Cellophane - Friday Group

Choosing large size pieces of cellophane for the first exploration was intentional on my part. The bigger the piece the more it begs for interaction between children. Whether a piece slides by you or is waved in the air, the cellophane grabs your attention. This was the case for an interaction between Kaia and Sebastien. Kaia and Sebastien spend a lot of time together and Kaia usually likes to have whatever Sebastien is playing with and Sebastien is quite agreeable (most of the time) to her requests. In the following pictures the cellophane allows both children to play with one piece at the same time.

Sebastien and Kaia are each independently playing with a piece of cellophane.

Kaia catches Sebastien's yellow piece and lets go of the blue.

Kaia munches on the yellow while Sebastien still has a good grip.

Not pictured is the two of them shaking the yellow cellophane together for some time before Sebastien moved on to another piece. Another great aspect of the large sized pieces is that even if they move out of reach, a few pieces on the ground cover a large area so that a child might be motivated to move to a piece but not frustrated by having to go a good distance to get to the material. As most of the children are just becoming mobile the cellophane becomes an enticing object to reach. This is where Isa found her inspiration but not in the way you would expect. She explored the cellophane as most did, with her hands and mouth but once the novelty wore off she very quickly found the other two children in the group to be far more interesting and she was determined to be near them as they explored the material. Isa was very clever in that she used the cellophane as a guise in which to get close to either Kaia or Sebastien so it would appear that she was exploring the cellophane but she was actually gauging how to interact with the other two children.

Kaia's exploration of the cellophane was especially interesting because Kasey (Kaia's mom) recognized that she was using the new cellophane material to play a familiar game. Whenever Kaia places an item by her ear or the side of her head she is hiding and those who know Kaia usually respond "where's Kaia". The properties of cellophane make it wonderful prop for peek-a-boo. It is light, airy, and see through yet distorts reality enough so that the child can believe that they are actually hidden from sight. So the material allows her to explore the concepts of object permanence in a safe and reassuring context. For Kaia, this is important as she is really experimenting with the idea of hiding and then reappearing. The reenactment of the "where is Kaia" game came after Kaia spent a good deal of time exploring the cellophane but once it started she practiced again and again and not just with one piece of cellophane.

Since Kasey noticed Kaia's game, she was able to expand Kaia's exploration and knowledge of the material. This interaction highlights the connection between relationships and materials. The relationship between the parents and children in the playgroup will enhance the experiences we will have together.