In
my centre after morning tea the children are given the option to go outside or
stay inside and do a creative art activity. Many of the children enjoy painting
for their art. For messy free play a lot of the time the children are given the opportunity to explore and create
with paint. I asked the children what colours of paint they wanted to use and
what colour paper they wanted to use. The children felt engrossed with this
opportunity as they were slapping the paint with their hands onto the paper.
They were mixing colours by moving, rubbing and squeezing their hands together
as they were enjoying the textures. The children got really excited when they
realised that by mixing the different colours together, they created new
ones. I noticed that the children’s
approach changed in a positive way as they purposefully started creating new
colours and telling me about their experience, what it might be and what they
did with their hands, paint or what they had actually created when they had
finished exploring with their pictures.
By giving the children the choice in paint colours, this enabled them
to make choices for themselves and become more independent. Paint is not
digital technology, however I believe paint enables open and exciting
opportunities to create and explore. Using their senses and motor skills and
being able to interact with roles models such as; myself, other teacher, and more
experiences peers and being able to participate successfully by freedom of
choice (Isenberg & Jalongo, 2009). “It is the doing that is important,
rather than the product” (Smorti, 1999, p. 6). Through positive painting
experiences, I believe children can learn a range of different skills. All the
skills being acquired and practices support the various elements of development
such as; cognitive, social, language and hand-eye co-ordination (Somerset,
2000). Children learn working theories in spatial awareness through knowing how
things can be moved in space and ways in which spatial information can be
represented (Ministry of Education, 1996). The children all sat around a table
next to each other. The children had their own piece of A4 paper each and they
know that they can only do art work to the extent of their paper to ensure that
they do not upset other children or perhaps ruin other peers art work. Using
paint as a technological tools allows for children’s individual graphics and other
forms of visual representations to
be embraced as it offers important tools for exploration and communication (The
Ministry of Education, 2007). Through creative thought and development children
create a world of their own or rather rearranges the things in their world in
new ways which suits or pleases them, through any form (Isenberg, &
Jalongo, 2009).
I learnt that children get a joyful experience out of doing painting as
they learn through; laughing, creating, socializing, experimenting and becoming
freely and actively involved. Te Whāriki, (1996), explains that children gain
familiarity with different properties and materials and technology which is
used in the creative and expressive arts as they are entitled to learning
different ways of being creative and expressive. The children are being given
an opportunity to learn next to one other and socially interact with them and
myself as the teacher. I am freely available to be able to ask open-ended
questions and be able to answer their questions in return. As a teacher I am, “offering a variety
of contexts, teachers help their students to recognise links and develop
generic understandings” (Ministry of Education, 2007, p. 32). Vygotsky
describes the zone of proximal development, which is where “the teacher or more
competent peer can provide assistance so that a child can move beyond the level
that could be reached on his/her own” (Isenberg, & Jalongo, 2009, p.112).
Project work offers children different opportunities to explore concepts and be able to follow their own interests fuelled
by their natural curiosity and motivation (Clark, 2007).
Reference list.
Clark,
A. (2007). Changing classroom practice to include the project approach. ERCP, 8 (2), 1- 10.
Isenberg, J.,
& Jalongo, M. (2009). Creative thinking and arts-based learning:
Preschool through fourth grade (5th
ed.). Columbus Ohio, United States of America: Pearson.
Ministry of Education.
(1996). Te Whāriki: He whāriki mātauranga
mō ngā mokopuna o Aotearoa : Early
childhood curriculum. Wellington, New Zealand: Learning Media.
Ministry of Education.
(2007). The New Zealand curriculum.
Wellington, New Zealand: Learning Media.
Smorti, S. (1999) Technology in Early Childhood. Early Education, 19, 5-10.
Kia Ora Monique
ReplyDeleteI like how you explained about, how the children in your centre explore with paint, I am assuming the children you teach are in the sensory development stage. Sensorimotor Play is a type of play that focuses on the body and has direct links to the brain; this includes exploring, manipulating, using movement and feeling the senses (Gonzalez-Mena, 2008). I like how you give the children options in choosing their colours, they would like to use, as well what colour paper they would like. To me this is allowing children to acquire their knowledge of certain colours as well develop their confidence in language and sense of contribution to their learning experience (Ministry of Education, 1996).
Kia Ora Monique,
ReplyDeleteI love that you have explored the topic of painting at your centre. painting is one of my favourite activities and I love seeing the finished product that emerges from allowing the children to explore without much, if any, input from teachers thus allowing and enabling the children to “take increasing responsibility for their own learning and care” (Ministry of Education, 1996, p.40). I think that it is great that you have given the children the opportunity to choose the colours of paint they want to use. I also find it interesting that you have touched on the fact that through providing the children with a piece of a4 paper they are learning about the importance of spatial awareness as I find this is important for children of all ages, but especially, if you are working with infants and toddlers as they are busy trying to affirm themselves as individuals in the world (Ministry of Education, 1996).
Kia Ora Monique
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad that you decided to look at paint as technology. This really excites me as it is hard for me to believe that paint could be classified as technology. I am really happy to read that you allow your children to get messy with the paint, by feeling it and allowing them to use their hands as the brushes. Messy play like this is a great way for children to explore paint as technology as they are experimenting different textures and trying to make sense of the things that make up their world (ministry of education, 2007). one thing that I loved reading too was how much the children loved mixing the colours. this brings in a new and exciting concept for them as they figure out what colours you can mix together to get the common ones (Carmon, j, 2005). I myself see paint as an important resource as it provides children with many opportunities to express and explore the wold for themselves.
Well done on all your blogs Mon I can see that you really understand technology and how it links to the world around us. Tumeke
Katie
Kia Ora Mon!
ReplyDeleteI love seeing messy play in centres and it is great to see you using a popular form of messy play in your creative art experiences. I really like how you allowed the children choice in deciding the path their creative experience would take; you allowed them the choice of their resources which gives them a sense of responsibility towards their own learning (Ministry of Education, 1996). I fully agree with you that "it is the doing that is important, rather than the product" (Smorti, 1999, p. 6). I feel that children learn a great deal more from the doing rather examining their final product. I love how you allowed the children to explore the paint using their hands and you did not control or take over the creative art experiences. You allowed the children to develop their own exploration and reasoning strategies as they followed through on their curiosity (Ministry of Education, 1996). You could possibly extend the children's learning by adding salt or sand to the paint mixture to give it a new texture for the children to explore.