Interest in exploring natural materials is very present in our classroom. When watering the plant in our library area the other day we noticed that many of the leaves had turned brown and we decided to trim the tree and in hopes of bringing it back to better health. The children immediately were drawn to the pile of leaves from our trimming and Annabelle said, " Let's use them to make something at the art table!'.
This was a perfect way to enter a conversation about creating art with natural materials. The children were resourceful in scouting out the Art Studio shelves as they looked for materials that were natural that they could use in collage work. Wood chips, wood shaving, leaves and branches were placed on the table for the children to explore. Andy Goldsworthy's book , A Collaboration With Nature was re-introduced to the children at this time as well. The children's thoughts and ideas were the motivation behind this wonderful spontaneous activity. Who knows...this may be the beginning of a new emerging exploration....
The inspiration to continue exploring Andy Goldsworthy's work continued today as Hayden sat down at Choice Time and asked a teacher to look at the photographs of his work in his book with her. Within a few moments, a group of children joined Hayden at the table and together they looked at the photographs very intentionally. Together they discussed the various details that they observed as the teacher read the descriptions and strategies of the art. We were absolutely amazed at the work of this artist! We learned that in one of his pieces of art he used Iris blades and pinned them together with tiny thorns! Hayden and Noah had the idea to get the magnifying glasses in the Science area to look really closely to see if we could identify the tiny thorns that were holding the Iris leaves together. Annabelle said, " I love his work because it's really cool!'
No comments:
Post a Comment