As an early childhood teacher encouraging and supporting the development of creativity in children is one of my aspirations, and in all honesty is one of the reasons I teach, and I love teaching. Valuing the arts is extremely important to me. It is through our arts programme at Mairtown that children enhance their social development (through turn-taking and collaboration), their emotional development (by transforming their ideas into a visual form), their physical skills (for instance fine motor control and hand eye coordination) and their cognitive development (such as creative thinking, experimentation and cause and effect).
I love art, and promote it daily in my teaching for its many benefits to children’s learning. Children however, are not always so aware of these benefits. For them they ‘do’ art for the experience; to create, to explore new concepts and ideas and to experiment, but perhaps mainly for the enjoyment. As I sit with our children at Mairtown kindergarten and support them in their creative pieces, I get to see how children discover joy through art, yet also challenges; how they learn to take a risk, to persevere and at times to overcome frustration. It is all these factors combined that make art and creativity for young children so very vital and so essential in any early childhood programme, and one that we certainly promote and thoughtfully nurture here at Mairtown.
With this in mind at the beginning of term 2 many of our children at Mairtown enjoyed creating some wooden art work. This was something I did many years ago with the children, and it was a parent reminding me of this work that made us look into re-visiting this experience once again. This art experience takes time (lots of time!) and focuses on the process of the art work, rather than the final product – although the final product, as you will see, has turned out to be quite stunning.
Process focused art is quite different to product focused art. Product focused art is not something I am a particular fan of, as this is the type of art where templates are often used or perhaps the teacher may have created an example for the children to copy and invariably all the finished pictures will look almost identical. This is the art form that I feel stifles creativity and imagination.
Process focused art however is quite different. There are no examples, no templates, the experience and how to follow it, is up to each child. Each finished piece will be individual and unique, basically there is no right or wrong and for each child the experience should be calming, one of engagement, relaxation and focus.
Creativity should not be considered a separate mental faculty but a characteristic of our way of thinking (Loris Malaguzzi).
When we allow children the freedom of self-expression whilst working on an art experience, we give them the opportunity to plan ahead and predict their work, to make changes, to problem-solve, to utilise their imaginations and to be creative. It is through these opportunities that children are more willing to discuss their art with you and you can sense their excitement as they share its story.
With this in mind, when I introduced the children to this particular art – of painting on wood and later layering these painted colours with PVA glue and gold and silver pens – it was the process that I had in mind.
The first step in this process was for each child to choose a piece of wood from a selection that were pre-cut. Then choosing paint, they painted their piece of wood in sections of bold colours. Next came the really difficult bit, we had to wait for it to dry! When it was dry I then invited the children back to revisit their painting and we talked about carefully adding PVA glue in black, silver and gold. Next again, came the hard part of more waiting as it dried, and this took a couple of days. The third step was to create finer more intricate details and patterns with the addition of metallic gold and silver pens.
Now, that all seems quite straightforward, but there were certainly some challenges encountered. Squeezing the bottles of PVA as well as moving them to create a line requires a lot of fine motor skills and concentration. However, after lots of practice, everyone could proudly say that they succeeded in this, and made interesting marks and patterns on their wood.
Patience was our other challenge. Our children were so focused and engaged in this work, that they could have happily done all the stages in one day. However, again, we practiced our powers of self-restraint as we waited first for the paint to dry and then the PVA.
Art strengthens focus and increases attention, it develops hand-eye coordination, whilst also requiring practice and strategic thinking, and finally involves interacting with the material world through different tools and art mediums.’ (Mark Wagner)
Reading so far, it would appear that the creation of these art pieces was a three step process. This was interestingly not the case. One of my aims was for the children to be totally immersed in their own creativity and in doing so I wanted to encourage the children to take time with their work and to re-visit often. Many of the children would tell me they were finished, but would choose to collect their art and add an extra layer of PVA or pen to it again a little later, the next day, or even weeks later. This certainly made me reflect on the words ‘I’m finished’ possibly not meaning ‘I’m finished for good’, but rather, ‘I’m finished just for now’. I felt as I watched the children collect their work many days in a row and add a little bit more that when children are able and invited to revisit their work over time, they are able to view it though a different lens; for instance, what can I add to enhance my work? What does it mean to me? Am I finished? It is when they see it from this different perspective that they may then decide to add to it or even change it.
There's no doubt about it: Creativity is as natural and necessary for children as fresh air and sunshine! By exposing children to creative experiences, we give them the gift of a rich and memorable childhood while laying the foundation for a lifetime of creative expression – all topped off with a heaping helping of important learning skills (Mary Ann Kohl).
My role as the teacher in this work was very much to support and reassure that taking time can be valuable. By slowing down the children’s thinking (and at times their actions) they could process their thoughts and then transfer these into their work. I really wanted to emphasise the importance of lingering to the children – of not rushing to get to the end – but of reassuring them that this will still be available in half an hour or tomorrow or next week; to assist the children in becoming fully immersed in their work in a relaxed and thoughtful manner.
Although at the beginning I mentioned the importance of process over product focused art – I would have to admit the product is quite spectacular. These art pieces do however demonstrate each child’s process; they demonstrate each child’s ideas and imagination as they reflect on past and present experiences, and for us, these pieces give us a little insight into each child’s expression of the world.
So finally after several months of work the children each, one by one, and only when they were ready, began to announce they had definitely finished – once and for all! As each child had worked over many weeks to complete their work we have had plenty of opportunities to discuss how artists give a name to their pieces and how many artists also choose to tell a story through their work. Here are some of the finished art pieces with their title and story.
Mana: Well mine has a name, but I don’t want it to have one story. I’ll call my picture ‘The Wind Blows’.
Levi: Slices of Cheese
This is my story as I eat cheese sandwiches and cheese by itself. These are two cheeses!
Taikura: Tama nui te rā
My picture is a story of tama nui te rā, it's right there in the picture and there is a whale and a tomato and a fish.
Charlize: Rainbow Sparkle
There's a rainbow in the sky, there's a unicorn in the sky following it and the kitty is following it. They go to follow the unicorn place. The End.
Matthew: Racing car and train painting:
The racing car is in a race, he’s racing the other cars. Someone does a double flip and another one does a jump and the racing car does a double bounce. The racing car does a jump and then the racing car does a turn round the corner. The next racing car does a jump over the corner. The End
“There is more to art than just drawing a picture that looks like something. The process of creating a piece of art is precious, especially when you make something relevant and make a bold, personal and contemporary statement” Source unknown
After all the children’s hard work it was an honour to have them, very proudly, displayed in the Whangarei Central Library, and for others in our community to see and value the young artists we have at Mairtown.
On leaving you with a final thought, I believe all children need to be submersed in rich artist experiences and given time to revisit and create in an unhurried manner. When you follow the children’s lead and ideas – as you can see here – you will go to some wonderful places.
If we could see the world through the eyes of a child, we would see the magic in everything. Chee Vai Tang
Ngā mihi,
Christine
A big thanks to Scooters, Whangarei, for the off cuts of wood that we used, to Rob for kindly collecting the wood and cutting some pieces into smaller panels for us, to the Whangarei Central Library for displaying our work and to Meredith at the library who warmly welcomed us as we visited, giving us our own private tour and putting on a very entertaining show.
No comments:
Post a Comment