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Look at me a little closer
Look beyong the thing I was to what I could become
Fold me, mold me, play with me
You will see I am soft yet I am strong
So much left in me yet to be something new
Look at me a little closer before you throw me away
Let me be something beautiful only your eye can see

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Progressive approach to art allows children to be the artist and view the materials without rules and restrictions. Children can look at paper, cardboard, boxes and play with it with their own interpretation of what art can come from these recycled materials. Paper and art as a free expression, devoid of ‘hidden meaning’ Levick (1986).

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Junk is anything that is thrown away or recycled that can be given a new life. Things like cardboard boxes, containers, old wooden objects or plastic tubs. Literally anything we throw away can be reused by children in a safe creative environment.

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How can I use junk in my teachings?
In a society where everything is ‘fast fashion’ and children get new things on the daily, I believe it is important to teach children how to make meaningful engaging activities out of recycled materials. How can we turn the junk we throw away everyday into things to be used and enjoyed. In my teaching practice it would be good to go to recycling stores together to allow the children to choose what they would they think they could use to play with or engage with. Running activities where together we turn old wood pallets into seating, garden beds or huts.
With the younger children setting up safe play spaces like the one in the photo below.

-A planned excursion to the Tread Sculptures, Melbourne. This is a Junk sculpture trail made by a local artist who uses junk metal and upscaled finds to make sculptures. These are displayed amongst native bush along a single pathed walking track in the bend of islands. An excursion away or camp trip where children can learn about the local fora and fauna whisky experiment junk art.

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Junk play area set up in my Toddler 1 room at work. I went to a local recycling plant and collected large cardboard boxes which I cut windows out of and invited the children to paint I also found small cardboard tubing and a large silver aircon vent which the children used as a tunnel.

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“Pinch it, poke it, press it, shape it, throw it, scrape it, from it, lift it. Clay is extremely versatile. It can be sliced, engraved, embellished, glazed, washed, carried, burnished, heaved, fired, dropped, shaped, sculpted, soaked, sprayed, hollowed, altered, polished, painted, pounded, flattened, carved, transformed. Clay moves, wobbles, weeps, sticks, shrinks, dries, extends, gestures, melts, tickles, sits, tears, breaks, collapses, rises, attaches, shudders, rests, accumulates” (Pacini-Ketchebaw 2016, p.62).
Clay this natural resource can do so much, there is so much learning for children to explore with clay.
Clay is demanding and fickly it takes patience, trust and understanding of what clay is, to be able to moulded to our will.

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How can paper be used in my teaching practice?
-paper mache
-paper flowers like the ones in the above photo
-decorations and jewellery
-young children can use paper as a sensory experience scrunching it up and feeling it unravel, the sound of paper when it rips.
-home made hats and costumes

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Junk playgrounds started in 1943, in Copenhagen, Denmark with the most famous ‘The Land’ locates in Wales. Junk playgrounds are run by Playworkers, adults who run the sites and supervise but don’t intervene in the children’s play. These spaces filled with junk allow children to create their own play with recycled materials, take risks and discover their own sense of learning without adult intervention.

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Slow clay in Collingwood is a studio that offers a club for children aged 8years and over, though us is aged the older children it’s a good resource to have for excursions to local studios. Clay Club is a tactile experience which aims to focus not on the take home item but instead the experience of “experimenting and playing with a responsive material that can be manipulated in many varying ways” (Slowclay 2019)

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Is clay a better option for us with the declining environment? Should we stop making mass plastic thow away plates and cups and instead opt for clay made ones? Can we adapt to the time consuming process of making objects witb clay in this fast paced modern world? Where does clay come from, is it an infinite or finite rescource?

More than human aspect how can it link to the indigenous aspect?
Earth minerals, rock and clay have a deep connection to indigenous Australians who lived for and with the land they used only what the land provided, mixing different coloured dirt and clays for paint and using fingers, sticks leaves as paint brushes. Using clay art can help connect children to indigenous Australian art and the value the indigenous culture have of using what the earth provides.

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What does it feel like. How it is different to the other materials how is it different to play dough. What do I have to do to make it move?
Clay is quite cold and hard like the ground up rock and minerals it is but when used with water it moulds and becomes quite soft, bending to the human manipulation. It is different to play dough as it starts off solid and needs a bit of love and touch to mould to what we want it to do whereas play dough is already very pliable from the beginning whilst both can harden again over time, when cooked clay can turn quite strong.

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Pacini-Ketchabaw, V, Kind, S & Kocher, L 2016, Encounters With Materials in Early Childhood Education, Routledge, viewed <https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/vu/detail.action?docID=4649662>.

theJunkMap 2019, An upscaled sculpture trail and art buying adventure on the edge of Melbourne, theJunkMap, viewed 19 November 2019, <theJunkMap.com.au/portfolio/Melbourne-sculpture-trail/>.

SlowClub 2019, Clay club, SlowClub, viewed 16 November 2019, <slowclay.com>.

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Light play can use shadows for activities such as puppet play or determine where the sun is.
Different hued glass or bulbs to change the way we see light through objects.
Does light bend or reflect off different surfaces?

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Emotional? Different coloured here’s of light can have varying affects on it emotions.
Introducing science to children, experimenting with shadows and time of day, seasons, surfaces... how w does all this effect how lights looks to us?

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Shadow
Light box
Scientific

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- clay bowls for use in school when eating lunch or afternoon tea.
-clay cups or jugs for drinking out off
-clay toys?? Can we make clay toys, is this safe?
-clay sculptures
-paintings.