Exploring new materials in a new (to me) way. Then, music!

"First I will make a plan."

He chose a green piece of paper and a blue marker- his favorite color and Mommy's favorite.

He drew a series of shapes. "Now I will build it"

The idea of building this plan made me think twice. I might have assumed these shapes were letters, except for the statement "now I will build it." Inspired by this article bankstreet.edu/seeing-meaning, I tried carefully not to identify any of the shapes as letters, or anything else that would fit only into my schema, but not his.

I said 'I know how you can make that shape. Wire can bend just like what you drew. See?"

Next we made a wire shape together- it had two bumps. 

After bending this shape together, he could do it himself!

Later, a small group came back to try drawing and wire. They all drew shapes and bent wire to go along with them. This was the first time I saw children who are three use wire this way, by using it in correspondence with drawing, without a lot of prompting from a teacher.

After a while, the children began to play with the wire in all sorts of ways.
Then this happened!