Curriculum
My teaching philosophy centers around child-led explorations of open ended materials. Rather than direct instruction, I gently guide children to ask questions, wonder, and experiment. I believe strongly in process over product, especially when it comes to art. I let the child direct the materials and use my observations to design and tailor the curriculum to their interests.
Infants with Oobleck
It was a rainy day outside today and we decided that a little messy play was in order. Oobleck is one of my favorite substances to use with children because it is perfect for most ages. Even my teenagers will play with it when I make a batch. It is also cheap and quick to assemble and if they taste a lick or two, it's not harmful. So what is Oobleck? It is a non-Newtonian fluid. It is solid when you form it into a ball or when you press down on it when it is in a container, but as soon as it is released from the container, it melts. For example, if you make it into a small ball and continue shaping it with your hands, it will stay in the ball shape, but as soon as you open your palm, it will become liquid and will drip from your hand! It is a mixture of cornstarch and water. Today, we added a few drops of liquid watercolor and a bit of very fine glitter. You can combine the ingredients into a bowl and mix them together. If it is too runny, add more cornstarch, and if it is too hard or crumbly, add more water. Once we made the blue substance, the children wanted to add some farm animals from the texture table, so we pretended that it was raining on the animals! We had a blast, and the clean up looks disastrous, but is really not bad once it has a chance to dry out-- after a few minutes.
Color Mixing
The children in this toddler classroom were interested in colors. One of the activities we did was to experiment with color mixing. We read the book Mouse Paint by Ellen Stoll Walsh. We then provided the children with strings to represent mouse tails! They were also given two plates each with its own primary colors, in this case, blue and yellow. We encouraged them to dip their mouse tails into each color and see what happened when they mixed them. We had some amazing discussions about what new colors we discovered!
My picturebook Obra Maestra, as yet unpublished, follows the artistic whims of a little girl named Georgia. Her Papa thinks she is making a mess as she imitates the styles of a variety of artists. In the end, both Georgia and her Papa learn that what she has created is a true masterpiece!
