Having an all Painting day is one of my favorite things to do with classes! While it is obvious to the adults that there are separate experiences set out (plexiglass printing, painting at the wall, racecar painting, golfball painting, etc...), the children are able to see things differently. And this is what I love about teaching! Instead of painting at the wall, children were painting next to one another at a table, golfballs were taken to the wall for painting, etc...While it may seem that my classes are a free for all, that's not the case. I try to carefully plan the environment so that I can be open to the children's new ideas and curiosity. Purposefully, I plan on experiences that can be combined or done as is. Of course, there are some experiences I am less open to combination. However, when I see children dumping water (from the water table) onto the floor, I understand that they are learning about transference, dumping, water flow, etc...So I try and set up the environment so that they can explore this in a safe and more effective way. I believe strongly that if we listen to children and trying to understand things from their point of view, they will lead us in a direction that we never would have thought of ourselves.
It's not just about getting messy! I love this excerpt from "The Language of Art" by Ann Pelo
"Sensory-based explorations open doorways into the nuances of texture, density, viscosity, fluidity, and pliability.
Children engage with sensory materials with their bodies and their minds, noticing and comparing textures, for example, or making connections to other sensory encounters they've had. "
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