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Archive for the ‘Nurturing Creativity at Home’ Category
Friday, May 17th, 2013
Two weekends ago, an exhibition of original art by Robert Zakanitch for his book A Garden of Ordinary Miracles: An Alphabet Book opened in the Museum’s Central Gallery. To celebrate the exhibition and the fact that it was finally spring here in Amherst, MA I made a flower-drawing station in the Studio.
We need a new display in the Studio’s entry window, one that doesn’t block the view into the studio, so I chose permanent markers and clear acetate squares as the drawing tool and drawing surface for this activity. When we have about 50 drawings, I plan to start stringing them into garlands with with fishing line to create a friendly welcome into our space.
Some guests have drawn the flowers we have in the vases realistically, others are drawing flowers from their imagination.
Some guests are more interested in studying (very closely!) the flowers’ textures.
Spring is a great time to draw from nature. Head outside with your kids and look closely at the new leaves and budding flowers. Study them again in a few weeks when they bloom! Read a flower related picture book, such as Miss Rumphius by Barbara Cooney, and if you’re in our area, come and see this amazing exhibition.
In fact, if you’re in our area why not come tomorrow, May 18th? It happens to be a very special day with Robert Zakanitch.
He’ll be giving a gallery (or should I say garden?) tour at 11 am. At 1 pm he will be here in the studio to inspire guests to create big designs, visual surprises, and pleasing patterns using the shapes of one or more letters in their name. Learn more about these events here.
And then… visit the Studio sometime between May 22 and June 18th for our next public art project: From Found Materials to Flowers!
Tags: A Garden of Ordinary Miracles, Alphabet, flowers, garden, letterforms, Robert Zakanitch, spring, type
Posted in At The Carle, Drawing, Nature, Nurturing Creativity at Home, Special Guests and Artist Visits, Uncategorized | No Comments »
Saturday, April 20th, 2013
Rounding out my series of posts celebrating The Week of the Young Child™ and Brain Building in Progress Week…
The BBIP campaign wants everyone to know that “A knowledgeable community and well-qualified education workforce give children the support they need to succeed in school and life.”
Though nothing can replace the knowledge I’ve gained through hands-on experiences with amazing students, mentors, and colleagues, there are a few resources connected with the approaches and philosophies that shape my approach to teaching and parenting. Here are a few of my favorites that hope might inspire you too:
First, a few books I reference multiple times a year:
The Hundred Languages of Children Edited by Carolyn Edwards, Lella Gandini, and George Forman.
Children, Art, Artists: The Expressive Languages of Children, the Artistic Language of Alberto Burri, Edited by By Vea Vecchi and Claudia Giudici.
It’s Not a Bird Yet by Ursula Kolbe
A Whole New Mind by Daniel H. Pink
These are the books I’ll be looking at next. Have you read any of them?
Being a visual learning in the digital age means I’m quick to turn to the internet for inspiration. There are so many great sites and blogs I could make a long list, but I’ll just share 3 for now:
Visual Thinking Strategies
Tinkerlab
Not Just Cute
We do alot of work at The Carle is in support of teachers, parents and caretakers to foster a love of learning that flows between home, school and community. I hope you’ll continue to see us as a resource for informing and inspiring the ways you live with or teach young children!
What are the resources that inspire and inform you?
Tags: A Whole New Mind, Brain Building in Progress, Children Art and Artists, It's Not a Bird Yet, Not Just Cute, The Hundred Languages of Children, Tinkerlab, VTS, Week of The Young Child
Posted in Infants & Toddlers, Nurturing Creativity at Home, Our Approach, Preschool, Professional Development, Uncategorized | No Comments »
Monday, April 8th, 2013
In my last post, I shared that The Carle is celebrating The Week of the Young Child™ and Brain Building in Progress Week with a series of posts on this blog and hosting a special Brain Building in Progress Storytime in our Reading Library on Friday, April 19, at 10:30 am.
The Brain Building in Progress (BBIP) website clearly spells out how everyone has a stake and plays a role in building a “foundation for a lifetime of learning” in our young citizens. Its list of the Five Ways You Can Be a Brain Builder has inspired me to share few ways you might nurture brain building in the children in your life:
BBIP suggests: “Make Any Moment a Brain Building Moment… through back-and-forth interactions and meaningful conversations with caring adults.” So what could those interactions and conversations look like?
- Share a book with your young child. Picture books open up a space in which you can explore emotions, ideas and theories. Don’t be afraid linger on particular pages and talk about the pictures. Let the questions flow! Need some book suggestions? Our shop has talked about some great selections for 0-3 years and 3-6 years.
- Explore the textures, shapes and colors of materials and objects you encounter together. To open a conversation, you might ask your child: “What do you notice about this paper/rock/flower/fabric/marker?” Even if they don’t yet speak back to you, they are wondering and thinking with their senses.
- While young children are working with materials, you can invite conversation by saying: “Tell me about your idea.” Need some suggestions for materials or activities to try with your child? Check out our Infants & Toddlers, Nurturing Creativity at Home and Preschool posts, to start.
Talk about the art you encounter together, whether in a museum or on the street. Art is everywhere and offers great opportunity for meaning-making. When you see a painting, collage, mural or sculpture in your community, you might ask: “What’s happening in this picture?” Learn more about open-ended conversations about art at vtshome.org
*The Week of the Young Child™ is an annual celebration sponsored by the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC). The purpose of the Week of the Young Child™ is to focus public attention on the needs of young children and their families and to recognize the early childhood programs and services that meet those needs.
The 2013 Week of the Young Child™ is April 14–20, and the theme across the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is “Brain Building in Progress.”
Tags: Brain Building in Progress, conversation, VTS, Week of The Young Child
Posted in Elementary School, Infants & Toddlers, Nurturing Creativity at Home, Our Approach, Preschool, Professional Development, Uncategorized | No Comments »
Friday, April 5th, 2013
The Carle, committed to inspiring a love of art and reading through picture books, hopes you will celebrate The Week of the Young Child™ and Brain Building in Progress Week with us!
The Week of the Young Child™ is an annual celebration sponsored by the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC). The purpose of the Week of the Young Child™ is to focus public attention on the needs of young children and their families and to recognize the early childhood programs and services that meet those needs.
The 2013 Week of the Young Child™ is April 14–20, and the theme across the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is “Brain Building in Progress.”
The Brain Building in Progress (BBIP) campaign is a public/private partnership of the Massachusetts Department of Early Education and Care, United Way of Massachusetts Bay and Merrimack Valley and a growing community of early education and child care providers, academic researchers, business leaders and individuals.
Brain Building in Progress wants to make it known that “early experiences build the foundation for a lifetime of learning, achievement and productive, responsible citizenship. Quality environments, enriching learning opportunities, a connected, supportive community, and positive interactions with knowledgeable adults actually help form the architecture of the developing brain.”
Here are a few ways you can celebrate with us:
- Visit The Carle next Friday April 19th with your young children for a celebratory Brain Building Storytime in the Reading Library at 10:30 am. Before or after storytime, come to the Studio to explore our materials and then have a conversation about the art in the Galleries or try our Gallery Search.
- If you’re an educator or grandparent, visit The Carle by yourself to discover new ways to foster brain building skills in the young children in your life, or register for one of our upcoming Professional Development Programs.
- Whether you can or can’t visit The Carle in next week, check back here in the coming week as we celebrate WOYC and BBIP! I’ll be sharing ideas for nurturing brain building in your home or classroom and some of the resources we use to inspire our work in the Studio.
Tags: Brain Building in Progress, Early Childhood, initiatives, NAEYC, partnerships, play, Resources, STEM, storytime, Week of The Young Child
Posted in At The Carle, Elementary School, Infants & Toddlers, Nurturing Creativity at Home, Our Approach, Preschool, Professional Development, Uncategorized | No Comments »
Friday, March 15th, 2013
It feels good to be back at The Carle! I’ve been scarce for a while because a very young person has come to live with my family and I took some time off to get to know her. In the past two months I’ve learned that life as a working mom of 2 kids under 2 years old is super busy but full of learning. I’m grateful that I get to spend time at home and time at The Carle learning about how toddlers explore materials and use them to make discoveries about the world.
While I’ve been out for most of our last Friday morning Materials Play for Toddlers series in the Studio, I wanted to share some pictures that were captured in a few of the sessions:
Pictured above: marbles, tempera paint, liquid watercolor paint, & black construction paper placed in the bottom of a plastic paper tray. Below, paper circles, cookie tins, tempera and liquid water color paint. Shake rattle and roll!
***Safety Note: if marbles are a choking hazard in your setting try golf balls or ping pong balls.***
Below: plexi mirrors, washable markers, water-soluble oil pastels, wide cups of water and brushes.
Truck Printing! Tempera squeezed into trays, toy cars and rolling stampers, black paper taped to the floor in the shape of a road. Secondary colors (violet, green and orange) chosen so that the mixture of the 3 would resemble mud.)
A buffet of beautiful ingredients: (colorful paper dot confetti, raffia snipped to smithereens, reflective plastic Easter grass, plastic newspaper bag shreds, white feathers, yarn scraps, clementines box mesh, (in other words, all the bits we had laying around) . . .
. . . pressed and sprinkled onto contact paper (paper frame attached first). This is my own sun catcher experiment. My guest’s compositions were less ordered, more spontaneous.
I hope this inspired some experimentation and creative fun with your toddlers! Happy mess-making!
Don’t forget to enter The Carle’s Call for Caterpillars Contest for the chance to win an original doodle by Eric Carle! Visit www.carlemusuem.org/call_for_caterpillars for contest details.
Tags: Beautiful Stuff, contact paper, February 2013, Friday mornings, January 2013, marble painting, markers, materials play, mirrors, paint, painting with children, reflection, sun catchers, toy trucks, water play, window art
Posted in Collage, Found Materials, Infants & Toddlers, Mixed Media, Nurturing Creativity at Home, Painting, Preschool, Uncategorized | No Comments »
Thursday, March 14th, 2013
As The Carle’s Public Art Program Educator, I have the unique challenge designing the drop-in art activities for The Studio’s ongoing Public Art Program that change every 4-6 weeks. If you follow our blog regularly you’re familiar with the variety of projects we offer: bookmaking, painting, sculpture, collage, drawing and printing to name a few! Whether our guests are novice art makers or seasoned veterans, anyone can try their hand at our current activity and use the materials at their level of expertise. One of the often overlooked details of designing each art project is figuring out the best way to organize the art materials guests will use at the tables in various sized baskets.
For one of our recent Public Art Projects, Mapping Makeover, I made some fun new labels to organize the drawing tools into warm, cool and neutral colors. To help our young guests learn the different color families, the paper liners are in bright colored paper by Canson. On each label I added small dots matching the drawing tools’ hues and familiar images from Eric Carle’s The Very Hungry Caterpillar in warm, cool or neutral colors. We use Avery templates in Microsoft Word to make all of our labels, very quick and easy! We use brass fasteners to attach the cardstock labels to the 3 different sizes of baskets in our collection.
The photos below are the basic steps for adding a label to a basket without tape. 1. Stick the label to a precut piece of cardstock that fits snugly on one side of the basket. 2. Use a bookmakers awl or another sharp tool to make a hole where you want your brass fastener to go. 3. Secure the fasteners to the back of the basket and add the materials. When the labels are not in use I store like-labels rubber-banded together in drawers by category, then they’re easy to find the next time we need them.
  
Sometimes we organize the paper in specific ways, like by the shape of the papers.
Other times the labels are more general, like “drawing tools” and “collage papers” so we can reuse the same labels for different projects.
We also design signage for specific projects to help guests take their projects further like, “How to make an accordion book”.
How do you organize the art supplies in your classroom or at home for children?
Don’t forget to enter The Carle’s Call for Caterpillars Contest for the chance to win an original doodle by Eric Carle! Visit www.carlemusuem.org/call_for_caterpillars for contest details.
Tags: baskets, brads, brass fasteners, how to organize art supplies, Label making, labeling art supplies, Labels, Mapping Makeover, Very Hungry Caterpillar
Posted in Materials, Nurturing Creativity at Home, Our Approach, Studio Favorites | 1 Comment »
Saturday, January 5th, 2013
This one year old and her mother from New York spent a while in a sun-bathed corner of the Studio yesterday afternoon. In no hurry, they permitted me to enter their moment with my camera.
Today, as I reviewed the images, these words from Loris Malaguzzi came to mind:
One has to respect the time of maturation; of development; of the tools of doing and understanding; of the full, slow, extravagant, lucid and ever-changing emergence of children’s capacities, it is the measure of cultural and biological wisdom. Loris Malaguzzi, 1998, p80, The Hundred Languages of Children Advanced Reflections.
What better time than in the clean slate of the new year to share a few slow moments with your child? Read a book together. Make a drawing. Study the snow or palm trees or whatever surrounds you. If you can, come and see us in the Studio. We’d love to help you slow down.
Tags: families, Loris Malaguzzi, parent-child, play, Reggio Emilia, toddler corner
Posted in At The Carle, Infants & Toddlers, Nurturing Creativity at Home, Our Approach | 2 Comments »
Saturday, December 8th, 2012
I promised some ideas for making greeting/holiday cards with kids. Here is one which will require a little prep and assistance from an adult since it calls for a specialty material and the use of an iron.
First, see what you have for fabric. Scrapish pieces will do. The bottom half of the tee shirt that ripped and a piece of the skirt with the stain on it will do. You might like to start with 3 different fabrics/colors, each somewhere around 12″x12″ but smaller will work too.
You’ll also need some double-sided fusible web from the fabric store. Pellon is one brand that makes some, but other brands work too. Ask for help at the store if you don’t’ know what you’re looking for. 1/3 yard will be enough to make a bunch of cards.
Then, iron the wrong side of the fabric to the fusible web according to the directions it came with. Here’s a tip from someone who learned the hard way: DO NOT touch your hot iron directly to the exposed web or you will get icky stuff on it. You’ll be fine if you trim your fusible web to be just smaller than the piece of fabric you are attaching to it. Since you’re likely using multiple fabrics/colors, you’ll be cutting it anyway.
When the fabric you fave fused to the web is cool, you and your young person are ready to cut it into shapes. If you don’t know what shapes to cut out, just take your scissors for a walk across the fabric and see what you get. The negative or left-behind shapes are usable too!
Next, peel the fusible web backing from your shapes and arrange them on a piece of folded cardstock. You could also arrange the shapes on a differnt piece of heavy paper that you glue to a card later.
Turn the iron back on and carefully iron your shapes to the paper with medium heat, no steam. You can use a thin cotton cloth over the shapes and card as you press if you want to be certain your iron stays safe from icky stuff.
Alternatively, instead of using double-sided fusible web, you could iron your fabric to single or double-sided fusible stabilizer and glue the shapes rather than iron them to your card. The stabilizer adds some dimension to the shapes but if its too thick, you can’t iron your shapes to the paper because the heat won’t pass through it enough to activate the sticky part.
When your shapes are ironed/glued down your card is ready for a message!
“Well, why not just glue fabric directly to the card and skip all the work,” you ask? You could, but sometimes the amount of glue required to glue fabric down warps the paper underneath. And, maybe you’ve noticed how the texture and color of fabric changes after its been soaked through with glue? With fusible web or stabilizer, the fabric still looks and feels like fabric when you’re done.
I wish I could take the credit for these great ideas, but I can’t. Diana first found the fusible web idea in this pretty book and she came up with the stabilizer variation for her Handmade Cards and Books workshop for teachers.
Handmade Hellos: Fresh Greeting Card Projects from First-Rate Crafters by Eunice Moyle and Sabrina Moyle.
However you make cards this season, have fun!
Tags: Christmas Cards, Double sided fusible web, greeting cards, Handmade Hellos
Posted in Activities, Bookmaking, Collage, Elementary School, Found Materials, High School, Middle School, Nurturing Creativity at Home | No Comments »
Friday, November 2nd, 2012
My order of finger paint arrived from Discount School Supply in time for last Friday’s Materials Play for toddlers. To get the kids started I put dollops of warm colors in a tempera cake palettes and invited them to paint on the windows. As they needed more paint I offered a few more colors. A couple of children preferred painting in large white trays placed on our low table.
Finger painting paper was available for making prints from the paint if desired.
Everyone enjoyed their experience! To those who are thinking “no big deal, people have been finger painting since forever,” here is my confession: For YEARS (a decade) I have been avoiding finger paint. However, now that I have my own 19 month old, I see what I’ve been missing!
My previous rationale for avoiding finger paint stemmed from my view of children, my approach as an artist/educator, and honestly just not having many extended experiences with 12-30 month-olds under my belt.
I believe that from the start, children are learners, capable of making sophisticated meaning of their experiences and the world. My goal as an artist educator is to craft approachable creative experiences that help people:
discover how the visual world works
observe like artists
solve problems like artists
explore ideas through materials
My thought was that if young people think like artists and are capable of discovering that red mixed with blue equals violet, why would I not give them materials that operated like ‘artists’ materials? Somehow, painting with fingers seemed beneath my students. Beneath me. I perceived finger paint as cheap, producing dull colors, and too basic. In other words, not a ‘real’ artist’s material.
I have successfully offered “more sophisticated” painting experiences for older toddlers with brushes and either liquid tempera, tempera cakes, or watercolor paint in a limited palette of colors. Creating the right physical setup was important in those experiences too. While they weren’t wrong, those experiences weren’t designed for a young toddler who’s sensory interests don’t always mesh with brushes and a palette of paint.
A few times I’ve tried making homemade finger paint. The recipes I tried were inexpensive and offered a nice sensory experience, but proved not ideal for discovering how color works. The color was faint, they got chunky if I cooked them too much, they separated in the refrigerator and stained my daughter’s hands. Not impressed.
Then, a little while ago, I saw pictures by my daughter and her classmates on the wall in the toddler room at daycare. The colors were bold! There were areas where the colors were light, and areas with intense, saturated color. There were areas where colors mixed, and areas where they weren’t. Surprise, surprise. They were made with finger paint!
Sure, other non-toxic water-based paints could be and have been used as finger paint, but toddlers can really get messy! This is something I of course knew and experienced, but didn’t actually KNOW until I started painting with one in my own house. With white walls.
Many of the teachers I’ve worked with know that I’m the last educator to choose paint for its washability. Often the pigment in washable paints becomes pale when it dries. I’m generally a process over product person, but I do want colors to be satisfying, so I’ve usually chosen non-washable paints for my classes. As a parent, however, I’ve come to realize that washability in some of our home supplies allows me to relax and be in the moment with her. I’ve learned that finger paint can grant many of my wishes!
I’m still a finger paint novice. So far, I like Discount School Supply’s Colorations Finger Paint but I’m interested to try Crayola’s because I like their tempera paint. I’m also willing to give this homemade recipe a whirl. I’m not excited about finger paint paper, so different kinds of paper need to be tested.
Are there other brands of finger paint or types of paper you’d recommend? Any recipes you’re happy with? My daughter and I have lots of experiments to conduct!
Tags: Colorations, Crayola, Discount School Supply, finger paint, homemade materials, homemade paint, paper
Posted in Infants & Toddlers, Materials, Nurturing Creativity at Home, Painting, Preschool, Printmaking, Uncategorized | 3 Comments »
Friday, October 26th, 2012
The other week after observing a tentative toddler at the light table in the Studio I wondered if I had ever really looked at this room from the perspective of a toddler- 25 inches off the ground. I’ve gotten on the floor probably hundreds of times in the past 10 years here, but had I ever really experienced all the corners of our space as a toddler might?
Having my own 18 month old at home has uncovered new questions in my work. Maybe I’ve said this before? No longer do I see what I do from strictly an educator’s perspective- I now see it work through tired, freshman-parent eyes. These eyes are now learning just how real it is to parent a willful, exploratory, energetic toddler. In the hope to tie new connections between work and home I grabbed the camera and got on the studio floor.
From my observations over the years I know that while pleasant and vibrant, our space is large and therefore overwhelming for some small people.
My time on the floor offered me more questions than answers . Is our entry welcoming for toddlers? Do we provide the right visual engagement at their level? Is our furniture conducive to toddler and toddler/parent participation? Do parents of toddlers feel at ease here? Does how I focus the camera match how a toddler sees our space?
As I explore these questions with Diana and our volunteers, I want to hear from you. Have you seen your space – be it your home or classroom, from a young child’s perspective? Did it lead you to make any changes? If so, what was the reaction?
Tags: Intentional spaces, learning environments, parenting, play spaces, toddler art
Posted in In the Studio, Infants & Toddlers, Nurturing Creativity at Home, Our Approach, Preschool, Uncategorized | 2 Comments »
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