Friday Group - Drawing with Beeswax Crayons 2

The Friday Group spent a lot of time orally exploring the crayons. Kaia and Sebastien especially enjoyed the table being low enough to crawl on. Theo manages to use those teeth to get a bit of crayon.

The Friday Group also spent a lot of time exploring the other materials around the play area.

Bryce chomps on a rubber sqeak toy.

Theo checks out the rocking boat.

Kaia crawled around with the sensory tubes filled with water and oil.

Sebastien visited the sensory bin with Theo.

Thursday Group - Drawing with Beeswax Crayons

No matter when Crayons or drawing utensils are introduced to young children, there will be a period of exploring the tool with one's mouth even if they are able to purposefully make marks.

Xavier figures out right away how to use the crayons. Anna (his mom) indicated that he hasn't used crayons before but he holds objects with the tips of his fingers and makes a writing motion quite often.



I found Max's exploration of the crayons quite interesting. He would pick up one in each hand, look closely at them, and then drop one and chew on the other. Every time he spotted another crayon he would repeat the process. Amy (his mom) called this "the grass is always greener" syndrome. I just found it fascinating, like he was really thoughtfully choosing one over the other. Max also kept offering his crayon to Sebastien. Watch in the following video as he tries to tempt Sebastien into taking his crayon not once but twice...is he trying to make a trade or just get his attention?



Zadie tries out some banging and back and forth motions with the crayons.

Friday Group - Drawing with Beeswax Crayons

After returning from a four week break I decided to introduce drawing with Stockmar beeswax crayons to get everyone reacquainted with the environment. I prefer these crayons because they are very responsive to children's movements so even the slightest pressure on paper creates a mark. I presented the children (just Kaia & Sebastien during this session) with both traditional shaped crayons (minus the paper wrapping) and rectangular block crayons. Both variations allow children to find many different ways to make a mark. From the ages 6-12 months most children explore crayons/writing utensils orally. At this oral stage of exploration, I like to simply point out when the children make a mark on the paper thus drawing their attention to what the material's purpose and how they influence it.

Since the group is becoming more mobile I also included a sensory bin (clear storage bin) full of fabric, ribbon and containers. Knowing Sebastien and Kaia both are really interested in doing laundry (basically taking clothes in and out of the laundry bin or drawers) I thought this would be very engaging.