The story of LIGHT...

this post can now be found on my new website, updated and with extra images...

https://www.interactionimagination.com/blog

Light, colour and reflections...

Yesterday I shared a post with a film where I played with prisms, and also shared two films about how do prisms work and rainbows...

in those films there was the statement that white light could be created with just the colours red, blue and green and that the full spectrum was not needed to create white light...

So in the first film I made today there is some playing with these ideas... of red, blue and green light and the shadows...

What is really interesting when you play with light like this is that when you move the red light it is not the red shadow that moves but the green one... this could be a great stimulus for children to think about why this is the case... they can present their theories and why they think this...

here is a film showing how you can do this experiment on a bigger scale (I was just using torches/flashlights with coloured plastic over them) - my next investment would be the lamps as in the below film

In the next film... it explains why the shadows are different colours... and why they are not the colour that you would maybe first expect...

The local lake where I live has been a source of lots of inspiration... to slow down and notice the small things, and to appreciate what nature has to offer...
I also think nature can inspire our experiments inside (and outside)
For instance I love watching how the light reflects off the lake and creates patterns on the trees surrounding the lake, and overhanging the water... the ripples in the lake caused by the wind, and also the movement of fish (as was the case today... in some places it looked like the water was boiling because the fish were feeding off the seeds falling from some of the trees.

I am thinking trying out the same experiment another time but with a less reflective tray to contain the water... to see how this will impacts the reflection on the wall. I am also interested in floating other things on the surface too, including oil.
The great thing with the water and light play is that there is so much science and learning happening at the same time... not just about light, but also about floating, about the impact of movement, of wind...
could the tray be put on a speaker so that sound can create waves?

I think if I was working with very young children I would set this up as a usual water play session but change the lighting so that it created patterns on the wall to see how the children react... do they notice the patterns... does this change their way of playing and pouring things?
I would select the materials for pouring and floating carefully to be a part of the shadow making, with transparent, opaque and solid materials...
I think most children will want to experience the water first... so this is not an experiment I would try with children as their first contact with water for a while... it would be an experiment that has context... either we had noticed the reflections outside on the lake together and decided together to recreate them back at the preschool, or it would be a development of their water play...

Playing with prisms

I have been avoiding the heat of the sun here in Sweden and been playing in the dark again - this time with prisms

here is a short film from the first play session

I think if I had made the room even darker it would have been more effect-full...  but even in semi darkness it was fascinating... and obviously good for children who are afraid of the dark, so they can participate without dealing with fear...

To learn more about prisms... and some experiments you can do... finding the colours, understanding that it is the white light that IS the colours, and how to turn the rainbow back into white light... then watch the film below...

This film is intended for you as an adult to learn more about prims and to feel more assured when playing with rainbows and prisms...
each raindrop acts like a mini prism

If you prefer to watch something in Swedish about prisms, then check out the film after...
the film is designed for children... but is still useful for adults too...

Hope you have fun playing with prisms and rainbows...

Layers of Colour

When I am in Athens next year to be a keynote speaker where I will be talking about play learning and the very youngest preschoolers I will also be presenting a workshop on play - with a focus on light and shadow, similar to workshops I held this year in Jenin, Palestine.
But at the moment I am collecting ideas, testing out the ideas and developing them - so that the play-workshop in Athens can push our play and imagination a little further...
Here is a short film of today's testing...
I have an idea of layering colours to create shadows... and this was my first test to see how we can create temporary art installations... and I want movement to be a part of this also.

This activity can easily be connected to Mondrian if you add strips of solid material/black card or frames and hang them between/round the cellaphane to create the Mondrian look
In this link you can see some Mondrian inspiration in the Hague... including coloured shadows...
Mondrian art on buildings in the Hague

This is of course just the first test of an idea which is slightly more complex in my mind, but I just wanted to see if it would work, and how it would work, to think out how to develop it further...

Outside light and shadow play... with colour...

Yesterday I played with light inside... today I took the materials and a few more outside to see how it would work.

Here is a short film and then afterwards some images with reflections...

Things did not blow around quite as much as I was expecting, but it was not such a windy day and I was in a nice sheltered spot too. But the material need to be weighed down... the attempt att experimenting with the balloon and trying to take photographs was impossible on my own... that thing just wanted to fly!

a mixture of materials - a white surface made it easier to see... I experimented with different coloured paper too, but for some reason did not take photos.. too busy playing I guess

using a mirror to reflect the light... I was wondering whether I could bend a shadow, but I was not able to see that as it got so bright from the reflection...

but extra colour shadows appeared

when empty and the bowl was upright a lot of details came in the shadow... but when you put it upside down or put another one on top (to create a ball) the details went. I think maybe if I did this earlier in the morning when the sun was lower the shadows would have been different...

found a little rainbow in the middle of it all...

drawing on a see through umbrella with a chalk pen... this means it can easily be wiped off. This was hard to do alone as the umbrella wanted to do a Mary Poppins thimg and fly off... so I could draw and experiment but I could not take photos that really showed how the drawings on the umbrella made shadows... it could be fun with paints - not just to create shadows but also if a child held it inside another could paint on the outside... would be fun to watch.

recreated my indoor build outside. It blew down twice during the whole session, which really was not so bad, all considering, and they did not blow far. BUT if it is windy outside these small glasses will fly. You could always fill them with water and stack them... or even ice on a hot day...

the glass beads worked well... of course square ones stack... the round ones I had to hold on their side to make decent colours on the ground

I could change the colour of the plastic serviette ring... depending on what colour I ut behind...

I was fascinated by the size difference of the same cup depending on which direction it was standing... I would love to ask young children what their theories are about this and why they think that...

colour mixing in different ways

mirror play

more mirror play... I was trying to see how many shadows I could see... I got three... would have been handy with an assistant for this bit... as the mirrors kept falling... or that I had taken more heavy things outside for the mirrors to lean against.

as I was starting to tidy up I noticed that the shadow on my silver bag was of a total different quality... so I just had to play a little more...

details were easier to see on the more smooth surface - now when I placed a bowl inside a bowl I could see it more clearly...  The above shows three bowls, not two.

then I started playing with the colour paddles... even drawing faces on them with the chalk pen, which was easy to rub off and draw something new on. A short film of that will be posted on my instagram and facebook page later...

and I will leave you with a last colour mix...

David Hawkins - Messing about

you need to actually play in order to understand play.

Sunshine and colours

Here is a new film I have made...

it is simply me playing with the sunlight .... again!
Messing about with mixing colours, patterns, construction, creating shadows, using movement to see what would happen. Getting some fabric and exploring different ways of using that as a backdrop... not all my film clips are included in this short... but enough to hopefully inspire you to get playing..

Och så på svenska...

en liten film där jag leka med solljus och färg. Småplast glas från "The Flying Tiger".
Jag hoppas att solen skiner imorgon eftersom jag vill gärna experimentera med olika färg underlag - papper och tyg... samt kanske några speglar....


Messing about: David Hawkins.
To understand play... we must play.

From play to learning...

So today here in Palestine, the advanced group has been reflecting on the play we have been doing all week with light and shadows and analysing it to discover what we have been learning... and with this knowledge we have written plans...

pointing out that these plans are not about how to make learning fun, but about allowing the educators to better understand the learning that occurs in play... so that when they offer play situations, or offer certain materials they have an understanding of the learning potential.
This means that the educator can better observe the children with an open mind... knowing that there can be many avenues of learning that the children might focus on, instead of having an agenda and steering the children into a specific form of learning.

Understanding the play... and combining this with their knowledge of the children - as individuals and as a group (through their observations over time) they can then make decisions that might allow certain learning areas a better chance than others...
for example
The light and shadow play might be used as a tool for helping children overcome their fear of the dark... then it might be a good idea to have small groups in order to adequately support the children to self regulate and learn to enjoy the joy of play even in the dark... OR it might be that there is a desire for the children to use their collaboration skills and negotiation skills... and therefore a larger group is used to expose the children to a possible social chaos - the educator supporting the children... the educator will also know how large this group should be to create a manageable chaos for the children to negotiate... learning will not happen if it becomes overwhelming.
Also what combination of materials are put out will affect what potential learning naturally occurs in the play... setting up things for shadow theatre is more likely to support language and literacy on a higher level than math... I say more likely, because children can often surprise us with what they learning.

We also took the time to explore how the play/learning could be extended - what extra materials could be added, how would different locations impact - introducing new facts, how would that impact the play... asking specific questions such as "Does light travel? How does it travel?" to get the children thinking on a more abstract level... and also to fuel the imagination... allowing the children to come up with their own theories and these theories being the basis of future learning, future experiments and future play possibilities...
it is important that we do not just have a series of amazing events that look cool online when shared, or that the parents will be impressed by... there needs to be time to reflect and to return to the same play in new ways... and also in the same way sometimes.  A series of cool events means the children just get to see the tip of the ice-berg all the time and not discover all that is hidden beneath the sea...
By thinking up a long list of possible extensions it allows the educator to be open to the possibility of any direction the children might take them. If during the introduction play of shadow and light the children show most fascination for making stories... then maybe a shadow theatre is the next step... if the children are more interested in how light works, then maybe reflections and sorting materials into opaque, translucent and transparent... if more interested in making the shadows large and small then maybe the opportunity to take in pens and start drawing around the shadows and measuring them... or checking how the sun creates larger shadows in the morning than at midday... this in turn will lead to new discoveries and new possible extensions...
And the time being open to the possibility of discovery new extensions, new materials and new possibilities to add to that list, so that in the future your planning resource becomes a better and richer support.

extending the learning... session 1 - light and shadow with torches and blocks and loose parts, free play. Session 2... with the instruction of creating scenes for a story - linking the shadow play to story telling, art and language. Session 3 introducing coloured light, mirrors and on a larger scale. Session 4 outside using natural light.
If I had more time I would allowed hands-on learning for some of the extensions they thought of... to see how they work in action.

Illustrating learning and play

Today will just be a brief post... because I have been busy all day and I need to rest... but I promised myself a post a day... even if it was just a short one.

Yesterday I wrote a children's story based in Jenin with the idea of introducing magic, imagination and also points of learning...

I read the story today to the advanced group and then with their shadow playing skills from Tuesday they were asked to illustrate the story in six scenes.
First they needed to agree on which scenes from the story should be illustrated, and then each chose a scene.

I provided materials for them to choose and they explored light and shadows again to create the illustrations, which we then took photos of.

Afterwards we explored the learning... but also how this one story could offer months and months of exploration... I helped them break down each scene into science and geography explorations... into philosophical inquiries, into art projects and biological investigations - as well as language and literacy and math... we basically had the curriculum covered...

It is always so much fun to see how much learning and play can be found in a story - and my illustrating the story they found further learning and play  potential.

It is unlikely you will be able to work out "our" story from these images... but maybe you could make another story?

Let there be light

Today was my second workshop... this time with the educators taking the advanced course... so these are the educators I worked with last year and also visited Sweden... the aim is to continue the learning journey.

We started the session by discussing what had been happening between last August when I saw them in Stockholm and today..
it was great to hear that they and parents had noticed differences... the children were more calm, more focussed and more creative... although there are still many parents who are pushing for the traditional academic approach instead of this play approach...

The educators had a greater appreciation of the potential of all materials - junk was no longer merely junk but a possible tool of learning through play.

Our main dialogue was about how could we support the parents who wanted the traditional academic approach to value the play approach... and by the end of the session we discovered that this could be done through us playing and analysing the play, and also by creating plans where we created play opportunities for the children and broke it down into the learning areas by curriculum, the learning aims of the play and how the play and learning could be extended through further experiences. This would definitely help parents to understand and connect the learning to the play and value it in another way.
It is also why we play first and analyse the play first so that the educators understand that there is learning in the play and not that we are making learning playful/fun.
The aim is also for the educators to hold play workshops for parents so that they can try this out for themselves too... so on saturday we will have a full day of messing about with materials and then exploring the learning as a way to support them how to do this with parents.

Today our hands on learning was an introduction to light and shadows... there was no purpose other than to explore... as next time we will play with the shadows and light in a more intentional way. First is the idea that the learners must feel comfortable with the medium.

The above film is an exploration of light on the ceiling as you can see....
OK I was going to upload lots of films about today... but I see that it is taking too much time to process a film... so what I will do is put a film together and connect it to Youtube... this might mean waiting until I get back to Sweden to share all the films I am making... but sadly my internet connection is just not allowing me to upload things... I keep trying... so you never know I might manage before then
I am putting together a series of 3 minute films about Jenin through the lens of early childhood education... I will let you know as soon as I am successful with sharing them...

so instead of films... here are some images of today's light exploration - session one.

shadow size, movement... to working out that this would be a great way to talk about how the sun moves in the sky and creates shadows in the city...

more shadow and construction exploration... with a light background

using plastic with permanent markers to draw details

using sticks to create criss cross patterns

drawing on plastic to create shadows (this i laminate without paper inside)

shining a torch through a plastic bag onto the ceiling

nature materials and storytelling (the storytelling is more apparent in the films... when you get to see those eventually)

experimenting with light, movement and photos

Next time we will play with light more... I will introduce more materials to experiment with and will connect to storytelling in different ways...

We will also make an activity/play plan based on this experience.

This post comes to you with the sound of guns in the background... not that you can hear them... but I have for the last 20 minutes... its a different reality than my usual one.

The same activity a different reaction

I have been helping out a few days a week at a local preschool...

The other week I shared a blogpost about the space project sensory play... where images were projected onto the wall (using translucent fabric to capture the images before reaching the wall and thus allowing the children to feel as is they were in space - OK with a bit of imagination!!!).
I did this with the group of children that I have been helping out with since September - I have got to know these children, we have created a relationship, they know my limits and my expectations.

I arrived at the preschool last wee and was told that I would not be working with the same group as usual, but that the parallel group wanted to  experience space in the same way. I had zero time to prepare... this will affect the outcome - I did not know the children in the same way (although the children like and trust me, which is an important start) - I did not have the memory stick with all the space images that i had downloaded in preparation - images that had been carefully selected from what I had learned from the children - what they knew, what they were interested in and images that would surprise them and offer them new areas of learning in their play. It meant I had to quickly download  some images in a space of 10 minutes that could be projected (working out the computers at the setting rather than my own computer which I am much faster at).

The activity was also at the disadvantage that we as educators had not talked with each other about how the rhythm of the morning would flow - which I believe is essential.

And finally it became clear that this was a group of children that had huge problems with listening - listening to instructions to find out what was going on, listening to each other (and therefore respecting each other's limits) and even listening to themselves of understanding what they themselves wanted... it meant they had a very short concentration span.

So despite the children coming in as small groups they all seemed to experience the space light sensory on a very individual front with minimal interaction... yes they could inspire each other to test things out, but they did not engage in social play in the same way the previous group of children had.

Of course the fact that it was all very last minute could have had a huge impact. BOTH groups have children that are in need of a support teacher being in the group to enable the social functioning of play - but in this second group there were almost half the children that did not listen to the adult or anyone else - and for me this presents a problem...

Children cannot be empowered if they are not listening - they miss out on important information, they get themselves into situations that negatively impact others and then refuse to listen to their peers when there is outrage... The whole group is not functioning optimally if there are so many that refuse to listen to other, that refuse to respect others, that are unable to see the social boundaries that allow us to interact positively with each other. They are able to see injustices against themselves but feel entitled to do the same thing to others and run off laughing.

To be honest, there needs to be a whole load of work being done before we get to this kind of play with the expectation that there will be a social play of the usual kind... the play is younger than what it should be in the sense it was side by side as the youngest children at preschool - rather than the 3-5 year olds that this involved (although these are still young children). The play was immature.
The play for children is always in the place where the children are... what I have to do as a teacher is shift where I am to support the children develop their play and to learn more form it...

This is why it is so important to get to know the children you work with... their interests, their needs... so that the play, the activities, the experiences that are being offered not only challenge them appropriately, but support their development - and also so that you as an educator know what to expect (even though children can always surprise you).

It means changing the environment to meet the need of the children - adapting activities - and changing your own perspective.
Since I started at the preschool there have been a lot of changes in the environment - a lot to do with the fact they have children that easily get over stimulated and the setting is designed like a giant corridor where parents and teachers and children have to walk through the entire preschool to get from one department to another (I really wonder what goes through a designer's head when they think this sort of preschool model design is a good idea... it is not... I have yet to meet a teacher that says this sort of design is anything but terrible - as they attempt to engage the children as others march by and disrupt on their way to going outside - not their fault, they are just being children. BUT if you are a designer and are reading this PLEASE don't make preschools where a class has to walk through another room where children are learning and playing just to get outside or inside - make corridors that go by the learning spaces instead!!!!).

I think as educators we need to start with the children, of enabling them to communicate with each other and to really listen and respect each other... because then the play and learning will happen on a deeper and richer level. It does not mean that you should not be doing fabulous experiences, it simply means you need to be aware of what the potential outcomes might be if you want the children to engage in complex play before they are ready for it... we have to learn to crawl walk before we run - it is the same with play.

the children did start building - but only two of them were truly engaged - unlike the previous group where all were interested in testing and trying out in their own ways and together

exploring shadows... it took more work from me to engage the children this time round

last time the children went looking for more materials to test out... this time the children were not as interested... this is fine, not all children need to be interested, BUT had I known the children better I would have been better equipped to provide materials that would have sparked their interest.

Experiencing the universe...

This is a just a quick post to share some images from this week...
I am helping out some days at a local preschool on the days that I am not writing or travelling to Gävle...
The preschool has a space project happening at the moment... so the two days I was there this week I took in some of my materials for the children to experience a sensory approach to space...

The first session the children got to play with small lights, loose parts and coloured rice on a tray I brought back from Palestine (it is big with large sides, so perfect for sensory play on a small scale). The children were engrossed in the play... exploring how light went round planets from what they have already learned about space - but mostly it was about feeling the rice, experimenting with the lights and interacting with the materials... it was about filling and emptying and not so much about designing patterns... but I also think this indicates what their needs are right now... they have a hunger for sensory play. The play was peaceful, the children talked with each other, and it was enthusiastic... peaceful in the sense that they were able to sort out differences through their words (and well chosen words) rather than using their bodies...

Today I hung up two semi-transparent curtains with a small space in between so that I could project images of space onto it... going through the first then the second and then onto the wall... each layer also displaying the image projected... it gave the feel of being in space. I put a big mirror on the floor too, in order to give it a more infinite sort of feel. I would have liked the room to have been darker to get a bigger impact of being in space... so maybe waiting to do this in the afternoon would be better - as it is dark by 15:20 here in Stockholm at the moment (it will be earlier than that before long!)

The children came in groups of four to be able to explore the experience... and once they had the chance to do this they could come back and start using construction materials to create a space station... the images being caught on the materials... the shadows found themselves in outer space.

Enjoy the photos and films...

spreading out the coloured rice... blue and black...

experimenting with light

light from the bottom

light from the top

the rice was out of date... I had bought it for my daughter over a year ago... cheap rice for her student days... but being a family of rice snobs this was not yummy rice and she did not like it all, so she let it just sit at her student home... I rescued it and it is now being used for a much needed sensory activity

glass beads and light exploration

some of the loose parts that could be used

experimenting with light and movement

The next session

the set up

one of the teachers needed to test to it too!

we dressed a duplo figure (female one) as an astronaut... using silver tape