sometimes we talk about god

Sometimes, we talk about super heroes, angels and princesses.

Sometimes, we talk about rocks, sand and mud.

Sometimes, we talk about love, heaven and God. We don't always have the answers or understand it all, but we talk and try to express ourselves.



Sometimes, God and the world are in our art.

Sometimes, it is good to talk about the world, and rivers, and heaven.
And, God.

fearless water color painting by a 3yo artist

This is my 3 year old friend, Ila, as she engages with paint at home. Her mother, Alexa, knows Ila is hands and body IN when involved with paint. Alexa has paint out for Ila whenever she would like it.

Ila has great freedom at home to explore with all her senses and with all her bright spirit.

At our school, we have the indoor and outdoor areas set up with provocations or explorations for the children. The children may choose wherever they would like to be and engage with whatever materials they choose. The teacher role is well defined to support play, social function and choice.

This particular day, in the classroom we had table easels for water color paintings. Ila came over and started her own work. She began with a red swoop:

After that, Ila began her full painting journey with a lot of BLACK painted here and there, just so, and one more spot right    about    there.

Ila had already added hand prints yet seemed inspired to add more. She was very thoughtful and detailed in her efforts as she painted finger by finger, then full palm back on the paper.

Ila worked on her painting for about 20 minutes as she went back and forth with color, hands, color, hands.
Sometimes we would chat together about what her hands were doing, how the paint felt when the brush stroked over her finger or how sometimes her hand print was light or dark on the paper.

 




When Ila completed her work, I asked her if she would like to tell anything about it, that maybe something was happening inside her painting. Ila dictated her story to bring her painting to life for everyone.

"THERE IS A MERMAID SWIMMING IN THE WATER AND A SHARK BIT HER ON THE LEG BUT SHE SURVIVED."

I am not sure I can say anything else.
Ila's work - her spirit of work - says it all. 

I am inspired to live just one day just like her. [smile]






~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
*Alexa and Ila's family are no longer at our school. Alexa gave me permission to use her and Ila's first names and to allow Ila's face in the photos.

a work of [robot] art

Wow. 

Sometimes that just sums it up. Wow.

Please admire the tremendously creative, talented, fuzzy-soft work of Wendy Tsao of the ever-fabulous Child's Own Studio . Wendy has a gifted eye for taking a child's art or drawing work and allowing it to come to life via her fabrics and sewing talents.

I had put in a request for one of her one-of-a-kind productions by sending her a drawing of a Robot Monster done by 4-year-old Cole. I let Wendy know that Cole loves friendly things and he loves Where The Wild Things Are...and then Wendy did the rest.

Thank you to Wendy for making me smile when I think of adults living a life that is full of the joy and invention that is Childhood. Wendy's work is just that.

drawing of a friendly robot monster by 4yo Cole

Wendy of Child's Own Studio invented this softie model

Don't you love that the robot has 4 arms? Wendy posed him with 2 arms crossed :)

The details and furry fabric chosen by Wendy are perfectly suited for Wild Things!

Arrived at our house and ready to be gifted to the artist!

Talent talent talent

to make a Robot Monster look friendly and cheerful.

What do you think of the drawing turned softie?

"well...kids are very messy"

Have you heard? Kids are messy  [? ! ?]

Short post today to share my favorite moment from the college early childhood course I am instructing this term which focuses on math, science and tech for preschool age children.  There is a wonderful engineering student in the class and today I asked him if he has had many opportunities to engage and make connections with the young children at his field placement school.

He shared that he has had opportunities, but..."the children tend to come straight toward me and I have to veer them away to another teacher because....well...kids are very messy."

I smiled. I agreed with him. I offered him an early warning to becoming an early childhood educator that not only is this likely to happen again, it absolutely will happen again and again and again. IT will come in many forms that are part of school - paint, goop, mud - and many other natural parts of being human - sickness, vomit, blood. IT is messy and gross and unpleasant and spontaneous and normal. Messy yet normal.

I kept smiling.

Are you smiling?

"Surely you have been a child or know someone who has been one?" [anon]

goop, gak, whatever you want to call it...IT feels cool, bloppy, sloppy, goopy, smushy, wet and-  yes - MESSY.

the ink monster

How to create an ink robot monster while sitting next to your best friend at the art table:

Space Station guys in all yellow ink and Robot Monster in all black ink. Of course.

Start with one black pen, then draw!

[So simple]

Here are two boys who chose to work next to each other at the art table  - they are best friends - and both have their own vision of what will come to life on their paper: their unique vision, their unique hand-eye coordination, their unique motivation to create what they will create.

Doesn't it fascinate you to see what children will create 

when their time is THEIR TIME?

Robot Ink Monster. Completed. Please admire.

Consider the alternative IF I HAD TO BE "in charge" of art time:

How would I know to offer the one boy only a yellow pen and the other boy only a black pen?

How would I know that one paper should be turned wide and the other paper turned tall?

How would I know to direct them to outer space for their vision and to write space terms?

How.

Would.

I.

Know?

I wouldn't.

Art and time is for the children.

Our job is to provide materials, variety of spaces to create, and time. 

How hard is that? it is not.

[so simple].

chocolate milk

I have been collecting quotes, bits and parts of what people say, and poetry since I was sixteen years old. It is just something that intrigued me from early on - how words make a statement, how words together can be a work of art, a philosophy, an argument, a question, an expression of hope or love.

I love to happen upon a gem of a phrase whether via a live speaking person or via text or music. I try to listen in a quirky way and discover something that seems to me unusual or unusually charming or deeply touching.

On this blog, I have a page of 'wisdom from young children' which you can read here and a post about starting out with a Sharpie if you also want to start documenting by clicking here.

5 mini-stories today of how COLOR was incorporated by children in their explanations and expressions:

1. CHOCOLATE MILK.

My 4-year-old friend Jessica and I were waiting for her dad to pick her up from school at the end of the day. We were sitting out in front of the school, Jessica's things all packed up, and her dad was running a bit late. We decided to do an I SPY game as cars drove past our school, keeping a close watch for her dad's car. As we were looking, Jessica offered this great clue to aid our watch:

"My daddy's car is the color of Nestle's Quik...it is the color when you first put it in the milk."

So, the car is NOT the color AFTER you stir the powder in but right when you "first put it in" which is a totally different color and certainly darker than the photo can show you! Excellent detail to describe the exact color of dad's car and - thankfully - he did arrive soon thereafter!

2. BLUE POCKETS.

My friend Natalie was trying to make a collection of nature items. She was gathering sticks and rocks and bark. All these pieces were first cradled in her arms, then she turn her shirt upward to form a carrier and soon her collection was bigger than her shirt could hold. "Oh, I have blue pockets at my home!" she says as she wishes she had more room to gather her treasures. 

I found it humorous that Natalie describing blue pockets - compared to other colors? - was important and perhaps we all were to immediately be sympathetic and understand "ohhh, the BLUE pockets - yes, those would definitely gather nature items quite well."

3. PURPLE IS FOR BEAUTIFUL.

Oh, my sweet friend Jack. He was painting at the easel and I was video-taping his work while he shared. He explained about the red cross is for the church, the pink heart is for love, the black part is for the school and the purple..."The purple is for beautiful."

Yes. It is.

4. IS YELLOW ALLERGIC TO BROWN?

My five-year-old friend Hailey liked to have her drawing markers NOT touch each other on her work. She had been drawing since quite young and had gained a particular sense of color and composition. She was working one day in the art area when  - somehow - her yellow marker overlapped onto her brown that was already drawn on her paper. She saw the tip of her yellow marker become brown and when she tried to use it straight away, the yellow marker presented brown color onto her paper. I watched her look perplexed, look again at the marker tip and turn to me..."Is yellow allergic to brown?" she asked. You can decide how you would answer that question.

5. PINK-ISH, PURPLE-ISH.

There is almost nothing more delightful during my school days than documenting children's work. My friend Isabella had this story ready to tell when I started to ask her about her work:

"This is a friendly monster named Jackie! She likes to eat carrots and she lives in the mountain! Her favorite color is pink-ish, purple-ish!" 

What a treasure to meet such a friendly monster!

There are so many elements to documenting, listening, collecting quotes or questions. It is lovely to be in classrooms where WHAT the children have to say is appreciated and examined and respected.

What gems have YOU discovered in art, chats, and your daily routine? Anything about Chocolate Milk or Blue Pockets or Friendly Monsters with favorite colors?

the window owns the view

Perspective taking.
Looking closer.
Looking lower, higher, across, under, over.

the window does own the view...with 5 different pair of eyes seeing what they choose to see.

*

"What you see depends on

where you are standing

when you look." (anon)

For our students, it can mean offering ways to LITERALLY look around using tools that CHANGE THEIR VIEW:

CAMERA to zoom in on friends and classroom.

tube BINOCULARS to see the world differently.

friends change colors with COLOR PADDLES!

MAGNIFIER on a light table w/ shells & jewels.

HOW you see something changes WHAT you see.

Do you offer your students different ways to view the world? Make it smaller or bigger, higher or lower, sideways and upside-down?

the parent/art expert introduces the idea of a mini-frame lens.

2 children test out the mini-frame to find THEIR own interesting spot in the art.

In this ART EXPLORATION:

children used mini-frames to look closer at their own abstract art ... and then they described what they saw! For a full read on this Abstract Art project, click here.

this boy discovers a section on the abstract art that he especially likes.

Teacher Reflection... 3 ideas that helped ME see differently:

1. Ironically, I realized in my classroom that while I did/do offer students ways to experience the school day from different perspectives I REMAINED IN A ROUTINE WHERE MY OWN PERSPECTIVE WAS THE SAME!
I always sat in the same "teacher spot" for meetings/circle - sure I might sit on the floor OR a chair, yet I kept my same spot because I wanted to be near the books/games/music for easy access. I realized that this also only let me experience meeting time with one lens. When I - finally - sat in a different place around the circle, I literally felt different and viewed the experience differently. After that day, I was more deliberate to switch up where I joined the meeting. Have you had this experience, as well?

2. Something I DID do that helped perspective taking as a model for students was NOT be the leader on a walk or if we needed to be in a line of some sort (going up/down stairs, etc.). I would elect to be in the middle or end or partner with a student somewhere IN the line or group. (Of course, for safety, there would be another teacher at the lead if required). The non-leader role helped me be a member of the group experience, instead of needing to lead or protect the experience.

3. A tip as we head into A NEW SCHOOL YEAR and PREPPING OUR CLASSROOMS: as you prepare your environment, squat low and/or sit on the floor to see how children will be seeing the room. What barriers present themselves at their level? What materials and experiences are available at their eye level? What is above their eye level that might be too overwhelming, high or distracting? Examine your color choices on the walls and the quantity of materials: Neutrals, natural materials, clean and defined choices in baskets or trays, a flow and non-clutter - the layout should inspire YOU to want to touch, discover, play.

2 MAGNIFIERS to examine the Dinosaur That Might Be Dead.

Taking new perspectives is exciting.

It allows for new ideas, opinions, and understandings of our world.

It allows for the joy of teaching to present itself daily.

draw what you see

drawing a pencil with a pencil...have YOU tried that???

"drawing
is like
taking
a line
for
a
walk..." (klee).


Art is how you feel, what you touch, what touches you.

colors, lines, shapes.

eyes, hands.

you.
you are the art.








We offered the idea of Still Life art with our 4s and 5s. This process is something that works well after a length of time in your classroom (months even) where children have had extended choice time with art materials, exploring, inventing, using Stuff, using Stuff again and again, discovering a sense of being an artist.

The idea of Still Life can be really fun for children. We talked about how art is YOUR CHOICE and WHAT YOU SEE. We talked about how in Still Life artists often try to represent what something really looks like, exactly, yet  - ironically - the art work always depends on YOU, The Artist, and how YOU see something.

We talked about

• details
• looking again and again
• color
• shape
• curves and line
• size and spatial sense
• going slow so your eye and your hand can work like a team !

In our First Work the children chose anything in the classroom for their Still Life drawing. This is a wonderful way of engaging children because - no surprise - they will be more connected to their work when they have choice and ownership. The choices of items themselves were a delight to see - who would have known that someone wanted to try to draw a cell phone? a dinosaur skeleton? blocks stacked just so? or a pair of Fiskar scissors?

**[my apologies for the less-than-fabulous photos as these are photos of photos...I think they still offer a strong sense of the quality of the children's efforts].

The second experience with Still Life was outside among our big trees and flowering hills of our school yard. The children used clipboards, chose whatever they wanted to draw, sat where they chose to sit to observe their "still life" and dove into their work.

Outside with clipboards...trees, flowers, drawing close-up and drawing far away...

The third experience with Still Life was with a classic vase of flowers. These were challenging and beautiful! We presented the group with the same item - the vase of flowers -  yet their different perspectives allowed each art work to be as though they had their own vase.

"Drawing is like taking a line for a walk..."(and who doesn't enjoy a lovely walk?)

Go. Take a walk with your children:
Draw what you see.