Issuu

Materials in Dialogue

2022/2023

Materials in Dialogue

Every material has its own qualities and personality and over time the material becomes a part of your language. ‘Materials in Dialogue’ led you on a magical journey of becoming active participants in your learning, as you constructed your own knowledge when interacting with materials, the environment and each other. Throughout the year, as we explored and researched our chosen materials and their properties, it was very obvious to see your creativity evolve, along with your ability to think critically about the world around you.

What range of possible transformations could these materials undergo?

To fully engage with and explore the materials, a deeper understanding and dialogue occurred as you built on previous experiences and knowledge. You became artists, scientists and researchers. What follows is a wonderful dialogue between the materials as you met, discovered and ultimately transformed them.

Ms. Penny (Pedagogista)

“Learning

and teaching should not stand on opposite banks and just watch the river flow by; instead, they should embark together on a journey down the water. Through an active, reciprocal exchange, teaching can strengthen learning

and how to learn.”

Loris Malaguzzi

Paint on lightbox, Collaborative art

Our journey this year in Camellia class has been full of variety. We have engaged in numerous experiences with numerous materials. It has been a joyful road of discovery. Through these opportunities, you are learning so much about the world around you, and about yourselves too. How will you interpret the materials? How will you express yourselves through the materials? What ideas do you have? What kind of experiences do you prefer? Through this journey, you are not only discovering more about these materials or the big, wonderful world, but about what kind of person you are. We have absolutely loved being a part of your unique journeys and we are so proud of you all.

Love,

Ms Siobhan Fibre pen drawing, Albert

Charcoal and oil on tracing paper, Collaborative art

Paint, paint and more paint!

From the start of the year, it was clear how much you loved painting experiences, Camellia. We saw the joy, wonder and pure fascination as you mixed, touched and applied the paint to different surfaces.

“More paint, please”

You asked in anticipation. Some of you felt the paint with your hands and covered your body in the paint, relishing the sensory feeling. Others were enthralled by the use of different tools and how you can make marks.

Ink on paper, Jerry

Shades of Black and White

You then investigated black and white and all the monochromatic shades in between when you mix the two together.

You have been involved in collaborative art on a large piece of paper, as well as your own individual pieces. We gave you the option to choose from white or black paper to paint on. Some of the paint gave a high contrast and some of it got lost in the background. It provided a different experience to the painting you are used to doing with coloured paint. This provocation allowed you to experience shades and paint mixing, as well as focusing on how the brushstrokes differ and interact. The lack of colour gave a reverence and boldness to your work.

Black poster paint on white paper, Lily

Black poster paint on black paper, Lily

Urges

Schemas can be described as urges or repetitive actions of children, that allow them to explore and engage with their environment. They are characterised by intense concentration, complete absorption, deep enjoyment and persistence.

These schemas can be anything from throwing, spinning, filling, and emptying, transporting, connecting and more. Through these actions, you are learning about movement, size, weight, speed, the properties of objects and so much more about the world around you. In our class, we have noticed many of you are exploring through transporting, trajectory, transforming, connecting, positioning and enveloping schemas.

We wanted to incorporate these schemas in our art explorations, so you had the opportunity to release your urges and engage deeply.

Ink on paper, Sushi

We wanted to utilize cotton wool in a way that presented opportunities for you to engage with schemas further. A large piece of vertical canvas allowed you to throw paintdrenched cotton balls onto a surface, giving you the opportunity to explore through the trajectory schema. You could also dip and transfer the cotton into the containers of paint and mix the colours. This engaged children who were interested in transporting or transforming schemas. We also had an invitation on the table for those of you who wanted to interact with the cotton wool on a horizontal surface. Here we observed different kinds of engagement such as positioning schemas or drawing with cotton. Cotton wool is a wonderful medium to make marks with - it can be pulled apart, dragged, thrown, dropped, and squeezed. We wanted to build a relationship with painting tools other than just paintbrushes, rollers and hands.

Poster paint on canvas, Collaborative art

You have had opportunities to use a variety of tools and methods as you investigated paint deeply. Our paint explorations have been ongoing throughout this whole year and I’m sure will continue long into the future.

Busy Snipping Hands

What we noticed throughout the year in Camellia was a very strong interest in scissors and cutting. We have loved seeing the deep concentration and persistence you all showed as you tried to navigate the skill required to use the scissors, which is pretty tricky actually. But what we have loved even more is the joy you show when your cutting is effective.

Charcoal on paper, Stella

A Journey of Charcoal

You have been deep in the land of charcoal, and we have seen the most beautiful results. It was interesting watching you, because you seemed so hesitant at first with having the charcoal on your fingers. But once you got used to it, you began to draw. Every mark you made is a little journey you went on, and some journeys had stories you wanted to tell us. You determinedly made dots, lines and shapes and we could see that those marks had meaning.

Charcoal on paper, Bill

Hikaru

Malin Ian Yuna

Jerry Aoi Toro An

Charcoal on paper, Archer

Storytellers

Throughout this year, we have observed your love for books grow stronger. The reading corner in our classroom is a popular area and we often see you taking a quiet moment to yourself to get lost in a book. It is also a place to share the joy of stories together with friends. Later in the year during our story times, you started to focus more intently. We noticed how engaged you became when listening to the stories and you would often say “again” or “more!” when one book was finished. I often observed many of you later with the same book in your hands, retelling the story again to yourself. It has been very special to watch your love for stories grow.

Charcoal on paper, Rosé

Forming Friendships

Seeing your friendships blossom this year has been such a joy for us all. Forming and maintaining friendships brings pleasure, comfort, sometimes distress, and almost always important opportunities to learn and develop in a social world. In fact, establishing relationships with other children, is one of the major developmental moments of your childhood. These are special moments to be treasured.

Ink and salt on paper, Alexandra

“Miss Siobhan, it’s sleeping! Shhhh! Be quiet!” Toro

Animal Kingdom

We have noticed that many of you in Camellia show an interest in living creatures. Whether that be through making sounds or actions, pretend play, music, books and more, you have shown us in your own unique ways. There were so many journeys we went on to explore animals and you were able to express what you knew about them through The Hundred Languages. Your play has evolved as your language grew richer and your social skills developed. We see you playing together and being verbal more frequently. Magical play environments with animals have allowed you to take your interests further. We have also been finding living creatures in our garden, which is extremely exciting for you. What a wonderful journey of joy and discovery!

“Where’s her mummy and daddy gone? Mummy need to go and find the food and then she come back. She get the food for the frog and the frog needs to eat it.” - Malin

Fibre pen on paper, Lucas

“Elephant”, Fibre pen on paper, Aoi

Conversations with Clay

We spent a long time investigating clay as a material, getting to know it deeply. It is important to familiarise your hands with it first before introducing tools. How can you manipulate it? What techniques can you use? You can roll it into shapes, flatten it, stick it together, break it apart, add marks… it can become anything you want it to be. Through clay, you can be creative, imaginative, and you may also extend your ideas with language. Being involved in this experience with clay repetitively gave you the knowledge and skills to work with it with growing expertise.

“A train”, Clay, nuts and leaves, Lucas

Clay and coffee, Ian

“Albert lam banh” , Albert

“I make a unicorn” , Rosé

Clay, pipecleaners, nuts, coffee and beads, Camellia children

“Cake”, clay, Jerry

Clay and beads, Louis

“I’m making a cookie for my mummy and daddy”, Toro

Clay, coffee and leaves, Toro

“Wheels on the bus”, playdough and toys, Ca Chua

An Inquiry into Fabric Dyeing

We looked at different ways of dying fabric. But it wasn’t really about what the finished fabric looked like; it was all about the process. The first material you investigated was homemade chalk. We saw your curiosity as you experienced touching, smashing, mixing and transforming it into a colourful paste. You also made dye from hibiscus and butterfly pea flowers. You were so engaged as you added the flowers to the water and watched the colour transform. So many new discoveries were made through these exciting experiments.

Butterfly Peaflower and hibiscus flower on fabric, Rosé