Last week we introduced tempera paint in the mini studio. We started with a large piece of paper on the wall and a limited palette of color - black, white, blue and green. After a day or two we replaced the blue and green with red and yellow, leaving the original paper on the wall. The finished painting is hanging down the back stairway if you would like to take a look.
(a side note- Painting or drawing on a large vertical surface helps develop the larger muscles of the shoulder and upper arm. Children strengthen these muscles first, and then the smaller muscles in the forearms and hands; all necessary for proper pencil grasp)
A few years ago Robyn and I had the good fortune to work with Fran (Forest Room). At circle one day she showed the children that they could make the outline of a shape with one color of paint and then fill it in with another. We repeated that demonstration for the children this year and they have been trying it out in their painting. It helps define their image and thereby make it more "readable". Ultimately we would like the children to develop some skill with a variety of materials. Some materials will even become a "language" with which they can communicate their questions and ideas. Throughout the preschool the teachers offer a range of experiences with a variety of materials so the children can explore many. Not all materials will become languages for all the children, but finding the one that matches your voice can be transformative and is richly valuable throughout life. Exploring a broad range increases their options, their skills, and their understanding of various materials.
Magna tiles continue to be an extremely popular material for many children, and so we have decided to take them on as an intention this year - to learn as much as we can about what they can offer, their limitations, how we can support and extend their usefulness. Are they an "intelligent" material, one that can be transformed? Can they become a language for some of the children? We have seen that they support their pretend play, but do they inspire and challenge? Does their ease of use make them undesirable? These are some of the questions that we are thinking about.
We know that as parents you make decisions about materials and toys all the time too. We would love to hear your questions and thoughts as we explore this and other materials.
I'm wondering it the finished painting will turn into something else? Were stories being told during the painting, or is there a story waiting to be told by a group now that it's completed? Or will they re-represent this painting in another way?
ReplyDeleteI'm also really interested in the magnatiles and what you all learn from this deep thinking about this ever-popular manipulative. We, too, question them frequently. Are they challenging as a manipulative? How do they support continued learning? They seem to really provide a tool for fantasy play, and there's a million ways to arrange them, but I still have mixed feelings about them. Please keep us posted as your observations and thinking progress. Thanks for taking on this thinking!
Thanks Elaine, we wonder about them too. And I am asking myself the question - does being easy to use automatically make a material inferior? Does the challenge have to be inherent in the material? Is challenging inherently better? We find them similar to lego's in that way, but people do amazing things with legos. Why do we value clay, paint, loose parts, paper more than these? Because these are plastic, petty, easy, geometric, commercial?
ReplyDeleteWe are starting an inventory of what the children are building and will be looking for ways to challenge their building. Let us know if you notice anything about the way the children are using them in the Rainbow Room.
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ReplyDeleteI feel like the magna tiles, given that they are static shapes, help extend spatial reasoning, i.e., I have these defined shapes, how can I make them into what I want? They seem to direct the play a little themselves too - I put these together and look what happened! - but that helps flesh out that spatial way of thinking too, demonstrating possibilities they might not have come up with. I think they're great, but then so does my kid. :) 3 dimensional thinking is something that comes easily for some, but not everyone is great at it and toys like that help stimulate it I think.
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