Friday Group - Painting with Blue

Sebastien was again the first to dive into the painting. He tried again to get that paint brush into to the container but first he finds a new way to get the tempera cake in his mouth buy only after he figures out how to get it out of the container.

Theo again found the paint on another child's face extremely interesting and tries to engage Sebastien who is only mildly amused by Theo's attempts.





Bryce manages to open the spray bottled used to wet the tempera cakes and creates a mini lake to splash in.





That blue puddle was attractive and drew Isa in for a closer look.





Where's Kaia? Kaia chose not to paint on this particular day. She liked hanging out on the bed that appeared in our living room where she practiced her free standing and snuggled with her mama!

Paint Brush Montage

The children are still trying to decide if they like the paint brush!

Thursday Group - Painting with Red

We returned to painting and Sebastien couldn't have been more excited about it. Max and Zadie are still warming up to the material. This was the first time that Sebastien made a purposeful attempt to use the brush to get paint and then proceeded to try and paint on the canvas.

Max really wanted the tempera cake out of the container and kept dropping the container on the ground to get it to pop out. When it first made a loud bang Max leaned in really close to see if the cake was still in the container. This was a clever way of trying to get the cake out without having to get paint on his hands. Although when he drops it on his mom's lap he does put his fingers in it before he picked it up and lets if fall yet again.






Zadie was particularly drawn to the liquid red paint that came from wetting the tempera cakes with water. A drop of red paint initially drew her close to the paint. Then when she picked up the paint container, she noticed the red paint that dribbled out. While she explored the container the tempera cake fell and rolled out. Once this occurred she decided to give it a taste. In Zadie's signature style she explore every part of the painting experience. No item was left untouched!

Friday Group - Pom Poms with a Twist

This week I continued with the pom-poms but added a few surprises. In the bin I taped mirrors on the bottom and sides to see if the children would notice. I also placed a variety of balls in with the pom-poms to further expand the children's repertoire of round items. I also kept the format, where the children could choose when to interact with the experience. What strikes me is that some go for the experience right away while others wait and yet everyone eventually engages with the materials. The addition of the balls was a big hit but the mirrors didn't have quite the affect I had hoped for. This was the first time Zadie was introduced to the materials and she impressed me with the thoroughness of her exploration. I think she touched and manipulated almost every different container and ball offered.

Kaia has been working on her B sounds and came to the pom-poms ready to practice. Watch as she says ball...simply amazing!




Kaia, my musical one, also found a way to use one of the containers as an instrument to project her voice. Notice she uses a completely different sound than her previous exploration of "Ba".


Sebastien finds himself facing an interesting challenge. One of the balls is stuck in his favorite container...hmm, how will he get it out? In the Reggio Approach the "teacher" is seen as a provocateur, providing interesting dilemmas for children to ponder and uncover. This was my intention when I placed the ball inside the white container. He tries to grab, bite, and shake it loose!

Bryce is so close to crawling and he has such a desire to get right into the bin but he settles for a partial immersion in the bin as well as tasting any of the items which are close by.

Bryce is one of the few chidren who actually likes the texture of the pom-poms in his mouth. Most of the other children give it a few tries and then decide they don't like it very much but Bryce will continue to try one over and over again!

Thursday Group - Exploring Pom-Poms

This week Max officially joined the Thursday Group and was lucky enough to get to know the environment with only Sebastien as the other child in the group. I knew that since it was going to be the first time Max was at my house the pom-poms would be good beginning material to explore as he was going to be familiarizing himself with the new surroundings more than anything else. Max showed a lot of enthusiasm but also payed close attention to what was happening around him. Watch closely (it is only a split second) as Max loses one of the pom-poms and shows displeasure but then quickly finds another one.

After Max spends some time holding, grabbing, and shaking the pom-poms, he begins to explore the containers. He really wants to get the pom-pom stuck inside the wooden box out but can't quite figure out how to do it.

During this exploration Sebastien makes an interesting discovery about the containers as he explores them on or near the wood floor. By accident, Sebastien finds out that the clear container rolls away from him, the white container rolls and moves in a circle while making a noise, and the flip lid container can be pushed or rolled over. This challenges his physical abilities and also begins a game of chase that he now plays by himself using all kinds of different objects.

Friday Group - Exploring Pom Poms

With the revelation about painting last week I decided to approach playgroup a little differently on Friday. Instead of the usual routine of putting away all the toys the children are playing with and presenting them with the experience for the day, I just added the experience to the area were they were playing and let them come to the materials when they chose to do so. Sebastien had, of course, been exposed to the pom poms and containers before as he is my guinea pig and tests out all the materials before I present them to the group. He was obviously for the pom poms and containers to be brought back out because as he watched me retrieve the bin he crawled after me until I set it down and opened it. He was the first child to interact with the pom poms and containers. He also was the one child to make his way inside the bin.

Sebastien found the containers most interesting and spent some time exploring the different options.

Bryce & Kaia were sitting close by the bin and it was clear they were much too interested in the musical instruments so we decided to entice them by tossing a few pom poms and placing a container around them.

Bryce just needed a few pom poms and a turn of the hips to get him really excited about the pom poms. He even manages to get one into a container and then is faced with the new challenge of trying to get it out.



Kaia took a little longer to engage with the pom poms. She would pick one up, look at it, let it fall and then she'd be off to something else. Between the musical instruments and the keyboard she was busy. She did eventually find the bin in which the pom poms were placed a worthy item to explore. If you notice in the video she does keep that keyboard close by as she plays tug-a-war with her mom and the bin.




Isa arrived in the midst of the exploration and from what I have observed previously of Isa is that she takes a little bit of time to warm up to the environment, people, and materials. Knowing she'd observe for a while I placed a container full of pom poms in front of her which had a flip lid, along with a loose pom pom. She worked for awhile trying to figure out how get the pom poms out.



After Isa made her rounds in the play area, she eventually found her way to the bin of pom poms.

The adults might have enjoyed the pom poms more than the children when a pom pom throwing fight broke out. Look carefully at the man under the table!!

Pom-Poms

Taking a step back from the painting, I decided to return to textiles with a twist. I presented the children with a large bin full of fluffy pom-poms and different containers. With the contact paper the children were able to experience putting down and taking off and in this experience the children could manipulate a material by putting in and taking out. I provided a variety of containers that displayed different shapes, sizes, materials of construction therefore, presenting varying challenges. This allowed the children to use the pom poms in new ways. The pom poms were also round like a ball and soft. This made for easy manipulation into mouths, containers, or the air.