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Play with bubbles. Having some water and soap first. Then I used a straw to blow bubbles for few times. I recorded the different of bubbles when there’s light or no light.

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Through exploration in this digital visual journal, I have learnt to observe an object in broader view; simple daily things are full potential to contain meanings and connections to children. Engaging with different materials supports the children’s development as they allow them to fully access and explore the world through their senses and creativity. These materials can be found easily in any daily activities as arts can be available in any forms & shapes. Children have numerous chances to play and investigate how to encounters the materials at early childhood. Consequently, obtained experiences can be applied in their learning including literacy, problem solving skills and fine/gross motor skills. Moreover, this kind of art is open-ended and playful in nature (Catherine 2014). Children can engage with materials at their developmental level and in ways that interest them. Children are motivated to learn about various materials and to make decision about how to use them as they explore and discover. This process art is all about what how children explore, experiment and learn from what they are creating. It allows children to try out a variety of techniques, tools and processes as they engage in artful experiences and find ways to express their feelings, thoughts and ideas.

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I composed this artefact by placing random little things on my table at that moment on a paper. With a complete blank mind, I just started with 1 dot and keep dotting around the object. Layer and layer of different colour dots bring together a picture of fireworks for me.

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I saw and gathered 2-3 handful of small stones under the trees for my placement. I wonder what I should do with them. Can I paint them? Can I throw them? Since I would like to make some sounds, I put them directly into my water bottle and shake them upside down and repeated. It produces a sound like heavy cats and dogs rain.

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After going to Hungry Jacks for some snacks, there’s a straw that comes with the drink. Besides, my favourite activity is to cut anything into small pieces or small strings. As the result, I cut the straw and it seemed to me like a flower. Using the straw as a print, dip it into watercolour paint and tap it on a piece of paper in random patterns.

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This experiment can use any things you see on the table, for example, a key, a rubber, a pen, a string, etc. This is related to the concept of Assemblage of paint, especially improvising. This experiment happened along with what I did previously. One by one, colour by colour and layer by layer, an abstract picture released and in accordance with different imaginative minds, there’ll be a different meaning. Personally, the circle looks like a bright sun to me and there’s a heart. Moreover, there’s another way to improvise in art, such as randomly scrabbling a line and drawing a duck from it.

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According to Pacini-Ketchabaw, Kind and Kocher (2016), there’s a different between experimenter and what the children is experimenting on. An open-ended object allows children to engage actively and attentively in the experience they do. Additionally, because of the process of exploring art, the children will evolve from simple exploration to more representation. As they imagine and investigate created materials, they learn how different types of media can be used to communicate. They have opportunities to construct and build things on their own.

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Children love to play with water and bubbles (Mcpherson 2020). This activity can use a wide range of tools to make bubbles, your hands or straw. After that, make use of any lights available around (natural light or electric light), pointing at the bubbles and observing the visual of light reflection in bubbles. Without light, the bubbles are white colour. Then the bubbles are still white when light is on but it also reflects the brightness of the torch to produce a glitter effect. The concept of this artefact is light, I can extend this exploration by pouring it on different surfaces to investigate the changes in bubbles’ properties and light’s shade.

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The children’s brain and eyes’ coordination are stimulated to work since it’s having the children to engage and prolong their interest as focus into one thing (Mcpherson 2020). Moreover, this activity changes the result if the bubbles are present in the light or the dark surrounding environment (Thornton & Brunton 2010). Children can encounter the science, especially the changeability that is involved during their play. Having the children touch and feel the textures of water and bubbles as well as the vision of light reflection help children to understand and promotes their curiosity about this fundamental concept. Furthermore, the reflection of light enables people to see things more clearly in detail. In addition, they can enjoy with their friends or educators sharing their thoughts and creativity about what they see and what they imagine the light looks like to them. It provides the opportunity for them to communicate and use their senses to understand the characteristics of materials.

The educator needs to make sure this activity is carried out under supervision for children. This is because different children have different levels of development in blowing things.

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The main concept of this artefact is about sound. Apart from my exploration, I could replace the stones with water, sand or rice to create different sounds. Children normally respond to sounds like noise and voices. As they grow up, different sounds utilised their hearing to support their learning and connection to surrounding things.

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This artefact connects to the concept of Assemblage again. When I first started this work, there was a prediction of a flower print. However, the surprising expectation occurred when different colourful flowers prints have overlapped each other. This material can be used in many ways, including blowing, mixing, dripping or spreading. In my perspective, the exciting I figured out at last that, the patterns of blue and pink remind me of Sakura, Japanese national flower. Also, the red and yellow firework reminds me of the apricot flower which presents in the Vietnamese New Year Holiday. The tone of yellow and red demonstrates the richness and happiness in my country during Lunar New Year as well.

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I randomly picked this pulp carton on the street. At first, I don't know whether I should paint it or not. However, I was thinking about the technique of poking things like stamping but deeper. I created as many holes as I can, from small to big ones. Then I switched on my phone's torch and turned off the light. I aimed the box at the ceiling to show the stars; small holes showed small stars and big ones demonstrates bigger stars. Personally, I used to make this for my nephew when teaching them about how beautiful the sky is at night in rural areas in which they've never been.

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Pacini-Ketchabaw, Kind and Kocher (2016) emphasized the importance of the capabilities of different elements’ interactions rather than their properties. These types of experiences support children’s fine motor development as they use their hands and fingers. Also, their cognitive development is supported as they observe, problem-solve and think critically about their own work. Their social-emotional development will flourish as they are able to try new ideas and experience success. It also offers many opportunities for them to work together with their peers or siblings or parents. Their language development is supported when children talk about their artwork and describe their unique creations.

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Catherin, M 2014, ‘What is process art for kids and why is it important?’, Fun-A-Day!, viewed 12 March 2022, <https://fun-a-day.com/process-art-for-kids/>.

Hanna, W 2016, The children’s music studio: A Reggio-inspired approach, Oxford University Press.

Mcpherson, K 2020, ‘Why do kids love bubbles? There are some major benefits to this obsession’, romper, viewed 10 March 2022, <https://www.romper.com/p/why-do-kids-love-bubbles-there-are-some-major-benefits-to-this-obsession-22767314>.

Pacini-Ketchabaw, V, Kind, S & Kocher, LLM 2016, Encounters with materials in early childhood education, Routledge.

Penfold, L 2019, ‘Material Matters in Children’s Creative Learning’, Journal of Design and Science, viewed 11 March 2022, <https://jods.mitpress.mit.edu/pub/bwp6cysy/release/1>.

Saracho, ON 2011, An Integrated Play-Based Curriculum for Young Children, Taylor & Francis Group, Florence.

Thornton, L & Brunton, P 2010, ‘Exploring light and dark with early years’, Teaching Expertise, Wordpress, viewed 10 March 2022, <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>.

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Art is foundational to the learning experience for children because they learn through play. It inspires creativity, curiosity, inventiveness and opportunities for them to learn about themselves, their environment and playing with others. It is essential that every child has an arts-rich experience every day. Because the arts allow children to experience and learn other subjects more clearly. They’ll have better understanding of math, science and language if they’ve had a chance to experience through the arts. Early and prolonged exposure to the arts helps instil in their skills such as critical problem solving and creativity. These are all to promote children to have a healthy and well-balanced life.

Therefore, this art journal is kept for documenting my art exploration in regard to Early Childhood Education Settings. This journal is a form of art where I can practice and include photos/videos/audios to introduce my creativity and techniques using to produce these following works. The concepts of this digital visual journal are varied based on the used materials including assemblage, movement, encounter and ecologies. Additionally, I will explore it by my feelings about the materials. Some may happen the way I want it to be, some may not; this is to record the process of art. Moreover, reading the books from online session is essential to support my art ideas, process, discussion and implementation.

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There are many ways to sketch a leave, but I prefer to use the shadow of a phone's torch to outline the leave's shape. After finishing the template of the leave, I basically have no idea to do next. Suddenly, I saw my water bottle cap. I popped up an idea of printing the cap to decorate the leave template. The process art is so intriguing and surprising as the leave paintings are so colourful with random colour circles.

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The concept of this artefact is the light, especially the shadow of things. Treating this box as a piece of the galaxy that contains many stars are amazing. This required the understanding and creativity of the explorer on this type of material. Playing with light bolster children’s curiosity about much scientific knowledge like reflection and certain characteristics of light. At first, I’m a bit struggled to figure out the way to point this art at. Then, turning off the room light to have a dark environment can promote this exploration (Thompson & Brunton 2010). I was a little bit amazed by the further the phone’s torch, the bigger the stars.

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According to Thompson and Brunton (2010), not only children but also adults enjoy playing with light which creates magical experiences. These visual arts are considered as a science play with light. More than that, trying with different shapes of holes or different light colours may introduce surprising sensory exploration. The children’s attention is captured for a period of time due to natural curiosity. As this vision art imitates a natural phenomenon, light investigation encourages their appreciation and awareness of nature beauty. Inviting them to these interesting materials allow them to encounter a different concept of materials in their daily life.

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Bottle cap can be considered as recycle materials at home and there are many ways to make use of this. Apart from my artefact, it can be used as a math game with a bottle caps’ collection, or a thrown object in physical activities. For example, the colourful bottle cap can capture their attention and interests to enjoy and play to learning. They can use for math like number sums and sorting. In my art, the children can count how many colour dots. The repetition of circle dots related to the concept of Assemblage especially emerging (Pacini-Ketchabaw, Kind & Koche 2016). Moreover, it’s a firm and strong materials, it’s such a great thing to promote the children’s fine motor development. Their little fingers are encouraged to manipulate the strength, which is important for future, especially writing. In addition, children are promoted to imagine and brings another dimension of this daily object to their creative ways.

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The idea of using plastic bottle caps in art improves children’s skill in literacy and math. As the children use their curiosity to explore this material, their imagination play can support them to learn about social and practical problems including solving strategies and approaches. These learning can be transferred and helpful for mature stage. More than that, the educators should encourage the children to explore the materials in their creative mind (Penfold 2019). Supporting them by suggestion approaches could help them to carry on and apply in later learning.

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This material allows the children to develop not only their listening but also their concentration skills and physical movement. Interactions with sound support the way people express feelings and expression as well (Saracho 2011). Moreover, they can develop their communications skills. For example, they hear something dissimilar to them, they may start a conversation and ask questions about what they’ve listened. As they need to concentrate to recognise and describe exactly what they’ve heard, it promotes their critical thinking as well as taking initiatives in learning.