Friday Group - Painting With Red Liquid Tempura

During this session of painting I want to explore each color separately, each on it's on canvas. This way each color really pops out on the painting area. This week was red! It always intrigues me that one week a child will spend just a few minutes with the paint and then the next they will really spend a long time exploring the medium. I always wonder... what changed? Is it the change in color? Something different in the environment? The way a child feels on that particular day? Maybe all of the above. This week Bryce spent just a short time with the paint whereas Max spent a long time exploring the paint and canvas (Max really wanted to walk on the canvas as he sees Sebastien do but wasn't too sure of the unevenness he felt as he tried it). This was just the opposite last week.

This was the first time Max & Bryce encountered the easel brushes and spill proof containers. This lead to the children spending some part of the painting experience getting to know these two new elements. These props presented physical challenges are important skills needed to go deeper into the language of paint. In addition to fitting the brush in and out of the container Bryce also has the red paint to that comes along with the brush to contend with.

Max finds a few spots on the painting area too and practices a dotting motion with the paint brush. These spots become layered with his marks. The dotting motion makes a sound along with placing paint, and we know how Max enjoys making sounds with objects. He also uses a paint brush in each hand until he gets more paint on one of his brushes.

Sebastien tries out each and every container and brush using both a dotting and stroking motion. I love how he places himself in the middle of the canvas and even when a pumpkin rolls into his painting space he adds a little color to it. As I describe and watch the children painting I am reminded of the following passage in the book Rapunzel's Supermarket by Ursula Kolbe. "Painting is a wonderfully sensuous experience. Plunging into colour with a brush, gliding, swooping, skimming along, changing paper into a playspace aglow with color - these are joys that enthral painters. In the rhythm and flow of painting the whole body is involved. Vision and movement intertwine. Painting is more, much more than making pictures. Being in a painting, becoming lost in it, is one way to describe the experience" (pg. 53).

Wednesday Group - Painting with Black Liquid Tempura

I made a few changes to the presentation of the painting experience to the Wednesday Group after the Friday Group's session. We began with the canvas on the floor, the paint cups had no spill lids on them and I offered both short and long handle paint brushes. The group was initially drawn to Sebastien taking center stage on the canvas. He was sure to try every paint brush. He not only made paint strokes on the canvas but also repeatedly dipped them in an out of the paint cups. The paint cups added an additional small motor challenge to the painting experience. It takes coordination and concentration to get the paint brush in and out of the small opening in the paint cup. Theo hung back this week, observing more than participating but he did manage to paint his hand... maybe his favorite canvas (his naked self) wasn't exposed enough.

Zadie finds her foot to be an interesting place to paint. She also made the connection that to get more paint you have to dip it into the paint cup and she returns to the paint area to add more. She tries but it's not that easy and eventually is distracted by her own foot and decides to continue her toe painting instead of getting more paint on the brush. Theo also stops to watch what she is up to.



Aside from the initial interest in the beginning of the session it took Caleb some time to return to the paint. He hung out with his mom and played around the room before he went a little deeper in his exploration. He practiced dipping the brushes in the paint cups and managed to put two brushes in one cup. He was the only child to hold two brushes (one in each hand) and use them at the same time. He shook the brushes which splattered paint around the area. I wish he could have seen the effect that he caused by waving the brushes in the air but it wasn't obvious as there was already paint everywhere and his splatters were hard to see. Caleb managed to test out some important theories about how you can maneuver brushes in his brief return encounter with the paint.

Friday Group - Painting with Black Liquid Tempura

From month to month young children change so quickly. They are constantly developing new skills. This is why during the next five week session we are revisiting painting with a new twist. Instead of using tempura cakes we're moving on to liquid tempura. I made a few interesting discoveries during our first exploration. To begin, I placed the canvas on the sensory table. Well, this confused the little ones who kept lifting the canvas up to see if there was anything inside. I also underestimated how much our very mobile toddlers would move around taking the painting experience with them to other areas of my house. With each session I learn from the children how best to present materials and maintain their interest. I left the lids off the painting cups so we could use the shaving cream brushes that the children have used before, but looking back I actually think the children are ready for smaller brushes and the no-spill cup lids.

Sebastien didn't miss a beat getting back into the swing of painting. He practiced using the brushes and dipping them in and out of the container. He also spread his painting style all over the carpet and furniture around the house!

The deeper painting cups were a bit of a mystery to the children as they tried to "drink" some paint. I think the cups reminded them of the containers used during water play. Bryce took full advantage of the cups, trying to figure out how to get the paint out. I love how surprised he was when he found paint on his hands but that didn't stop him from using the paint cup as a means to spreading paint on the canvas.

Theo found his body to be the perfect canvas to paint upon. It began with a little and spread and spread. Theo even shared some with his mom.

Max felt the floor was a better place to paint even after he was presented with the canvas. He eventually went back to his floor masterpiece.

Friday Group - A Little Bit of Everything

Theo, Bryce, and Sebastien all enthusiastically explored the sensory bin filled with a little bit of everything even the sea animals were incorporated into the children's discoveries. The containers again added another dimension to the water table. Bryce managed to make an instrument out of a sting ray and cylinder. At first I thought he was trying to get the sting ray out of the container. However, after watching the video I realized he manages to dislodge the sting ray only to put it right back in. His intention must have been to make noise with his creation.

Theo's 'over the shoulder drop' of items he explores is so deliberate that I wish I had some insight into his plan. There are times when every round item he touches goes over the shoulder and other times where only certain items. Most of the time he doesn't even look back to see the effect his action has caused. Even as he transfers the red spiky ball and ping pong ball in and out of the container they remain in the table but it is the glittery ball he first explored that gets the over the shoulder toss.

The boat has a competitor for the attention of the children. The red wagon has now become a hot commodity in the land of toddlers. Watch as Sebastien takes Theo for a spin. What joyous interactions full of communication and intention.

Full Circle

During the very first water exploration playgroup Bryce took notice of another view of the water table and on this last water play session he does so again and this time I'm able to capture it on film! Being able to capture this moment reminds me that by giving children ample time with materials really allows them to revisit ideas, discoveries, and theories.