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The concept of encounter can be defined as meeting unexpectedly. When one material meets unexpectedly with the others, there could be a variety range of possibilities beyond our imagination. The encounter of material in early childhood can be as simple as when paint encounter with natural materials or paper meets with wind. There may be numerous possible outcomes happen during the process as long as we use our imagination to explore.

Materials themselves propose particular possibilities, and also provoke different ways of thinking as a engages and works with them (Pacini-ketchabaw, Kind & Kocher, 2016, p13).

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What will happen when paint meets with natural materials?

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What will happen when paint meets with natural materials?

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My material is paint.

The artistic language I am using to respond to this is assemblage.

My artefacts outcome is “Spring is coming”

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The artistic process started from the point when I was practicing painting and drawing a tree on paper. I wondered what would happen if I used some parts of a real tree and mixed them with paint. So I collected some leaves and flowers from garden as natural materials, and used them to encounter with paint. I put one branch of the tree on the paper, I noticed that the branch looked like a real tree if I paint some grass on the bottom. Then I continued to use leaves and petals with painting to make trees and flowers. The picture was vivid and full of energy, which formed a lively picture to convey the message that “Spring is coming”.

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Usually, we use paint to draw trees and flowers, which look pretty and can be colorful. However, we ignore the most important materials—natural materials, which are easily accessible and can be used to build children’s creativity and imagination. At the same time, it will encourage children to learn more about our natural world by exploring different trees, flowers and other materials. Paint is a common material in the room of early childhood, and it invites other materials. What takes place in this assemblage is more than what happens in the child’s mind or brain. This assemblage is about worlding—The natural world that we are living in(Pacini-ketchabaw, Kind & Kocher, 2016, p60).

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Such inquiry, which explores how paint encounters with natural materials in early childhood education, provides excellent opportunities for children to use their imagination and creativity to generate their own “artworks” by mixing paint with natural materials. It could be as simple as painting on the leaves or flowers, where children can use their senses to feel and touch our materials, as well as practice fine motor skills, gross motor skills, and hand-eye coordination.

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What will happen when paint meets with oil?

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What will happen when paint meets with oil?

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My material is paint.

The artistic language I am using to respond to this is encounter.

My artefacts outcome is “colorful bubbles”

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The artistic process started from the point when I was playing with water and paint. I was adding paint into a bottle of water and observing the change of color. I found it was kind of boring and nothing surprised me as the outcomes that happened were within my imagination. Thus, I was thinking how about using other liquid such as sunflower oil that I used to cook at home. I wondered what would happen if I add paint into oil. I used a syringe to put different colors of paint into the oil and the outcome surprised me. The paint became colorful bubbles in the oil which was quite beautiful.

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What will happen when paint meets with sponge?

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What will happen when paint meets with sponge?

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My material is paint.

The artistic language I am using to respond to this is painting.

My artefacts outcome is flowers and butterflies.

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The artistic process started from the point when I was washing dishes using a sponge. I noticed that the way I used sponge to wash dishes was similar to using brush to do painting. I wondered what would happen if I used a sponge to paint. I cut the sponge into several pieces, and used it to paint on paper. I found that it was also a perfect tool for painting. Then I cut the sponge into round and square shapes, which can be used to create beautiful paintings.

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Normally, we use brushes to do painting and ignore other materials. Sponge is another easily accessible material that can be used to encounter with paint. In early childhood education, painting is an important experience for children to develop their fine motor skills, creativity, hand-eye coordination, and sensory skills. Thus, children can choose whatever they want to be used as a tool to do painting. The experiment can be extended to use other materials, such as using tissue, rocks, or lids. The outcomes of doing this always beyond our imagination and expectations.

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Such inquiry, which explores how paint encounters with sponge in early childhood education, facilitates great opportunities for children to exercise creativity, enhance sensory development, improve concentration, and develop fine motor skills. The activity can be set up both indoor and outdoor as it only need paper, paint, and sponge to let children to create their own artworks.

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What will happen when paper meets with wind?

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What will happen when paper meets with wind?

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We always use water as a common liquid to do activity in early childhood education. However, we ignore another liquid—oil, which is also easily accessible. As we know that oil and water are different in density, so in lots of experiments it will generate different outcomes if we use oil instead of water. The paint encounter with oil is a typical example. We can also extend the experiment to compare different outcomes with water and oil, or mix water with oil. In such experiments, children will learn about science, and inspire their interest in exploring the world as magic always happen and art is beyond our imagination. As we explore new possibilities for ourselves as teachers and new understandings of the capabilities of children, we can begin to use the word art to describe a lively process of engagement with a range of materials—an engagement that is sensual and reflective, creative and deliberate, relational and expressive (Pelo, 2016, p1).

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Such inquiry, which explores how paint encounters with oil in early childhood education, provides excellent opportunities for children use their imagination and knowledge to open the gate to a new world—a world about science and art. Art can be a way of thinking, feeling, imagining, relating, and expressing. It also can be an expression of our participation in the mystery and delight that is in this world (Pelo, 2016, p1). It can be set up both indoor and outdoor in early childhood centers, as the materials are very simple.

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My material is paper.

The artistic language I am using to respond to this is movement.

My artefacts outcome is “dance with the wind”

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The artistic process started from the point when I saw the trees in my yard moving with the wind. I wondered what would happen if I put paper in the yard and let them move with the wind. I put two pieces of the same paper in the yard, and I found that even though they were the same papers, they moved in different ways. Then I added another two pieces of paper with different shapes, and found that they also had their own ways of movement, which generated a beautiful dance in the wind.

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The more common the phenomenon is, the easier we ignore it. The wind is another common phenomenon in our everyday life that is always being ignored in early childhood education. Paper is a very common material that children always use, but seldom do we use it to observe the movement in the wind. Through observing the dance of paper in the wind, children may have a better understanding of the natural phenomenon. At the same time, it may inspire their curiosity of exploring the world. In early childhood, materials are often set out for children to make or create something with, frequently with the assumption that children are full of ideas just waiting to be expressed through these materials (Pacini-ketchabaw, Kind & Kocher, 2016, p33).

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Such inquiry, which explores how paper encounters with wind in early childhood education, facilitates great opportunities for children to have a closer observation of the natural world. It could be as simple as feeling the wind, where children can use their senses to feel the wind or they put paper and other materials such as plastic bags, fabric, or clothes in the wind and observe the movement of them in the wind, which will form a wonderful dance.

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What will happen when light meets with hands?

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What will happen when light meets with hands?

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My material is light.

The artistic language I am using to respond to this is shadow.

My artefacts outcome is “animals world”

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The artistic process started from the point when I saw a strange shadow on the wall in my room and I was unable to tell what the object was at the first glance. So I thought that light on different objects might form some unexpected shadows. I used my hands to make different gestures and reflect them on the wall to see different shadows. The outcomes surprised me as some shadows seemed like different animals.

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It is easy for us to ignore the existence of shadow as it is not something that really exists in our world. We cannot catch or touch it, but it happens all the time. In the daytime, we have the light of the sun that can generate shadows, and at night, we have the light of the bulb. When light meets our hands, it forms different shapes. Through observing different shadows, children will have a better understanding of the light.

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Such inquiry, which explores how light encounters with our hands in early childhood education, enable children to appreciate the awe and wonder of the world around them and provide a rich environment in which to develop their natural curiosity (Thornton. L & Brunton. P, 2010). Children can experience light and shadow both indoor and outdoor as long as there is light.

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 What will happen when paint meets with itself?

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 What will happen when paint meets with itself?

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My material is paint.

The artistic language I am using to respond to this is color mixing.

My artefacts outcome is “make new colors”

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The artistic process started from the point when I wash brushes in a bottle of water, and I noticed that the water changed to a new color when I put two different colors of brushes in the water. I wondered what would happen if I mixed two colors together. Then I began to do the color mixing. Red and yellow generated orange, yellow and blue generated green, blue and red generated purple.

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Paint is a common material in early childhood education. Normally, we use paint to do different kinds of painting. Paint invites other materials, but we ignore that paint can also encounter with itself. That is the process of color mixing, which inspires children to explore different fields of the world. They will gain knowledge of the primary, secondary, and possible tertiary colors.

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Such inquiry, which explores how paint encounters with itself in early childhood education, provides great opportunities for children to practice science thinking skills, including making predictions, and cause and effect. Children will experience a lot of fun during the process of color mixing, as well as practicing fine motor skills. The activity can be set up both indoor and outdoor by simply providing different colors of paint to let children explore by themselves.

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It was unexpected to observe all the outcomes generated by those encounter inquiries. All of them can be extended to further experiment with materials, which can help children facilitates learning in different fields and develop skills, including cognitive, language, social, emotional, and physical. Furthermore, children will also develop creativity and imagination in the process of conducting experiments in terms of materials encountered with each other.

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Pelo, A. 2016, The Language of Art: Inquiry-Based Studio Practices in Early Childhood Settings, Redleaf Press, Second Edition.

Thornton. L & Brunton. P, 2010, Exploring Light and Dark with Early Years. Available at <https://www.teachingexpertise.com/articles/exploring-light-and-dark-with-early-years/#:~:text=Playing%20with%20light%20and%20dark%20creates%20magical%20experiences%20that%20both,Dowling%20terms%20'gratuitous%20fear>

Veronica, P., Sylvia, K., Laurie, K. 2016, Encounters with Materials in Early Childhood Education, Taylor & Francis Group, 2016.

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Linda Thornton and Pat Brunton discuss the benefits of playing with light and dark with early years children, offering thinking skills activity ideas.

Playing with light and dark creates magical experiences that both adults and children will enjoy. Light and darkness hold fascination and intrigue, as well as an element of risk and challenge and the opportunity for young children to experience what early years consultant Marion Dowling terms 'gratuitous fear'. Experiences involving light and shadow enable children to appreciate the awe and wonder of the world around them and provide a rich environment in which to develop their natural curiosity. Such opportunities allow adults and children to engage in sustained shared thinking and to develop relationships where joys and fears are open for discussion.

Exploring natural light

Winter is a wonderful time of year for exploring the magic of light and dark. On bright sunny days children will enjoy being outside exploring shadows - their own and those created by trees, bushes and buildings. At this time of year these shadows will appear particularly striking as the sun is low in the sky so the shadows will be very elongated.

Draw the children's attention to what the sky looks like on a cloudy day, a misty day and a sunny day. Talk about where the sun is and why we can't see it on a dull day. (This is a good opportunity to remind children about the importance of never looking directly at the sun.)

Bright sunny winter days often end in spectacular sunsets. Draw the children's attention to the dramatic outlines of buildings and trees and talk about the different colors they can see in the sky. Encourage the children to watch how the colors in the sky change over a short period of time as the sun sets. Take a series of pictures of the sunset, print these out and challenge the children to arrange them in the correct order. This can lead to much discussion and critical thinking as individual children explain why they have arranged the photos in a particular sequence.

Look round your setting and make a note of where the sun shines in at different times of day. Use this as an opportunity to explore sunbeams and shadows indoors. Notice how the position of the sunlight changes during the day. You could try tracking this movement on a large sheet of paper fixed to the wall. Does the sun always appear to move in the same direction every day?

Encourage the children to explore what happens when they stand in front of a window when the sun is shining in. Help them to notice the shadows that are created on the wall opposite. What happens when they move backwards and forwards between the window and the wall? Do their shadows change in size?

Playing with light

Light can only really be explored properly if the surrounding environment is dark. You can create special places to explore light in your setting by adjusting the light levels where light boxes and overhead projectors are used. For example, a small room could be darkened using blinds or you could use a naturally dark place such as a cupboard space under the stairs or a den under a table made out of blankets and blackout materials.

Light boxes add interest to any setting, creating a place for careful observation or for exploring pattern, shape, form, color, opacity and color mixing. The calming influence of a light box invites sensory exploration and engages children's attention for long periods of time.

By their nature the materials that are used to explore light promote aesthetic awareness and an appreciation of beauty. It is equally important that these interesting materials and resources are presented to the children so that they invite exploration and investigation.

Use divided trays or attractive boxes to display resources for the children to use on an overhead projector or light box. These could include:

- translucent materials such as plastic shapes and sheets, buttons, cocktail stirrers,

- Christmas decorations, small plastic and glass containers and bottles

- opaque materials, including plastic and metal washers, discs, nuts and bolts, lolly sticks, paper clips and coins

- things with holes in them, such as tea strainers, mesh lids and small strainers

- fabrics, scarves, ribbons and lace - these behave in interesting ways when used with an overhead projector providing opportunities for discussion and language development

- natural materials such as cones, leaves and skeleton leaves, twigs, pods, shells and pebbles - the outline, shape and texture of these materials are brought into sharp focus on the light box or overhead projector.

Making the Most of Light and Mirrors, Linda Thornton & Pat Brunton (2009) Featherstone Education
Young Children's Personal, Social and Emotional Development, 3rd Edition, Marion Dowling (2009) SAGE.

Links with EYPS Standards: S8, S10, S11, S12, S15, S16

Links with Ofsted SEF: Section 3, 4b, 4d, 4f

This e-bulletin issue was first published in January 2010
About the author: Linda Thornton and Pat Brunton are early years consultants, trainers and authors and edit Early Years Update www.alcassociates.co.uk

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Exploring Light and Dark with Early Years - Teaching Expertise

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Linda Thornton and Pat Brunton discuss the benefits of playing with light and dark with early years children, offering thinking skills activity ideas.