Friday Group - Picture Collage

This week on our journey with collage I presented the children with various pictures to "stick" on the contact paper. I had photo cut outs of each child, animals, and other objects. Using the contact paper as the surface on which to "glue" items I am really trying to draw the children's attention first to the properties of the contact paper and then to the visual (this week) and textural (last week) qualities of the materials presented. As I reflect back on children's explorations this week I notice that the there are a few particular actions that all the children are using with the materials. There is the exploration of the actual containers, the motions of placing and removing items from the contact paper, transferring and collecting the materials, and identifying the what is on the collage items. The following videos highlight these collage experiences.

Container Exploration

Much of the container exploration involves dumping. Bryce is very intrigued by the acrylic container, moving it, trying to get pictures out of it, and all his hard work led to the demise of the container, but all for a good cause.

Identifying Pictures

This was a fun discovery for the children whether it was recognizing a friend or animal or asking a question, the participation of the adults proved crucial in this exploration. I love how Amy, Max's mom, reads Max's fish lip movements to know that he is identifying the fish he sees. Then as Kaia finds the fish she pauses at a picture and stares at it for a long time. I notice her interest and realize she is looking at a picture of Hannah. I mention this to her and she looks away from the picture to the real life Hannah playing elsewhere in the room.



Collecting and Transferring

This action involved the children taking the pictures out of a container (sometimes giving them to another person) and then putting them back into a container. Sometimes the pictures were collected and deposited one at a time or grouped together as a bunch.



Placing and Removing
While much of the placing of the pictures was accidental the removal was much more challenging. Hannah spent some time trying to remove pictures and then place them back into a container. Even as she is distracted by the departure of Kaia she continues to work hard.

Wednesday Group - Collage

The Wednesday Group was small and intimate again, with just Theo and Sebastien. I continued with the contact paper and same materials I presented last week. I did add a new item into the mix, small cut out photos of all the children who attend playgroup. This really caught the attention of Theo. He would look at each photo with intensity and concentration. Sebastien was more intrigued with identifying his friends. The following video is longer than I normally post but stick with it. There is a wonderful interchange between Theo and Sebastien's exploration of the materials. Watch as Sebastien's initial discovery of the photos prompts interest from Theo. Then Theo is still intrigued by the stickiness of the contact paper which leads to Sebastien testing the contact paper as well. The back and forth of one making a discovery and then the other making a similar discovery allows Sebastien and Theo to exchange ideas and their understanding of the material with one another. Theo also finds out that once you stick the photos down they are not that easy to get back. Once he gets up the photo in question Sebastien says, "stick" as if to remind him it's sticky.

Friday Group - Reacquainting and Collage

With four toddlers playgroup felt like it was back in full swing. Each child approached and experienced the contact paper and materials that stick on it differently. Four different perspectives experiencing the same materials and yet all getting what each needs to fully understand the materials. I can't wait to see how their experiences evolve as we spend more time with the collage materials. Theo concentrated on the stickiness of the contact paper and although he did briefly explore the other materials he kept coming back to feel the "sticky" paper.

Sebastien continued his exploration of sticking items to the contact paper. He was more purposeful in his placement of the paper cut outs and mylar during this playgroup.

Kaia wasn't too sure of the contact paper so she concentrated on the collage materials. If you watch the very beginning of the above video again, you'll see Kaia collecting the tissue paper pieces and giving them to her mother. When she did touch the contact paper she would make an unsure face and go back to the other materials. In the following video, Kaia returns to the table to discover the cellophane which she again shares with her mother. Kasey names the material for her as she expresses some intrigue with it. Kaia is expressing herself verbally with such astute understanding of the world. This makes her exploration more transparent in it's intention. As she tries to remove another piece of cellophane from the contact paper it rips creating a little piece which she gives to her mother. Again, Kasey observes and states what Kaia has done, "did you get a little piece?". Kaia goes back to get the rest and when she does she states "big piece". Wow! Not only does she understand the concept of opposites but that subtracting a small piece from a whole piece leaves one with a bigger piece.

In true Bryce fashion he came to the contact paper after he had explored the rest of the room and like Kaia, he focused his attention on the collage items. The cellophane and paper cut outs were of particular interest. Bryce took the time to get to know the materials more closely by not only touching but by pulling and dropping them as well.

Wednesday Group - Reacquainting and Collage

Knowing it had been a month and a half since the children have been at playgroup I thought it would be nice to return to some familiar materials and begin to use them in new ways. When the children were about 8 months old we explored contact paper sticky side up. At that time the experience was more geared toward understanding the material with one's whole body. During this next 5 week session we will be exploring collage first through using contact paper and later through glue. I presented the children with some materials to stick on the contact paper that were familiar (cellophane, strips of ribbon and mylar) and a few new materials (tissue paper and pre-cut paper shapes). I displayed the materials in clear containers with them each grouped together by type of material.

With the addition of some fun, new Christmas gifts I thought the environment might engage the children's interest more than the collage experience. This was the case for Max, while Sebastien, who lives in the playgroup space, spent some time working with the collage materials. Sebastien also made an surprising connection while sticking the materials on the contact paper. In the beginning he was content to stick the different materials down, even practicing the word "stick" with each piece of mylar he put on the contact paper.

After a few minutes, it was like a light bulb went off and he walked, very purposefully, over to his easel which is also magnetic. He then picked out one of his magnets, brought it over to the contact paper and stuck it down. He did this several times. Of all the items in his play space to choose from I wonder why he chose the magnets? Did he make the connection that magnets also stick to certain surfaces?

The exploding language development and daily development of new skills makes working with toddlers fascinating. One of the skills toddlers are developing is the art of negotiation. In the next video clip you will see Sebastien ask Max to push him in the stroller simply by saying Max's name and patting the handle of the stroller. Max isn't so sure so he offers him a ball. Then Max gets a chance to explore the stroller by himself. A little while later he does give Sebastien a short ride but Max decides he wants a turn of his own.