the world of the easel

holding the brush can be tricky yet the exploration continues.

The easel.

It can be such a wonderful place for exploration of color, of tools, of materials, of drips drips drips. 

The easel can be a wonderful space for private work, for friendship painting, for group experiments. 

It can be a new experience to stand up to be an artist, to angle your arm, to hold the brush or tool just how you want it so it gets to the paper without paint landing on your shoe.

It can be a new experience to have your paint available on a palette in one hand while painting with the other hand. It can be a new experience to look down, look up, look forward. 


The easel is a wonderful place to create the world you know or the world you imagine.

Below are examples of many of the above ideas. 

There are a zillion other examples that could have been here - outside paintings, jars of paint, variety of paper surfaces and textiles, squeeze bottles of paint, rolling brushes, scrapers, HANDS in paint, things that sparkle, natural objects, murals being made, easel painting while sitting on a stool...oh, and Music playing or songs being sung while painting.
  
I hope YOUR classroom has so many different ways to investigate and explore the large tool that is the Easel!

stripes of color, mixed colors, and dedication to fill the paper.

purple is all this friend needs to form his lines and shapes.

paint colors, mixing, choices choices choices!

deliberate dots, lines and shapes - individual creations with a friend nearby.

have you ever created a piece of art WITH a friend??

respecting childrens' ideas, comparisons, and understandings of their world.

group painting is an unique experience to share ideas, laughter, tools, colors.

part 1: the beginning strokes of this boy's world...

part 2: the boy on the right, amid his friends at the easel, has his own plan.

part 3: the boy's completed easel painting... who could have known how he would describe his work unless we asked him, listened to him, ensured that his voice would bring his artwork to life. stunning.

The art of the easel.

To offer the large tool for children to experiment in ways that are unlike other classroom experiences is a gift.

When is the last time YOU used an easel?

What would YOU paint, explore, test out, invent?

What would YOUR paint colors have to say?

What would YOU have to say?

the small stuff

complex lego sculpture with pieces, wheels and people.

There are so many different ways to think about Stuff.
Ideally, educators call Stuff using words that offer more respect and specificity - like Manipulatives or Materials or Found Objects or Collections. For the simplicity of this post today, I will say Stuff is what you need to offer - not too much, not too little, pleasantly arranged - in your classroom. When you have the Stuff, then make sure you offer the Time for children to engage, explore, and experiment with Stuff. When observing children working with Stuff, they will change how you think about the Stuff and will help inspire you to offer other high quality Stuff. The classroom will become a more challenging and interesting space to be an explorer of Stuff. 

masterpiece with magna tiles, cones and tubes.

shells and round magnets deliberately arranged in a trail.

domino house with such careful placement of flat, sideways, & upright pieces.

commitment, precision and intentional design within a magnetic tower.

kapla blocks (wow!) with bears atop in colored rows.

The incredible work of children.
When the teacher knows how to go slow enough, yet challenge enough, yet question enough, yet stay quiet enough, yet encourage enough...the incredible work of children will be right in front of you, daily, with startling images and inventions for you to document and photograph and share with your own school community. 
The small Stuff gives birth to a new way of understanding children learning.
Get some Stuff. Give some time.
The children will show you the rest.

the carrot whisperer

Working with young children is a privilege. As educators, we are privileged to witness learning, to witness trust, to witness friendship, and - usually - to witness many many undocumented moments daily. Sometimes the moments are fleeting, surprising, touching, humorous, powerful, outlandish, sincere.

Sometimes the moments are ones that linger for years and years...

because of the quietness, because of the beautiful quietness.

Katrina whispered her carrot to life.

I was sitting at the art table during mid-day rest time. The art table doubled as the teacher desk when children were not using it because it was the biggest surface to work on. That year, I was working in the oldest classroom of 4s and 5s at a full-day child care center. Some children went home right after lunch, some children stayed all day and took a rest, and some children arrived at school during this hour.  
I had already helped the full day children get comfortable on their mats to rest or read books. We put George Winston on the tape player and the mood of the room was peaceful and cozy.
I started working at the art table, further documenting some of the childrens work from the morning, and quietly unpacking some new supplies that arrived. A few minutes into rest time, my five-year-old friend Christina arrived with her mother. Her mother gave a silent wave and smile to say hello as she signed Christina in at the entry. I got up to meet Christina at the door and walked her back to the table with me. 
Usually, Christina didn't want to rest. Usually, Christina sat with me at the art table, doing quiet art work, drawing, writing, painting, or looking at books for about half an hour until her friends started to get up from their rest time.
There I was, doing some writing, and glancing over to Christina to give her a smile and nod of "how are you doing?"

Christina, having been quite busy with her crayons and paper for many minutes,

gently nudged her chair closer to mine, 

always being politely quiet to let her friends still rest. 

Christina then leans so close to me,

cups her hand toward my ear and whispers...

"I know how to make a carrot...you need orange, green and brown."

[smile].


I see Christina's face every time I share this story. Her hair was straight brown and her smile would crinkle when she was pleased with something. Her eyes were very deep brown and had a sparkle because she loved life and her family and school and her friends.
Christina's sharing of her carrot knowledge is lovely to me because it is so simple. It is so simple yet powerful enough to hang in the air long after it occurred. It is similar to when you see a child learn to balance on a two wheel bike or catch a ball or swim across the pool. You don't need a camera for these moments because they are lodged in your memory. To be a witness to knowledge and skill is such a privilege. To have children offer such knowledge directly to me, well, that is a uniquely stunning and quiet gift because it stops time for the actual moment it is happening. Who knew that a whisper about a carrot could stop time?  [smile].