Sewing

Following in our weaving footsteps the Wednesday and Friday Group embarked on sewing. With small round hoops pulling taut burlap material and dull embroidery needles with brightly colored thread we began to explore sewing. In my teaching and directing days it was never done in isolation. While I love having the children alone to focus with me it means that sometimes documenting through video and photos is put aside in order to help the children. Sewing required more of my assistance than I had thought and so I don't have quite as much documentation of the children's experiences.

Sewing presents many explorations, poking and pulling the needle through, moving the needle in and out, around and down, as well as pulling on the string itself.

As time went on I added beads to the mix. Sebastien, who had more time and experience with sewing, easily incorporated the beads into his sewing while other experimented with them but ultimately pursued simply sewing.



After using the smaller individual hoops for a few weeks, we moved on to using larger group hoops.

Development of Drawing

Recently during group meeting Hannah made her way over to the art area where the easels were set up with pens and other drawing utensils. She began drawing with great purpose. It was apparent almost immediately that Hannah was attempting to represent an idea on the paper. She very carefully drew a round shape put two eyes, a mouth, and ears. After she finished she exclaimed "mira" (Hannah's primary language is Spanish) and was delighted in her creation. She then proceeded to duplicate her "face" and make more. The round shape proved to be a little tricky but she was persistent, trying again and again to get the shape she desired. Hannah spent a long time working. This was the first time any of the children have purposefully drew and labeled a drawing. I inquired if Hannah had been practicing drawing faces at home and her father indicated that this was the first time he had ever seen her draw in such a manner.

Hannah's interest and growth in drawing did not go unnoticed by the other children. The following week Hannah was back at the easels practicing her faces. Sebastien and Bryce came over and joined in. If you listen, you can hear Sebastien saying "over, under, over, under" as he moves the pen on the paper. This is the time it is important for adults to choose carefully what they say while children begin representing ideas through art mediums. Here's a link to a previous article: Supporting Children's Art Explorations.

One of the best ways to get children to talk about their drawing is to ask very open ended questions like, "tell me about your drawing" instead of "what is it" or "is it a _____ (fill in the blank with what you think it is)". Sometimes children draw just to draw and don't have a goal in mind of what it is or what it is going to be and when we label their drawing for them it takes away the opportunity for the child to express what it is they were actually working on. Children want to please adults so when a parent says "oh, it looks like you drew a tree", the child will most likely respond "yes", even if that is not their intention. Even a simple "wow" or "look at what you did" is enough to get children talking about their drawing. Theo is working on the shapes of letters, I only caught the tail end of his drawing but he is beginning to make the connection that certain shapes represent letters.

Most of the time I say nothing at all and just listen to the children as they draw. As Max draws I am intrigued by his train of thought. First he sings a little bit of twinkle, twinkle, little star but then is distracted by something he finds on the easel. He returns to his drawing and says something I don't quite catch but then he labels his drawing "a balloon". Did the round shape with the long tail remind him of a balloon and thus he labeled it a ballon? Was he thinking of things in the sky as he sang twinkle, twinkle and then remembered balloons are also in the sky? Simply fascinating.

Reflecting

One of my goals in the new space was to make visible the children's work. Part of making the children's work visible is reflecting back to the children the work they have done during previous sessions. Since I only see the children once a week this becomes an important part of recalling the children's memory of an experience. Through seeing images of themselves around the room and presenting the images to them I can bring the children back to a prior experience and then build further. The Wednesday group really enjoys group meeting and I presented them with photos of themselves weaving. The children grappled with how to explain what they saw (they are still gaining the vocabulary that encompasses weaving) and finally Caleb decided just to show me what he knew. The revisiting also brought Max to the weaving which he had not been interested in before.

Once I presented the photos during group meeting I then placed them next to the loom for children to look at and explore. The Friday group engaged more with the photos when they could come to them on their own terms.

First Group Meeting

In the new year playgroup begins with a few changes. For part of playgroup I am with the children alone, allowing more focus on the experience we explore and also time to gather together for a group meeting. Group meeting is a time where the children and I meet together to sing, laugh, discuss, and more. At this age group meeting is really just about coming together as a group. It will be a time I introduce materials, talk about observations, share a story or ideas and reflect previous experiences back to the children. To begin the meeting I have large cards with the first letter of each child's name. I use this just as a marker to get used to gathering together. I really don't care if they sit on them or not. During our first group meeting I gather the children to play a little game that also introduces the materials we will be using while weaving on the loom.

The wonderful and hard thing about video taping yourself in action is that you get to look closely at what worked and also where you went astray. Like I wonder why I didn't just let Caleb peek in the bag, especially after I said I thought there might be snakes in there (where did I pull that from?). I realize my mistake almost immediately and when Sebastien peeks in (the second time) and pulls out an item I just follow his lead. Mostly, I simply love the joy and laughter during meeting.

After group meeting the boys just really wanted to open the sand table so we did. The calm energy, intense focus, and pleasant interactions between the children during our time alone together was refreshing and invigorating! Four boys in that small of an area all working with the same materials could have been tricky but the boys managed the space with surprising grace.

THE FUTURE and THE PAST

Hope (7 months) Max (8 months)

Hope, Max's little sister, is now 7 months old. The same age all the now two and a half year olds were when they started Materials Playgroup. It seems like yesterday but also so long ago. Seeing her interact with the materials the children also explore brings back such amazing memories and so we continue excitedly into 2010 with new adventures awaiting us!