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There are a lot of possibilities that come with paper, as you are able to put anything you please on it such as drawings of your imagination or a bunch of arts and craft materials. I feel like the only limitations that arise are the ones inside your mind however one limitation about the actual paper I can think of is the size, at times the paper can either be too big or too small for what you’re looking for.  In my piece used on paper I just played around with what I thought would look cool and unique. I wasn’t set on what I was going to create but just let myself put different things onto the paper one step at a time.

The only history that I knew about paper was that it comes from trees before I did any research. Other than that my knowledge was very limited just like my knowledge on art in general before I started this unit.

The history of paper dates back to nearly 2000 years ago when inventors in China crafted cloth sheets, which were to record their drawings and writings. It was made by mixing mulberry bark, hemp and rags with water, mashed into pulp, pressed out the liquid, and hung the thin mat out to dry in the sun. During the 8th century Muslims learned of China’s secret of paper making when they captured a Chinese paper mill. Then once the Muslims invaded Europe they brought that secret with them. The first paper mill was then built in Spain and then paper was being made all around Europe. Across the next 800 years, paper was used for printing important books, bibles, and legal documents. England began making large supplies of paper in the late 15th century and supplied the colonies with paper for many years. Finally, in 1690, the first U.S. paper mill was built in Pennsylvania.

Paper exists majorly in society as it is used not only for children’s drawings but a variety of objects that benefit individuals daily. Paper that is used in textbooks, bibles etc. has helped many individuals learn, dating back to when it was created. The bible that was made from paper exists in religious circumstances and also other cultural backgrounds. Paper was also used to send letters to communicate to one another in different geographical locations. In this context it has benefited people in being able to connect to their culture and religion and communicate to those they cannot reach.

Paper is a material that is used frequently in an early childhood setting. When I was at placement the amount of paper that the children went through per session was insane. It is quite obvious that drawing and painting is one of the most population activities within young children. Hence why paper has become so important as this is what they use to draw and paint on. They can also do other things like cut and pastes different objects or make anything their minds can think of and engage through this material. From my experience crafts is always a hit with the children and I find that this is where they are most engaged and spend their time the most instead of moving from activity to activity which is why I’m really invested into having art as a major activity in my classroom which paper and all sorts of other materials. The beauty about art and especially paper is that there is absolutely no rules whatsoever and you are as free as your mind can take you. That is what so special about using materials such as paper because everyone’s masterpieces will be unique in their own way.
When doing things such as painting and drawing on paper, we agreed as a table group that the progressive approach was more reasonable for young children as at that age they should be free to explore and imagine as they please. You will find that if you try to steer a young child into a direction they are unfamiliar with or uninterested in, this will not encourage them. I find that I’m not very an artistic individual and with that my imagination becomes quite limited.

I definitely have learnt so much more about paper by doing my research as beforehand my knowledge was very limited. I didn't realise that paper had so much history and it has honestly surprised me. Expanding my knowledge on paper has just proven to me how important paper is as an art material in the aspects that it can be used to create many different things and that it holds no rules. It is something I want to be used enormously in my classroom to help children make connections to their art. Although learning more about paper, now I have other questions that have risen such as now how does paper come from trees if it once didn't?

There was one particular thing that jumped out at me when reading about paper. I completely agreed with the statement that experimenting with materials ‘opens up worlds and creates new venues for thinking and doing (Stengers, 2005). It reveals what human and nonhuman bodies can do and produce when they encounter each other’. (Pacini-Ketchabaw, Kind and Kocher, p. 5) I think it is important for children to experiment with materials to extend their thinking, as a wider variety will have better learning effects.

References:
Pacini-Ketchabaw, V., Kind, S. and Kocher, L. (n.d.). Encounters with materials in early childhood education.

Paperrecycles.org. 2019, The History of Paper, viewed 19 November 2019 <https://www.paperrecycles.org/about/the-history-of-paper>

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In my opinion, I believe that junk is unused/unwanted items that people are planning on throwing or giving away. Through research I’ve discovered that the definition of junk is things that are considered to be of no use or value, or of low quality. However I’ve also learnt that ‘Junk’ is also a type of Chinese sailing ship and have been trading since the 2nd century.

The first junk artist was Marcel Duchamp who began creating mostly sculptures from trash and other waste products. Duchamp claimed that art is the context and that it could be made out of manufactured objects that he found himself. The moment that junk art was considered a movement was in the 1950’s through the work of Robert Rauschenburg.

I honestly find junk materials so interesting as you can literally make anything you desire out of unwanted items that another has spared. It makes me very curious as I feel like using junk for art has a deeper meaning in that nothing will ever be useless and it takes an extra creative mind and talent to be able to turn pieces of junk into a masterpiece.

The only thing that I would find problematic with using junk materials in an early childhood sector is that some materials could be harmful to young children or hazardous. Other than that I think that junk materials are a brilliant idea to use in a classroom with young children so they can learn at an early age about things such as recycling and that not everything is rubbish. It is definitely something I want to implement inside my own classroom.

I think that it is important that we adapt to the way children learn and interpret rather than them having to adjust to an educator’s ways. Obviously not all children learn the same and it is important to create an environment where children feel comfortable enough to learn in, which can be achieved by the having different strategies for individual children. For example a child may really enjoy building and being hand’s on is their way of learning. Therefore we can also implement junk materials in the classroom for them to build with. You are not going to know a child’s learning abilities straight away, firstly it is crucial to watch and study the children before making assumptions so that way you can create the best possible outcomes for them.

Arman (Armand Fernandez) was a French-American famous junk artist as it matured in the 1960’s. Some of his most popular work includes Home Sweet Home (1960, gasmasks assemblage, George Pompidou Centre), Nail Fetish (1963, pile of revolvers glued together, Private Collection), and Accumulation of Sliced Teapots (1964, Walker Art Gallery, Minneapolis). His piece Home Sweet Home is rows of gas masks piled against one another and enters the fragility of life and horrors of warfare. Arman wanted to uncover the immediate danger we feel when coming across an object like this. Arman’s belief that society feeds its sense of security with a strong pack instinct is illustrated by the human masks. He belonged to a generation of artists whose lives had been raised on the violence of World War II. His work encourages us to see the world in way future archaeologists of the material may not, through the emotional lenses.

Arman's piece highlights past history and his use of gas masks help to make sense of the times back then. 'It draws our attention, often to new things, or to older things said or presented in new ways. Basically, art asks us to make sense of things, or to figure them out' (Pacini-Ketchabaw, Kind and Kocher, p. 7).

I feel as though I can make connections to Arman's work, as art expresses emotional value. When children are creating art in a classroom, they really are putting their effort into it and they will always be proud of what they create. Of course not all children's art pieces will have much depth as Arman's, but their pieces always hold value of the things they love and take interest in.

I didn't believe that junk and junk artists had much history but I was to be proven wrong once I started researching. Expanding my knowledge on junk has shown that junk materials can show greater effect and emotion and holds much greater value than just being junk. It goes to show that anything can be achieved through the right type of imagination. Therefore I think teaching and implementing junk pieces and art in a classroom is extremely beneficial for young children as they are allowed to experiment with different materials and allows their imaginations to run free.  I want to make sure children in my classroom have access to junk materials.

References:
Dictionary Cambridge 2019, JUNK | meaning in the Cambridge English Dictionary, viewed 19 November 2019 <https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/junk>

Pacini-Ketchabaw, V., Kind, S. and Kocher, L. (n.d.). Encounters with materials in early childhood education.

Sothebys 2019, Arman Home Sweet Home, viewed 19 November 2019 <http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2005/contemporary-art-evening-l05020/lot.11.html>

Widewalls 2019, Junk Art of the 20th Century, viewed 19 November 2019 <https://www.widewalls.ch/junk-art-history-artists-politics>

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I started off very confused on what to make out of the clay. I had the idea of making a 3D rose petal but once getting stuck in I found that it wasn’t going to plan. I decided to then create a maze.  The clay is quite hard however not hard enough that it cant be moved by my touch. The clay feels smooth but it’s not a feeling that I enjoy on my fingers. The only time I would’ve used clay was back in high school during art class and making sculptures, other than that my experience with clay is limited.

The first thing that came to my mind when I started to work with the clay was the scene from the movie ghost with Patrick Swayze where he’s helping her mould the clay sculpture on the wheel. I haven’t watched the movie myself however I am familiar with the iconic scene that has received so much attention since it’s airing. The clay is different from the past material inquiries we’ve used in class, as this is an object that includes touch and moulding it into our creations. It has a distinctive texture that puts it into a different category compared to paper and loose parts. It is a unique piece of art material to create anything imaginable which in my opinion is the only appealing thing as you can make whatever you please. However I am not very fond of the clay and it would not be my first choice to use due to the texture making me feel uncomfortable.

The clay was kind of stiff however you can still get it to mould to what you would like. It has a smooth texture that helps for it to glide into place however it is not as strong as I thought it would be however that could be due to the amount that I was using. Clay has formed as a result of the weathering and erosion of rocks containing the mineral group feldspar (any group of a rock-forming minerals that make up a large proportion of the earth’s crust). Over time, bits of the earth are carried from one place to another by water and collected in areas where the water slows down to a trickle. Clay be found anywhere but its main use is for pottery due to it’s good elasticity.

On the particular day that we were using clay I was feeling a bit agitated so I was using the clay to relieve my tensions. Creating my own sculpture with the clay helped take my mind away from my troubles and I started to feel a better and felt my stress briefly melt away. I find it interesting how art materials can be used because although people use art as a hobby and interest, it can also be used as a getaway from your mind and what’s going on around you, like a distraction. People can get lost in art.

I feel like I have learnt more about clay from this unit as prior, I had barely any experience with clay expect in primary school art class.  I would not say that I am an expert on clay or its history as there is still a lot more that I can learn. However through this unit I have been able to learn about its history and where it came from, what it is used for and the different ways that it can be used. I have also learnt how to manipulate the clay and get it to move in the way that I want.  I have also discovered ways that I can use clay in my classroom for fun way to help children learn and discover art such as creating their own sculptures and teaching them where clay comes from. I feel as though there is a lot more history of clay for me to discover.

Although I have found it out how clay was formed, I have not been able to find the same answer for when clay was discovered and first used which is something I would like to know.

There was something I found really interesting when reading up on clay. ‘Not everything is human construction, that there is no norm, and that each piece of clay acts differently’ (Pacini-Ketchabaw, Kind and Kocher, p. 63) highlights not only the attributes to clay but makes connections to young children. I say this because children are unique in their own ways; there is no such thing as a normal child as they have different attributes and act differently. Therefore this may help children to connect to clay on their own as they can feel they can create whatever they please as there is no wrong answer to art.

References:
KinderArt 2019, Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Clay – Kinderart, viewed 19 November 2019 <https://kinderart.com/art-lessons/sculpture/about-clay/>

Pacini-Ketchabaw, V., Kind, S. and Kocher, L. (n.d.). Encounters with materials in early childhood education.

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Personally I believe that listening to light is not necessarily done through your ears, but your eyes instead. When watching light we are able to understand its story, it’s movements and what it is trying to achieve, which may tell us more than sound could. I find that listening with our ears may be difficult as light may not have much sound and light is a more complicated material. With light comes shadow and through this we are able to create moving pictures on the wall or patterns. We normally just think of light as brightness that helps us see, when it is much more than that. Shadow and transparency teaches us that there is a deeper depth to light than just illumination. Light shows that there are other things to consider such as shape, contrast, brightness, colour and detail.

A way that we can think with light is how can we use it to engage and fascinate individuals and draw them to look further into the art. We can also think what type of light can we use to create different art pieces such as patterns or moving pictures, what is going to help tell a story?

Light arrives on our planet after a speedy trip from the Sun, 149 million km (93 million miles away). Light travels at 186,000 miles (300,000 km) per second, so the light we are seeing now was still tucked away in the Sun about eight minutes ago. For hundreds of years scientists have argued whether light is a wave or particle. Its easy to see why as In some ways, light behaves just like a wave: light reflects off a mirror, for example, in exactly the same way that waves crashing in from the sea "reflect" off sea walls and go back out again.

Light has different aspects that I’ve already mentioned such as contrast, brightness, colour, detail, shadow, highlights and transparency. When using all or some of these with light, you begin to quickly realise that light goes deeper than you originally thought, just like in the ‘Altelier Raggio Di Luce, The wonder of learning’ video, we are shown varieties of different light play which include shadows of shapes on the wall or light boxes and shadows of children and different coloured dancing lasers. By using light in this way, instead of looking at light from a science perspective we can begin to look at it through an artistic lens. When our eyes see something bright, colourful and illuminating, it catches our attention immediately. I feel as though this is why the children in the ‘Altelier Raggio Di Luce, The wonder of learning’ video are so fascinated by all the light art as it comes in different colours and size and also using light together can create other illusions that children and even adults haven’t seen before.

Light is different from the other inquiries as it is more complex and not exactly hands on compared to paper, junk or clay. I feel as though light may also be hard to resource and have available. The other materials can be touched whereas light may not be able to be touched. Light responds to other materials in its environment by reflecting them like a mirror or creating different illusions such as things like rainbows.

I feel like out of all the materials, light has definitely been the trickiest to comprehend for me. Beforehand my knowledge was very limited on light, and now even after researching I still feel like there is a lot more I could learn about it. However most important I have learnt that light has greater depth in that it can be used in art and can be more infatuating and engaging which was shown to be when I was on placement as the children were very interested in the light box that had pink sand on top. I was able to make connections as I found light a unique way of thinking with art as different materials ‘provoke different ways of thinking as a child engages and works with them’ (Pacini-Ketchabaw, Kind and Kocher, p. 4) therefore using light with art can identity new thinking in which new bits of art are created that may not be achieved through other materials. I think that it is important to have light in a classroom for children to play and create with, as it is something they may not have experience with before and therefore can engage a different area of thinking. I want my classroom to explore all aspects of light to attract the children so they can see what it can do and create. I am still concerned as to how light came about in art and who first experimented with light with an artistic lens?

References:

ATELIER RAGGIO DI LUCE - The wonder of learning – 2011, 2012, online video, Luca Fornaciari, viewed 19 November 2019 <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3iodP-fRKQ>

Explain that Stuff 2019. Light science for kids - A simple introduction to optics, viewed 19 November 2019 <https://www.explainthatstuff.com/light.html>

Pacini-Ketchabaw, V., Kind, S. and Kocher, L. (n.d.). Encounters with materials in early childhood education.