Storytelling and Other Magical Moments

Beautiful things quietly support specific learning, socialising, self-management, focus and creativity.  How do you use loose parts for conversations? Provocations? Connecting with unit thinking? Provocations on a wet and rainy day. Bringing it inside for those wanting to continue and explore and choose new materials.

A materials exploration that leads to  student inquiries, evolving experts, magical moments and beautiful art.

We filled our Outdoor Learning time with snow's natural provocations - sledding, digging, sculpting, rolling and just playing. I added a bit of color to see how the discussion would change. While many students stuck to soccer in the snow and other gross motor activities, we also had snow filled paintings and designs.  Some painted small snowmen and today The Snow Bakery opened up, with beautifully decorated snow cakes and one rainbow ice soufflé! Happy Artists. Almost the end of thirty minutes of collaborative painting! "Can I use a pro scope to take a closer look?" The bakery in full working order. A fresh strawberry cake is on the right. 'I call this the rainbow soufflé!"  Beautiful colors.

As we inquire into systems of organization in kindergarten we joined with our Primary Arts Specialist to look at how and why we can organize through art.  We thought about why artists make decisions about art, color, line and why they make decisions about their art. They created collaborative art pieces during their time with her and during this time she also introduced the book, Tidying Up Art , Ursus Werli. This made me think about out our collabroative EAL Story/Art, The House with Thirteen Stories.  (See blog post) I asked my students to go back to and look at our story, that was still hanging on the wall. I asked... How can we tidy up our art? Each child took their own personal "story" and cut each piece of their story. In my different EAL group lessons we began organizing the cut objects into categories.  Numbers. Windows. People. Stairs. Animals. Big Things. Things Inside the Home.  Snowflakes. etc... We cut and glued. Organized, ...

A detailed pencil drawing by one student left all students (and some teachers) interested in the perspective and the ideas involved in this one page (of a 4 page story) about the deep sea. I enlarged the picture for my three different groups. We added speech to the sharks, story details and added color through paint to tell three the different stories.  Collaboration was seen negotiating with paint colors  and also when deciding the ideas throughout the stories.

The light table has become the newest venue for storytelling. Asking children to explain their "light table stories" provides and opportunity for them to tell about their creation from a different lens. Not only do they use descriptive words, but words from story telling engagments move in and out of their descriptions. "One day there was a crab princess castle. It was beautiful. There was a beautiful sun inside and many happy crab princesses." "This is a story about a car with lots of wheels.  It is shooting blue fire and fireballs. There is a purple minecraft piece floating in the top and the villages are there with it. They are safe because they are not getting shot." "This is a shark, a beautiful shark. There are so may many bubbles around the shark. This shark is swimming inthe beaufitul beautiful ocean. Let's add shells. Because oceans have shells and blue waves at the top."

Just a touch of color in the sandbox made cooking just a bit more fun!   Loose parts creations are my favorite thing to observe process and product.  

Thoughout the school year I always hope to provide provocations for storytelling in many ways.  For me, watching students take loose parts, found objects and at times random pieces of "stuff" to create stories is an amazing and intricate process. They must choose. Think. Choose. Think. Then tell. While hoping to create something fun, cool, unique and interesting, with unusual choices of materials.  Infusing materials of all textures, quality, size and shape have also allowed for integrating discussion about our Unit of Inquiry, How the World Works .  Below are images of story scenes. Each scene had characters, beginning, middle and an ending. The Penguin and the Pool The Princess Fights the Baddies The Alien Builds a Home (and Eats a Butterfly) Butterfly Hotels

And then there was Blood. As we entered our new unit of inquiry thinking about Who We Are, the enthusiasm for storytelling had surfaced and could not be contained. Those who were originally hesitant to tell stories or share anything understood now that this was a safe environment to take risks, try new ideas and play, whilst telling stories and developing new language skills. During our first brainstorm about the unit, the concept of blood, injury, emergencies and hospital rose to the top of their interests and thus entered their play naturally. I took their lead and began listening to their stories.  It started with real injuries and the boys arguing who was stronger and who have more courage. Everyone expressing loudly "I never cry!" and "I am the strongest!" and "Even if I broke my head I never cry." There were also stories of compassion. Stories about students taking care of their friends at outdoor learning or helping a younger sibling a...