard writes about how places experienced in childhood may form the basis for imagination and creative thinking in adulthood. In his introduction to the book John Stilgoe asks if the first places are experienced by a child not only cognitively, but also with "fingertip memory".

He wonders, "How does the body, not merely the mind, remember the feel of a latch in a long-foresaken childhood home?"

Stickiness and the affordance of media

A group of very young children from the Forest room have been exploring the concept of 'sticky'. They have stuck things together with clay and tape, but they seem to be most engaged and delighted when they play their 'sticky' game. In this game a group of children pretend to be stuck to something (the playground fence, for instance). They play this game all the time, and the term sticky is very alive for them.

The teachers invited me over to help the children continue to define stickiness for themselves.The teachers were hoping I might have a different material with which to stick things. I brought string, lace, and a big bucket of slip from the studio.

After playing with string for a while, we tried using slip (clay and water) to put some decorations on this tree.

Nora asked Henry to put some slip on the tree with his stick, and then she carefully pressed a leaf onto it, and said "The leaf is sticking to the tree!"
Discovery!

Learning about a property like stickiness can lead to innovative thinking,
a 'tinkering' kind of mindset, (or
learning by fooling around with stuff.) These children have only just begun to play with slip, string, gumballs and lace as sticky materials. I hope their expanding view of 'sticky' will continue to grow.

Discovering the affordances of art media is one of the most exciting and useful aspects of artmaking at any age. When children understand what a medium can do, and what it can't do, then it can become a language for them. They begin to use it to communicate, to make their thinking visible.

Later Quinn and the rest of the class came out to see the tree. Someone said "it looks like a beautiful tree".
Then a group of older children (the ones who originally played with gumballs and string) walked over to visit the 'beautiful tree'. Perhaps they will continue the exploration in their own way.