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Encounter materials mean to us that it affects us, force us into action, demand from us, prompt us to care concern us and bring us into question (Pacini-Ketchabaw et al. 2017).

Aim

·       To tell stories of what happened when we think with materials when we choose to see materials as movements, as encounters, as assemblages, as ecologies as time

We will learn

·       How materials move through time and space; how materials move us physically and emotionally; how time moves; how air moves; how bodies move; and more

Inquiring into materiality

·       Interaction with materials

·       The components of the material, history, condition and how we interact with it

·       An object that takes on different ideas and meanings

·       Materials have multiple uses and meanings

Experimentation

·       Materials, objects, places and environments are bound to experimentation

·       Experimentationon opens up and creates different ways of thinking and doing, how children use materials to show their imagination and representation of their world

·       Experimentationon allows us to open up perception and understanding of what is possible

The arts as Mode of Inquiry

·       Process is important not an end product

·       No right or wrong

·       The studio has no set standards or requirements

·       Failure and mistakes are a part of the artistic process

The studio

·       Space is not defined

·       Attentions shifted-thought, talk and values

Reggio

·       Art as central to children's learning process

·       Engaging with the arts in a deep connection to artistic ways of knowing and being

Inviting conversation through images

·       Proof of objects existence

·       Photography is used to help make visible a child’s interior world and gain insight into children’s lives and experiences

Diffraction as a mode of inquiry

·       To diffract our thoughts and pedagogical moments are not in order, stories or narrative but art more like mindmap with various directions and approaches

Diffraction with concepts

·       It emerges into different approaches
(Pacini-Ketchabaw 2017, p. 1-21)

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Family

G (3 years 2 months) sits at the drawing table, there are colourful markers and white A4 papers. She starts to pick one piece of paper and put it in front of her. She moves her arm to pick one pink marker.

G starts to draw a circle, another one next to the first one and she draws two more circles one higher and one lower. Inside circles, she draws two dots, and one line looks like a smiling face.

G also draws lines as a body. Educator approached her and asked, "what are you drawing?"
G pointed to each circle of the faces and told me who are they.

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P (3 years) also sits next to G and starts drawing with a black marker. At first, she draws a small circle on the left side of the paper, and she also draws lots of lines at the bottom of the circle. In the middle of the paper, she starts drawing big circles. Educator also asked P "What are you drawing? P said "This one is a jellyfish and this one is a snake. When P draws the second page, she uses a marker lid for drawing a circle.

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Making a studio for stop motion animation movie (12/10/2022)

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Making a studio for stop motion animation movie (12/10/2022)

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For assessment 2, I need to make a stop-motion animation movie. After the first week of learning about encounter materials in Early Childhood Education, I wanted to start our paper experiment with leftover paper and a cardboard box because it is easy to find, and I had already in my house after ordering a product from Amazon. This brown paper and cardboard box had a life and a purpose, it was in the box to protect the product from damage during the delivery time. It had not been produced for children’s use (Pacini-Ketchabaw 2017).
Children started to rip, tear off and paste paper inside the cardboard box.  This collage activity continued during the day inside the room and outside during outdoor playtime.

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Session 3: Cultural Appropriation from Community Early Learning Australia (Koori Curriculum) (11/10/2022)

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Session 3: Cultural Appropriation from Community Early Learning Australia (Koori Curriculum) (11/10/2022)

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Educators are aware that indigenous artwork shouldn’t be copied because it represents important cultural stories, connects to the country of the artist or is tied to a particular country or a particular language group’s story.

So we could

·       Engage an Aboriginal person to guide our exploration of Aboriginal culture and art.

·       Explore the artwork of Aboriginal artists with your children.

·       Explore the history of Aboriginal art.

·       Explore the symbols used in Aboriginal art.

The best way to ensure it doesn’t is only explored Aboriginal art techniques with an Aboriginal person working alongside children and educators in your classroom.

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Guidelines for Studio Exploration (The language of Art-Ann Pelo 2007, p. 7-19)

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Guidelines for Studio Exploration (The language of Art-Ann Pelo 2007, p. 7-19)

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Teacher’s role

·      Children to explore the sensuality and beauty of colour, texture, movement, lines and curves and space through encounters with a wide range of media and materials

·      Children to strengthen the dispositions of artists and scientists, dispositions to look carefully, to pay attention to detail and nuance and to work with intention and awareness

·      Children to use their reflections to guide their exploration and also to collaborate in ways that honour each person’s work

·      Children to become knowledgeable about a range of media, developing skills that allow them to use each medium with ease

·      Children to be in dialogue with each other to take new perspectives and deepen their relationships with each other

Encourage children to slow down to take plenty fo with their work.

Children need to have many different opportunities to explore a particular art medium or material.  It takes many encounters for a child’s relationship with an art medium to grow into easy familiarity.

Documentation

Written documentation should tell the story of children’s exploration and play and also reflect on their play to share. Educators should share the plans about how they will extend their explorations and they should invite families to think about their children’s play.

·      Observation note

·      Photographs

·      Transcriptions of children’s conversations

·      Sample of their work

Displaying children’s work

When we display children’s artwork we should think about how to tell the story of art exploration.

·      Create a display against a neutral background.

·      Include close-up photos of the children at work on their art.

·      Keep text to a minimum.

·      Use a large font.

·      Considering giving a title to the display.

·      Consider framing children’s two-dimensional art by placing black paper behind it.

Creating Portfolios

This work allows an artist to revisit earlier work, noticing themes that have held constant throughout their work, different techniques that they tried, or changes to themes or styles over time.

Reflection

Reflection is an essential element of this bold work. After each art exploration takes time to reflect on what happened in the studio.  When we reflect on our experiences in the studio we begin to grow our understanding and routines. Reflection helps us invent our way in studio practices.

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Clay in the river, Pacini-Ketchabaw et al. 2017

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Group learning (clay in the river)

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After session 2, I set up the space for a small group of children to create their artwork. The room has space for artwork, but it allows only 2-3 children. So, I arranged the workspace at the big table. I also covered the table with white butcher paper by guiding from Ann Pelo's book 'The language of Art'.
When I was setting up the space, P and G approached me to express their interest to do drawing and painting. Before the children started drawing or painting, I showed them the picture of the Mother Nature mural in Westmeadows.
Children started experimenting with paints and materials and even used their hands and body to mix and paint colours.
Children continued to dip and mix colours with their paint brushes on the paper and the paint colours were getting darker and changing blueish and greenish.
During the painting time, the children were disturbed by other children who wanted to join in painting but most of the paper space was covered by paint and they needed to finish quickly because of the group photo shoot. The room was very busy because children's photography was going on and we were not allowed to use our yard because of the flood so plumbers tried to fix the water pump in the drainage.
Next time, I needed to prepare the group painting more quiet time with one more educator to assist for children to clean up and wash their hands.

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Group learning (folding in, Pacini-Ketchabaw et al. 2017)

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N(3years 1month) and T(3years and 2 months) are exploring clay with shells, tree leaves and rocks. They push it, squeeze it, cut it and rolled it. N said "I am making a casle. This is a window and this is a river."

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Reflection of clay activity with children (17/10/2022)

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Reflection of clay activity with children (17/10/2022)

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Today I introduced a new art medium, clay.  My children have never played with this material. Before setting the space, I explained to the children and showed them what is the clay, how to play with other natural materials such as shells, tree leaves, and rocks.
Some children hesitated to touch it, when they touched it then they looked at the educator to express "What is this?" because it is too firm or maybe they need to use more muscles than playdough. I said to them "It is clay. You can press it, push it with shells, and make some patterns."
Two children started playing with clay.
I found that once children started playing with clay, they stayed for a long time to explore with materials. I also found that playing with clay made children very calm and relaxed.
Charles Schwall (2015) explains about first encounters with materials, "children's first encounters with materials involve exploration and action. This is a necessary step in the children's process of understanding" (p. 50).

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T (3 years 2 months) is painting alone. Easel painting allows the child to discover "how it spreads, how it layers, how it mixes and transforms itself and others" (p. 46).

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During the group painting time, G (3 years and 2 months) is drawing her family with a paintbrush.

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"Art experiences for young children often provide opportunities to shift from one mode of representation(language) to another as student translate concepts from one medium into another." It opens up new ideas and possibilities (p. 80).
(Quoted from Pedagogical Documentation in Early Years Practice)

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R (2 years and5 months) ripped colour papers and pasted them. She tried to produce her ortwork as meaning-making with paper.

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V (3 years and 3 months) is cutting shapes for her pasting.

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P (3 years) push to add all the natural materials on top of the clay.

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Children draw their wishes on colour paper.

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Children are exploring colour and light to see through the colour water bag outside. They try to see different objects through the colour bag to check for any differences.

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During the second week, P (3 years) ripped a small piece of clay and put it on the board. She added a tree leaf to the clay and spread it. She repeated this action again and again.
"Clay responds to children's movements as they work with it" (p. 65).

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G (3years 3 months) is mixing colour of paint with hands.

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After session 2's learning about creativity, I thought about how to support children to be creative and imaginative and help them to find the meaning of what they do. According to Susan Harris Mackay (2015), educators should design experiences for children that would promote the development of creativity. She also says that a school could be the place in our communities where creativity was nurtured sustained and matured with intentional strategies, opening a door into a new world of possibility and hope.
Charles Schwall (2015) said in a lecture: "To be creative is to be in a state of becoming." Educators should "provide materials and experiences that facilitate personal connection. The learning process is a creative process" (p. 151).
As an educator, I should provide a space where children can explore and learn freely for their learning.

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After learning this unit, I understood that materials are moving with children's ideas and play but I had so many wonders about setting up boundaries, and what is a good design for the art space for the children. Sherri-Lynn Yazback (2013) writes that the boundaries are relaxed, and the children explore more creatively and imaginatively. How do I encourage the children to go beyond the boundaries which I set up, what are good designs and environments for visual arts that children to explore materials and encounter in early childhood settings?

During the making of the digital visual journal, I also thought that how to record children’s artwork visible and the process of their learning. I tried to follow what Malaguzzi (2015) explains “try to capture the right moments, and then find the right approaches, for bringing together into a fruitful dialogue, their meanings and interpretations with those of the children” (p.117).

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Lightbox play- Children explore shapes and colours during lightbox play.

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During the class, we exchanged ideas and practices on how to implement to explore lights. There are numerous ideas that children can investigate and learn the concepts of sight and a touch of lights in the article 'Light play' such as light boxes, Echo Tables, Over-Head Projectors, Light Sculptures, and a Webcam with Projector lightbox (p. 3).

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Fleet, A, Patterson, C & Robertson, J 2017, Pedagogical Documentation in Early Years Practice: Seeing through Multiple Perspectives, Sage Publications Ltd.

Gandini, L, Hill, L, Cadwell, L & Schwall, C 2015, L Gandini, L Hill, L Cadwell & C Schwall (eds), In the spirit of the studio: learning from the atelier of Reggio Emilia, 2nd edn, Teachers College Press.

Koori Curriculum, viewed 11 October 2022,
Can non-Indigenous people do Aboriginal art? – Koori Curriculum

Light Play Education Resource 2017, Ipswich Art Gallery.
LightPlay-2017-Education-Resource.pdf (ipswichartgallery.qld.gov.au)

Pacini-Ketchabaw, V, Kind, S & Kocher, LLM 2017, Encounters With Materials in Early Childhood Education, Routledge, New York, NY.

Pacini-Ketchabaw, V, Nxumalo, F, Kocher, L, Elliot, E & Sanchez, A 2015, Journeys Reconceptualizing Early Childhood Practices through Pedagogical Narration, University of Toronto Press, Canada.

Yazbeck, S-L 2013, 'Movement and Clay', Canadian Children, vol. 38, no. 1, pp47-49.

Pelo, A 2007, The language of art: inquiry-based studio practices in early childhood settings, Redleaf Press.