sensory materials - coloured sand

As the preschool I work at, Filosofiska, sponsors children to attend school, linked with Filosofiska in Nepal, I think often about how they could do the same sort of activities as us over there...

I believe that sensory play offers children a gateway to all sorts of learning - and many of the sensory activities we have at preschool use food of one sort or another - flour, salt and oil to make play-dough, coloured rice, oats, beans, pasta etc etc - but since for many children in Nepal food is not something to play with, as there is not ENOUGH food... so I have been on a mission to work out sensory materials that can be found, but are STILL a little different and tickle the senses!

Today we were at the beach and Michael, my son, was delighting in the the sand with his bare feet - so we collected some to take home with us. I sifted the sand to get rid of the small stones and other rubbish... I then used some food colouring to create red, green and black sand - as you see the original sand was quite grey.

The sand could be used on trays with fingers or brushes to create letters and pictures just like this image of salt, coloured green, mixed with glitter...

 It could also be used to create art by gluing it onto card or paper, or just in a big box with cars and trucks, or figures of animals or dinosaurs - hiding the figures, making tracks etc etc... or mixed with water to create a kind of coloured mud - and experiments to see how the colour would change as the sands got mixed together. It did not require so much food colouring to create a difference...

So should I ever find myself on my way to Nepal, or any other country where foodstuffs are simply not an option as sensory materials - I will remember to pack a variety of food-colouring with me...

ice-cream spoons... and ice-cream play-dough

With BIG thanks to Nicole at STIKKINIKKI we now have many many beautiful spoons (maybe not beautiful for our environment - but now they are washed these spoons can be recycled and upcycled).

PLENTY to test - not just to sort by colour, but also just to move around in the box and make a good old noise... I have an idea for an art project, but I am going to chat with the children first before we dive into that... and my mind is thinking glue gun too...

I have seen "ice-cream dough" online - the latest by Ghost Writer Mummy, which I posted on my FB-page. Being more aware of children with eczema these days I wanted to see if I could make it a bit more friendly for children with skin issues... so this dough is mixed with rice-flour (I was fresh out of cornflour, so I thought I would give rice flour a go - its a bit more grainy than cornflour, but it does add to the sensory experience, I mixed it with handcream which had a coconut smell - I am now thinking along the lines of mixing it with coconut oil for an even kinder and more natural experience - that would EVEN be OK to eat.... not that you would want to though... It was quite messy to mix, but once it was a good firm combination it felt really nice and formed well..

it also looked lovely with the ice-cream spoons - toy could smooth it out, or pull it apart - or just stick them in as decoration...
Now I just need to think of how to make a fake sauce - I know coloured rice makes great sprinkles - and as the rice mixes with the dough it will create a new sensory experience....
looking forward to testing it out at work - my children at home LOVE it already....

Art, children, reflection, children... everyone?

Today we have visited Färgfabriken (The Colour Factory) with five of our children to experience some prototypes for an art exhibition for VERY young children...

There were strict instructions - that we teachers should become "invisible" to allow the children to experience the art "their way". The concept (as I have interpreted it) is to see how children view art - are adults adapting art to make it "child-friendly"? Does art need to be simplified for art to comprehensive to children...

I think that one of the main things that I have come away from this experience is that maybe this is not about children... maybe in reality children NEVER have an issue with art, or their ability to interpret the art... but that it is the adults that have a problem...
The more I observe children the more I see that they can take delight in just about EVERYTHING - and given the chance they can reflect and imagine in just about EVERYTHING... the problem comes as they grow up - as Picasso says "all children are artists. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up"... so my reflection is... maybe this is an exhibition for adults THROUGH children - yes it is the children that access the art, that experience the art, that play with the art... but this allows the adults accompanying them an opportunity to access art in a different way. Sometimes I think art is made inaccessible...

I remember HATING modern art - I just didn't get it... now I view it in a different way (although there is some I STILL just don't get) - now I view possibilities from a child's perspective - I have abandoned my adult eyes and see it through new eyes... through possibilities to recreate new stories through the hands and hearts of young children... modern art is SO forgiving in that sense, it really can be just ANYTHING.

A week ago I ended up in a discussion about art with a friend (who has artist friends) and I was somewhat shocked about the snobbery in the art world (I have now viewed art through children's eyes for such a long time... with wonder and amazement with fantasy and stories and with imagination...) - but to hear that in the art world there are those who say unless you exhibit in certain galleries you are not a serious artist - it is just snobbery beyond belief - and for me is NOT art (although a part of it)... sometimes I feel that art has lost it's soul... as its not representing the artist, but the artist is trying to be as tricky as possible... "how can I be complicated  - how can I appear intellectual?"... don't get me wrong, I like art that makes you think... but do we have to think HARD all the time? Can't we just feel?
So somehow I think that this art experience... this prototype might just allow us the chance to FEEL art again - to not only give children the confidence to enjoy art, but more importantly be a gateway for adults to open for their children to the arts... by allowing the adults to see their children appreciate art, to hear their appreciation, to hear their interpretations, might be the key to children remaining artists until adulthood.?

this was the very first thing that greeted the two 3.5 year olds that I was with (3x 2.5 year olds were in the other group) - this eyeball moved in the jar, it made a sound - and the sound and the movement definitely caught your attention. I did as I was asked - and made my self as invisible as possible - so I was somewhat surprised at how much the artist was involved in the children's experience - but there again this was HIS first experience with young children (which makes for a VERY exciting recipe of ideas)... in a sense there was too much eagerness to show everything and not enough of a pause to allow the children to see and to move to each item in the room - especially when some of them were a little frightening... In the end I interfered with the eyeball - I had to point out the sound "listen... what does it remind you of" "the underground train" was the reply - and yes I could understand that, there was a rhythm that certainly reminded you of a train... eventually the eyeball was taken out of the jar and allowed to roll around the floor - now THAT was really exciting - not only from the point of view of the eyeball's unpredictability but also fro a teacher's point of view of watching how these children interacted with each other... The eyeball was VERY hard to get in and out of the jar - so not something a child would do on their own.... I was also fascinated by the fact that neither of the children had picked up the jar before the artist himself did...

the same was for the case of these hands with ears (on the photo you cannot see the ears)... when I walked into the room my first feeling about the hands were that they were a little creepy, and that they looked far too fragile for young hands... Neither of the children were keen on approaching these hands and the artist encouraged them to touch them ("you first" said one of the children). The artist picked up the hand and allowed the children a closer look....
later, one of the children picked up one of the hands as the artist did, and dropped it, breaking 2 of the fingers clean off (at this stage I have to admit I was GREATLY relieved by the fact that I was supposed to be invisible - and that in a way that my gut feeling about the hands had been right). The child tried to repair the finger back onto the hands - calmly, but interested in the process, trying to work out which finger belonged where... the artist responded that "it doesn't matter"... this I have reflected upon all day and I find I simply cannot reconcile with it... it was not OK, the child WANTED to repair the hand, she felt responsibility, and I felt that this was a GOOD thing - perhaps by saying that it didn't matter we feel as adults we are not harming the child's self -esteem - but what message are we sending "its OK to break other people's things"? I hardly think that this is the message we want to send... WHAT IF this hand IS used in the final exhibition (and it can be mass produced) what about having a station for "broken hands" that if hands get broken the children can take them to  a place to try and fix them - different materials can be at "hand" to do this... then there could be a table/stage for all the broken hands that maybe grows over time and becomes its own piece of artwork... what would this story tell us? When I started thinking about this it made me think of Etruscan medical votives (OK way back in the day I did a degree in history and ancient history - and the Etruscans were one area I focused on!!)

here is an image of the Etruscan votives - images of a body part that the Etruscans wished to be healed, left at the temple with a small offering... if you ever have the chance to look at this artwork you will also notice there are an awful lot of wombs (fertility obviously being high on the priority list)

it took a long while for the children to move to the hair that could be moved up and down, but once they saw they could control it they were all into it... It moved and flowed wonderfully, made me want to have a hairdryer or a fan and to be able to blow the hair in different directions, to see it flow. This was not the only hairy item in the room... both hairy items did not attract the children at all - which made me think of the number of children I have met over the years that have been afraid of beards... is it the fact that you don't know what is behind the hair that makes it scary? Is this something that could be used as part of the art?

here is the other hairy item... a mouth - or a... well my mind saw something completely different... The child behind is squeezing a bottle connected to a tube that connects to the work of art - which causes the "mouth" to exhale. I could see that both squeezing the bottle and feeling the puffs of air coming out were fun... but personally I just did not like how it looked, I think this was the piece of art I understood the least today... IT was though a great way to see children taking turns....

mirrors with this age are just brilliant - they LOVED looking at their distorted reflections and laughed and laughed.

Then it was time to leave the first room and go into the second room with another artist. I don't have an image of the first part as it was just too dark. BUT after allowing the children to simply experience the BIG echoing room the children were then ready to look at her things...
The first thing to look at was a big sheet of white material hanging - and a small hole in the window was left open, EVERYTHING else in the room was blacked out... this meant that onto the material an image outside was projected - the children were calm, they were, for the first time, able to reflect on what they were seeing. They talked about turtles and a balloon (the image was of a balloon in a tree) . On our way back to the preschool we were reminded to look for the ballon and the tree - which we found of course...

next we went to a kaleidascope (for want of a better word) where the children could go inside and experience the light and the reflections in the mirrors - as all the walls were mirrors. At first we were in there together the children, the artist and myself ... the children noticed there were many people in there - many of everyone, they mentioned the patterns and made reference to "twinkle twinkle little star" - but it was hard to focus - they were laughing giggling and tickling each other...
we adults left the space and through the crack I could see there was more exploration of the mirrors... but one of the children repeatedly opened the door to see if I was still there. So I became "visible" again and said that I wasn't going anywhere and would remain just outside while they were inside. BUT the door-opening continued, but now it felt different - now it felt more of a control thing... the sense that she could open and close the door and decide when I was allowed to see her or not... in the sense it felt like the other room... not so much experiencing but testing the limits of control, testing and trying out how they affect the world around them... these are just as valid responses as those of watching and experiencing - BUT I think it is harder for parents to accept this - to allow their children to test test test when there is a sort of expectation that they should be experiencing and reflecting... maybe for these three year olds (and many other like them) there needs to be time to just test and be a part of - and to later have a time to sit and reflect - may be another calm light experience without so much stimulus for reflection to occur? OR simply a table to sit around to talk... ooo imagine a table with a screen in the middle that could have images of what they have just seen and experienced to aid their memories and deepen their reflection...

on top of the mirror room was this sort of light projected and moving, reflecting in all the mirrors.

The final piece to see was light being reflected by a mirror so that the children could chase (it felt like watching kittens) but they both laughed with great delight

every once in a while it paused long enough to put their foot on it

they also got the chance to try using the mirror themselves - not so easy when you don't really understand the principal behind it - but it is a great lesson for learning it....

on the way back to preschool on of the children noticed that her shoes made light reflections - and I helped her to link up with what she had done with the mirror.

It was a very interesting morning. When we asked what the most interesting part of the morning had been - there was the reply of the underground train that had taken us there...
to me this simply signals that children see art and appreciate life in completely different ways that what we adults do... (I also reflected on this during the afternoon when we were creating art with stones, shells and pine-cones  on some material; the pinecones were not what I would call attractive - they were munched on, squashed and in general not the finest cone specimens ever - but they had been collected by the children and they considered them beautiful... which makes me think, how much are we restricting children by imposing our own values of beauty upon them?) I  do think that an exhibition of this kind allows parents to allow their children to explore art more - it also allows children to open a door to the arts to adults that might have forgotten about it or felt it beyond their reach... this I feel can allow children to maintain their own artistic feelings for longer by being surrounded by adults that support and encourage them to explore, and will explore with them, and not because they feel obliged to, but because of their own new interest in it...

or maybe I am reading too much into this...?

pedagogical philosophies and methods

Why is it that when you are just about to drop off to sleep you think of the perfect things to write, but you are just too tired to get up and write them down... and then the next day you simply cannot remember that turn of phrase and how ideas linked together...

Anyway I was thinking about writing about schemas and how looking at the patterns of the children's interests can support what activities to provide... for example a child in the middle of a transport schema is not going to be able to learn maths by sitting down... but if the maths is provided by allowing the child to deliver a certain number of blocks across the room and work our how many blocks remain in the wagon/pram/trolley then we are helping the child and supporting the learning in a more meaningful way...

BUT I realised that I do not follow schemas THAT in depth - that in fact I find I do not follow any philosophy or method "in depth"... and this is what I got thinking about last night (I will though get round to schemas one day...)

I have found that I prefer to learn about all sorts of different methods and different philosophies and have them in my "rucksack" waiting for the right moment, the right situation for them to be pulled out and used ...

I want my focus to be the CHILD - and if I put my focus into the method or the philosophy then the child is no longer the focus...

Methods and philosophies are there to guide us, to use as tools so that we can scaffold the child. Maybe it is because I am looking at the child and not the method/philosophy first that I dared to write about templates as a positive part of children's learning and not as an "evil" - BUT only if used as a tool to support the child and not as a method... if I "hear" a child need templates as a sort of "training wheels" to allow confidence before daring to get truly creative on their own - then this is what I will provide... because daring to be creative is what I want to offer them... and not just to dabble with it, but to feel the freedom to totally immerse themselves in it. I am not for templates at all - I find that the pedagogical philosophy I lean on the most is The Reggio Emilia Approach and for me there is not so much room for templates there... but if I choose to listen to the RE Approach and not the child then I feel I am not doing my job properly...

I like the fact the RE is based on listening ... of which I have written about several time before, linking up listening with Reggio Emilia. Listening is also key to philosophy too, and this is why I am so eager to embrace this new method/technique that allows me to support the children by listening to them and supporting them to listen to each other... as well as to express their own ideas and opinions and to learn to see that everyone can have a different perspective...

There are some amazing pedagogical methods and philosophies to read about, to try and are being used around the world... I just hope that these methods do not restrict a pedagogues ability to see the child...
I found I could not work in a Montessori preschool because I was not allowed to follow the children with their need to explore the mats as stepping stones (they were work surfaces only) and that the routines were too arranged by the teacher and not flexible enough (in my eyes)... there are MANY parts of the Montessori method that I think are absolutely wonderful, and I have used the inspiration I gained by working at a Montessori preschool ever since... when the child/ren require it.

As well as RE, Montessori and Schemas I take inspiration from other blogs from around the world...
I have read the EYFS and taken inspiration from there
Developmentally Appropriate Practice
High Scope
Heuristic Play and Treasure Baskets
Gender Studies
Head Start
Theories about Play
Mosaic Approach
Brain Development
Steiner-Waldorf
Special Educational Needs/Rights
Te Whariki
Bank Street
Forest Schools
Swedish curriculum

various papers written by aspiring preschool teachers and peer reviewed thinkers of pedagogy and play from both Sweden and abroad

 there are all the individual thinkers throughout history that influence me too...
Malaguzzi of course, but also David Hawkins and Vygotsky, Comenius, Pestalozzi, Fröbel, Dewey, McMillan sisters, Isaacs, Piaget, Skinner, Erikson etc etc etc there are far to many to really list... they have all had their effect one way or another and they have supplied me with a foundation of understanding... how I apply that understanding is through what method or mix of methods I choose...

and if I am paying close attention - if I am truly listening to the child I will know what method will allow the child to bloom...

skipping rope

Look at this fab idea Ellen, one of my colleagues, came up with - using empty bubble containers as skipping rope handles...

bubble containers left over from National Preschool Day celebrations

it does require some drilling - a hole at the bottom of the container suitable for the choice of rope. It is then just to feed the rope through the hole and make a knot or use silver tape, or both to keep it in place

and then its just to replace the lids. If you are worried about the lids being taken off and popped in mouths, then it is to just to get busy with the glue gun... as long as you are observant there are no problems with one year olds using these without glue - learning to open and close the lid is a great fine motor skill opportunity added to the gross motor skill possibilities of the rope...

Fire Fire

When we were in the forest today we discovered a fire that had not been put out properly - there was the risk that it could re-ignite, so we called the fire-brigade

while my colleague went down to meet up with the firefighters some of the children started to immediately process the situation - they walked over the the same spot the original call was made and pretended to call the fire department!

It didn't take long for them to arrive, and one came up to asses the situation - he soon radio-ed his colleagues to bring the fire-engine closer

We watched as the fire-engine drove across the play area to reach the edge of the forest

and up the hill the came to waving children and to be greeted "hello fire-engine" (I think we will be talking about the difference between fire-engines and firefighters in the coming days!)

they started to put out the fire with water and a gardening fork - there was lots of steam and smoke

They then analysed the situation and decided they needed to foam the area as the  heat had travelled deep into the ground - and fire requires just three things - oxygen, fuel and heat - this meant all three ingredients were still present.

so they went down to bring up a hose to foam the area

we could hear the fire engine motor start below as the pressure in the hose started to build up - and then out spurted lots of white foam.

It turned the area into a winter wonderland - but it certainly did not smell like snow - much more bubbly!

we went down the hill and saw how the water ran from under the fire engine crating small rivers on the play area (for ball sports) - these were great fun to jump over and splash in.

Then it was time to say good-bye to the fire engine and the firefighters.
It was a good thing to stay and watch the fire being extinguished - it gave the children the knowledge and understanding that the fire had been put out and that it was safe in the forest.
For some of the children it had been a little scary.
A small book of the day - not unlike this post was created for the children to read and look at in the afternoon - and to show their parents when they were picked up what they had experienced. This also give the parents a better chance to support their children process the experience - should they need to.

Summer Spaghetti Painting - part 1

Four different greens - the green on the right eventually got some black added to it, so that there was more contrast.
A pile of spaghetti and paper.
This is a movement painting - its not just about the spaghetti moving on the paper to create patterns but that the children move to. And to do this they need to cooperate.
At the start the children were trying to work out who was going to have which green - and no matter how many times that I said we are all sharing it took a good 10 minutes before it sank in that four greens would not be enough for five children to have one each... oh, sharing....!
The idea that of not having a fixed place while painting was also another challenge. At first the would not move - they stretched across each other trying to reach the spaghetti, the paint and the paper - eventually working out that if they move around the table it made everything so much easier.
And so the spaghetti dance began.

the spaghetti tap danced across the paper - one of the children noticed the noise and pointed it out to the others... "listen listen... "

the paper slowly filled with colour and movement

Here is the final image of step one. Just greens. Tomorrow we will be observing the colour of flowers when we are outside in the forest... and the spaghetti painting will be continued using the flower colours we find...

afterwards there was time for exploration - to use the paint and the spaghetti - to squeeze it and create new sounds...

and to admire the transformation of hands 

time to create spaghetti burgers, spaghetti cars, spaghetti rain...

time to explore the strength of spaghetti

and their own strength... when does the spaghetti break - is it easier with a few strands or many strands... lots and lots of testing...

and when it came to cleaning up the mix of water and bubbles created a new texture - perfect for writing letters in - loud exclamations of joy as recognisable letter appeared from skating fingers in the mess...

This session was part of the children's choice morning - where we offer two choices - the last few weeks it has simply been inside or outside - this week was the first time we offered specific activities - mostly as we were curious to see if this would influence how the children chose...
Five of the eight children chose to be inside and do the spaghetti painting - three went outside to play with cars and look for snails...
There were 2x two year olds, 2x three year olds and one four year old.
None of the children put the spaghetti anywhere near their mouths - at the start the four year old asked if they could eat the spaghetti - I answered that today the spaghetti was like a paint brush and not meant for eating.
The child that spent the longest time painting was the child my colleague and I had discussed last week as to not painting much and how we could make painting more attractive - I guess we succeeded! The three children who paint the most often were the three that finished first...
One of the children does not like to get messy - and yet during this activity relaxed the messy barrier and enjoyed the process.

This was most definitely a wonderful process with lots of sensory learning and oodles of social learning!

When the painting is complete I will show them some images of painting created by Jackson Pollock - and see if they think there are any similarities...