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 (from the catalogue of the exhibit ‘The Hundred Languages of Children’)

The Journey of Transformation

What a glorious year we have had together, Marigold, exploring through our senses and creating a dialogue with materials. We believe you to be competent and capable learners who are constantly exploring the world around you. One of the ways you do this is through sensory play, which allows you to engage with your environment using all of your senses. You became absorbed in using your hands, mouths, and bodies to explore the textures, smells, and tastes of the materials we offered you. Your eyes and your ears went on a sensory journey, and we noticed your creativity and imagination grow. As the year progressed, we saw you expressing yourselves in new and exciting ways. It has been a year full of MAGIC; let us take a look...

I wonder what would happen if we mixed colours?

Colour Brings Joy

The world is a fascinating place and for Marigold there is so much to discover. Without a doubt colour is mesmerising, especially when explored through your senses.

When you are given the opportunity to revisit an exploration or provocation, you can build on your previous experiences and knowledge. You can experiment with the material in new ways, and make connections between different ideas and concepts.

Thus, our exploration of colour has been a year long journey where we explored colours in so many beautiful and meaningful ways: We explored with our hands the soft texture of shaving cream, first plain white and then with added colour. We combined with our light box, creating a glorious sensory experience that saw you transfixed with touch and sight.

How does colour make you feel?

Cracking Chalk and Floating Flowers

Wanting to provide you with more materials to explore colour and transformation, we decided to go on a journey all of Aurora were on of making our own chalk using plaster of paris. Using huge slabs of chalk that the older children had made, we encouraged you to explore its texture and consistency by crushing, smashing, and pounding... BANG BANG BANG was heard as you hammered away using wooden blocks and metal pestles. You loved the process of transforming solid pieces of chalk into powder. You kept transforming!

We created a wonderful piece of collaborative art by smashing the chalk onto a rattan blind. The texture of the rattan added another layer for your exploring.

As you were so engaged with the transformation of chalk and the colours the powder made on fabric, we wanted you to experience making your own natural dyes and to experiment with these. How would the dye react with fabric... How would the powdered chalk and dye combine? We went on another exploratory investigation.

We used hibiscus and butterfly pea flowers to make our own natural dyes. You loved the beautiful pink and the dreamy blue these flowers made. We experimented with shades as we mixed more water or less water into our dyes. Dripping onto fabric, and watching the colour spread and transform from the jar onto a surface was so new and exciting for you. You became scientists.

Fabulous Foil

Your dialogue with materials had you encounter one which involved another tactile sensory experience... Sheets of foil lay waiting for you on the light table. This interesting new material shimmered and rustled as you curiously touched it, gently at first... perhaps with hesitation?

As your confidence grew, you closed your fingers over it, crumpling it up between your little hands. With each crumple you transformed the foil into something new, something abstract. Hearing it, seeing it, and feeling it as it folded and wrinkled brought you such delight and excitement!

Clay Glorious Clay

“There’s no accident that some of the earliest forms of human art were made with clay. As human beings, we have an innate desire to create with our hands and express ourselves in tangible ways. Introducing young children to the joy of clay exploration can provide them with a lifelong affinity for the arts and a path towards self-discovery.”

Sculptor and artist Henry Moore

Hammering, squishing, squeezing, breaking, stacking, rolling and poking! You slowly built your relationship with clay through your playful explorations; discovering how clay felt, smelt, balanced, moved, and changed shape.

It was a gentle and slow beginning through touching and discovering one big piece of clay.

I wonder how this felt for the first time?

What would happen if we added water?

I wonder how it smells, sounds and tastes?

There were many attributes to discover.

“Lights are everywhere around us, but to see them we have to illuminate them in our minds.”

Loris Malaguzzi

Dialogue with Light

How does light affect the perception of colours and the relationship between colours?

What happens when material meets light?

How can we manipulate the light?

How can light be used as a tool?

The language of light and the dance of shadows has fascinated you. The magic encouraged you to play, and to experiment. Through your curiosity you found that shadows can be long or short, big or small, that they can change shape depending on the object casting the shadow, and that light can create different colours.

We saw your eyes widen with awe and wonder.

Can you catch that little ray of light?

Where did that shadow come from?

We believe that your dialogue with light was not only about science and art, but also about the joy of discovering and learning. You were able to observe the world around you with new eyes and to approach these new experiences with joy and wonder.

“Light and certain luminous phenomena are central protagonists and highlight the extent to which expressiveness and beauty can accompany an understanding of scientific thinking.”

Vea Vecchi

“Let the child be the scriptwriter, the director and the actor in his own play.”

Magda Gerber

A Book Comes to Life

“Dear Zoo” by Rod Campbell, was a favourite story for you all. It is a delightful book full of animals and the boxes the zoo sends them in, for the protagonist to choose the pet they want. This, I believe, sparked

your love of boxes. You painted the boxes, you sat in them, you carried them, you pushed them, you loved them. We noticed a strong Enclosure/ Container schema in many of you. In this case it was the urge to climb into the cardboard boxes. Every day you put yourselves into boxes, baskets, and containers. It was fabulous as I saw intense concentration, complete absorption, deep enjoyment, and persistence during your playful learning.

The book became such an important part of your lives, where you discovered its joy through shadow puppetry and through storytelling using stones.

Books became a huge part of your life in Marigold. Over the year we have noticed how much you are caring for books and understanding how a book works... that books have pages that can turn and that pictures can tell a story. All the symbols you see on pages are words and these words can be read aloud.

When you see the adults around you loving books this also encourages you to take an interest. This is early literacy; we love it.

A book became a friend like you became with each other.

Reflections

Dear Marigold Children,

You started your learning journey in Marigold as the youngest citizens of Aurora School. I am so proud of you and your journey, and I hope that you are proud of yourselves.

You gained confidence, developed independence, found your voices as you began to speak, delved deeply into many theories on how things around you work, made connections with each other, developed a sense of belonging and became a great community that cares for each other.

Researchers

Teppi

Jimmy

Kala

Cam

Shuki

Jun

Cherry

Mochi

Hanae

Shunki

Isla

Ren

Emma

Rio

Jay

Louis Dongwook

Cypress

Tymur

Ms Olesia

Ms Donna

Ms Uyen

Ms Anh

Ms Linh

Ms Lan

Ms Anna

Ms Penny (Pedagogista)

Ms Claire (Atelierista)

AURORA INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF THE ARTS 11 - 11A - 13 - 15 Tran Ngoc Dien, Thao Dien Ward, Thu Duc City, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. +84 (028) 3744 2991 info@auroraschool.vn www.auroraschool.vn Academic Year 2022/2023