# data[].attributes.body
Children who grew up in this modern age are exposed to multiple electronic devices. Especially children growing up in the city might see the light on when it’s dark. This could lead to misconceptions of light. It’s important to deliver the right concept as it’s crucial for the next stage of learning.

The research results found that there was a misconception in the understanding of children under the age of 10 so they experienced confusion and assumed that light was a lamp and some other electronic objects such as televisions, LCDs and other artificial light sources.
(Boyes & Stanisstreet, cited in Mahshulah et al. 2020, p. 787)

Learning itself is uncomfortable as we are introduced to something new that we have never encountered before. Using lights, which we can see everywhere, will attract children’s attention and eagerness to learn through fun activities.

There is no one of a place or something that is not touched by the light.
(Mahshulah et al. 2020, p. 787₎

# data[].attributes.body
Exploration activities using light can stimulate critical thinking skills in children.
(Mahshulah et al. 2020, p. 1)

Natural light is great for children to learn about the science concept as they observe the sky, cloud, and rain movement.The formation of a rainbow is what often interests children. Make conversations with children about their thoughts on the rainbow. Have they noticed the rainbow? Why is there a rainbow? Colours on the rainbow? Any stories they have heard before about the rainbow?If there’s no rainbow, we can create it by using a hose that has a nozzles option and making the water drop the smallest to the sunny area. By moving it around, we would be able to see the rainbow. Children can also be encouraged to draw the rainbow they see. This can trigger children’s thinking in the colour order of the rainbow.

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
Natural light - the change of sky in two minutes

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Untitled video - Made with Clipchamp (2)

# data[].attributes.body
When the group of strangers asked me and my friends to join them for the team challenge, we were initially hesitant and shy to join. Because it was in the public, an open area. Because we feared being stared at and judged. Because we don’t dare to be different. But we eventually joined them happily because we speak the same languages: music and dancing!

This triggers my thought: what will children do in this case? Why children will be the first ones to follow? Since when did some of them slowly lose this?

Since birth, children demonstrate that they have a voice, that they know how to listen, and that they want others to listen to them
(Rinaldi 2009, p. 237).

It’s their first effort to make sense of the world.

But we, adults, are not listening to them, or we are listening with judgement and prejudice.

The child has a hundred languages
(and a hundred hundred hundred more)
but they steal ninety-nine
(The hundred languages of children)

# data[].attributes.body
Practice of 'emergent listening'

# data[].attributes.body
Deep listening will help adults and children better understand each other. Music and movement are the general languages used in this listening, understanding and learning process.

The intersections of body, dance, and painting, stretching the possibilities and feeling a sense of the lived/living relationships of body-material, surface-and-space.
(Pacini-Ketchabaw V et al. 2017, p. 9)

As we are all born to be musical at birth, children in any age group will be successfully involved in this learning experience. Depending on the age group, movement and more complex context songs are included.
Children could dance to the music played on the digital devices or simply sing, and clap their hands to make beat by the educators. Changes to the lyrics could potentially be introduced as children start to develop their vocabulary. Educators initiate the movement and invite children to join.
Attention to all children as they join in should be considered. Why are they joining in? Why do they leave? Do they like this song? Have they already known the vocabulary used?
Most importantly, children get to choose the song the would like. Songs that have oversimple, repetitive lyrics or hidden curriculum should be carefully considered.

# data[].attributes.body
I hear the voice of my mother
I would know it anywhere
Coming up from in my body
Like a song that’s in the air
Mother's Voice (The Sweet Water Warblers 2020)

# data[].attributes.body
“How children and how other materials respond to paint’s provocations also differ as each participates in the process. Nothing is predictable or set. Possibilities are endless.”
(Pacini-Ketchabaw V et al. 2017, p. 17)

Invite children to collect things that they would like to paint on or used it to paint with. It could be natural loose parts such as leaves, rocks, branches, etc. or paper, newspaper, their bodies, art smock, etc. Paint will be displayed on a low surface outdoor and let children freely engage with it. After play cleaning is also offered.

# data[].attributes.body
Leave are the platform to be painted on

# data[].attributes.body
"Paint became something to think with rather than a tool to develop toddlers’ sensory skills. In this way, paint acted as both verb and noun. "
(Ingold, cited in Pacini-Ketchabaw V et al. 2017, p. 46).

Paint offers endless possibilities to experience. We can use ‘paint’ to ‘paint’ on anywhere, with anything, by any colours. The leaves, natural loose parts, are now used to paint and to be painted on. Paint brings about concern across various elements: how they entangle, assemble? how do we start painting? how do we end it?.

"What are the rituals, rhythms, and tempo of painting?"

Paint tells it story by inviting other materials, us and children to engage on various platforms with different movement, actions and ‘ways of being and becoming’.

“Paint is always open to creation and always sustaining the relations and ecologies of emerging assemblages.”
(Pacini-Ketchabaw V et al. 2017, p. 8)

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
Creation of music by compiling loose parts and existing instrument

# data[].attributes.body
An interesting ‘encounter’ of charcoal and clay. A new, unexpected way to ‘perceive and act with in the world, unexpected relations, transversal connections’

# data[].attributes.body
Davis, R, Vitry MD, Erlewine, M & Lou, L (The Sweet Water Warblers) 2020, Mother’s Voice, online audio, accessed 3 March 2023,<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mL06gdyimwM>.

Mahshulah, ZA, Syaodih, E & Rachmawati, Y 2020, ‘The ray of light: an activity approach of Reggio Emilia’, The 2nd International Conference on Elementary Education, Department of Early Childhood Education, Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia, pp. 1–6, viewed <http://proceedings.upi.edu/index.php/icee/article/view/687/603>.

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

Pelo, A 2016, The language of art: inquiry-based studio practices in early childhood settings, Redleaf Press.

Rinaldi, C 2009, ‘The Pedagogy of Listening: The Listening Perspectivefrom Reggio Emilia’, in C Edwards, L Gandini, G Forman & CS Reggio(eds), The hundred languages of children : The Reggio Emilia experiencein transformation, ABC-CLIO, LLC, California.

Roy, D, Baker, WJ & Hamilton, A 2015, ‘Excerpt from A vision for the arts in education’, Teaching the arts: early childhood and primary education, 2nd edn, Cambridge University Press, Port Melbourne, VIC, pp. 11–13.

Thornton, L & Brunton, P 2010, ‘Exploring light and dark with early years’, Teaching Expertise, Wordpress, viewed 7 March 2023, <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>.

Topal, CW & Gandini, L 1999, ‘Connections’, Beautiful stuff: learning with found materials, Davis Publications, Worcester, pp. 49–66.

# data[].attributes.body
This ‘encounter’ thinking opens up a new approach to the materials, in this case, charcoal. Instead of using charcoal as something we all have already known – as a ‘drawing instrument’, it could be used for unknown purposes (Pacini-Ketchabaw V et al 2017, p. 36). Its encounters with other materials such as paper could be interpreted differently.

We could offer children the same resources such as charcoal and paper. But instead of displaying them on the table where it triggers an obvious play cue to use it as ‘drawing instrument’, we could offer them on the ground on a big piece of newspaper or any paper that is not ‘white paper’. Outdoor space will be advantageous as children have access to natural loose parts. It would be worth observing how children encounter these materials and how they use charcoal to encounter other materials.

# data[].attributes.body
Charcoal tells its own story as we ‘meet’, ‘touch’, ‘attend’, ‘open’, and ‘respond’. It questions our way of thinking that charcoal is more than just 'a thing'. It is ‘a continuum, a story, an event, a happening, a doing’ (Pacini-Ketchabaw V et al. 2017, p. 34). Bearing this in mind, we focus on the process, on ‘becoming charcoal’.

What interesting is that charcoal also tells a deeper story for anyone who ‘emergent listens’.

‘We were covered. We uncovered. We recovered from the covering and the uncovering’
(Pacini-Ketchabaw V et al. 2017, p. 34)

Like charcoal, if we allow ourselves to cover and uncover, become ‘undone’, becoming unlearn, we would be able to have a deeper understanding of this encounter of human and non-human elements in this world.

“allowing oneself to become undone is a crucial condition for learning”
(Atkinson cited in Pacini-Ketchabaw V et al. 2017, p. 40)

# data[].attributes.body
A question that I really like from a case study of faces introduced by Topal et al. (1999, p. 56) is

‘Do children need the suggestion of a face shape to work on or is it better to give them a rectangle?’.

It triggers our thought on how and what play cues should we provide children. In this learning experience, I hope children could come up with their own way to tell their stories using the language of the paper.

Paper with a variety of textures, words, colours, and images will be provided. Children will get the chance to pick their favourite story book. And from these provided resources, children can pick one page in the book and retell the story in their ways speaking ‘the language of paper’. For example, they can recreate the bear in ‘We’re going on a bear hunt’.
Constantly making conversation with children about their thoughts triggered by the process is important.

# data[].attributes.body
By following the material’s cue and movement, I was surprised to come up with an artwork that could tell the story on its own.

‘paper wove itself into our lifeworlds’
(Pacini-Ketchabaw V et al. 2017, p. 30)

This encourages us to think with the material, move with the material, ‘dream with paper’, ‘and see things in the way paper lives in the world’.

This is introduced by Davies (2014) as ‘emergent listening’ (Davies, cited in Pacini-Ketchabaw V et al. 2017, p. 30). By doing this, we could open up endless new and unexpected ways of knowing and being. By ‘emergent listening’, we learn to talk the same language as the paper.

# data[].attributes.body
"How might ecological thinking be practiced in early childhood education? How might clay ecologies relate, entangle, interlink to world making, sense making, change making?"
(Pacini-Ketchabaw et al. 2017, p. 59)

Clay comes from the earth: ancient, organic, substantial. It smells cool and dark.
(Pelo 2016, p. 92)

The first encounter of children with clay is essential as we imbed the thinking of the organic origin of clay so that children can connect their play material to their surroundings, the world they are living in.A big block of clay where children could use their whole legs, arms, and bodies to engage with is recommended. ‘Clay is not just clay’. We can keep making conversation with children about what clay is transformed into, or what other materials they use to transform it.

# data[].attributes.body
“Clay is not just clay anymore”
₍Pacini-Ketchabaw et al. 2017, p. 59)

Clay is now a medium to express the non-human and human elements

"Clay transforms itself over and over as it comes into friction with things, and with us. Clay never stays the same. It collects things. It morphs. Its attachments transform it, and us."
(Pacini-Ketchabaw et al. 2017, p. 59)

Clay can ‘shape’ us as much as we ‘shape’ them.

"Clay tells other stories in the forest than the ones it tells at the river, which are different again from the stories it tells in the atrium."
(Pacini-Ketchabaw et al. 2017, p. 61)

We pay attention to the surroundings of clay and how clay invites interactions with other elements. We think about how the clay will respond differently in different environments and how all factors entangle and have a mutualism. Clay helps us see the connections between clay and ecology, clay and human, and clay and other non-human materials.

# data[].attributes.body
After the leave is taken out of the paint, it is not a tool to paint anymore. It turns into the platform to paint on.

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
The assemblage of wet paint, leaves and hand that touch each other and unfold a symphony.

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
Movement and music are languages that me and a group of strangers used to communicate

# data[].attributes.body
A group of strangers asked me and my friends to join them for a teamwork challange where we have to dance in 20 seconds. We created a rhythm by singing the beat out loud so that everyone could dance harmoniously.

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
The mutalism of clay, human and non-human elements

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
How your palm and finger imprint the clay? 

# data[].attributes.body
From the ‘yucky’ feeling on my hand, clay takes me discover how I could ‘shape’ clay and how clay could ‘shape’ me.

# data[].attributes.body
Charcoal also covers my finger. The moment where the finger meets charcoal, an untold story takes place and is now being told by uncovering it.

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
The movements of making - Folding, bending, cutting, ripping

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
Artificial light thorugh a transperent water bottle and its reflections on different surfaces

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
Charcoal and hand in the 'encounter moment': a continuum, a story, an event, a happening, a doing.

# data[].attributes.body
Charcoal leaves a mark on the story I am telling. When it covers the paper and my hand, it frames my hand shape which created the story. It uncovers the hand that uses it to communicate the story.

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
How clay entangles with non-human elements (paper, leaves, rocks, charcoal)

# data[].attributes.body
Experimenting with clay, I pay attention to how human and non-human entangle and engage with their surroundings.

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
Surprise - being moved by the object when several materials compiled, manipulated to tell the story of the materials.

# data[].attributes.body
As I was playing with the paper, I found a piece of newspaper that has a picture of a human face and another one with the title that could potentially tell an interesting story being sticked together. It ended up manage to describe the intentional chaotic of my cut piece of paper above and tell the story of the materials.

# data[].attributes.body
                               ‘Art is a tricky word’
                                              (Pelo 2016, p. 1)

We usually refer the word ‘art’ to a finished work. However, art is more than that. It could be referred to some open-ended, spontaneous explorations that leads to surprising process of engagement.

        ‘Art can be a way of thinking, feeling, imagining, relating, and expressing. Art can be a way to be in the world’
                                              (Pelo 2016, p. 1)

Anyone can be an artist! Art is everywhere! Artwork itself can talks so much for themselves if you fully engage in the process and speak the material’s languages. We can use art to communicate our understandings, emotions, and questions. As described by Pelo (2016), this fluency in a range of art ‘languages’ potentially opens new possibilities for collaboration and new perspectives.

“By ‘language’, we do not mean to imply that an art form can communicate very specific linguistic meanings.[...] Rather, we mean that each art form communicates meaning in different ways”
                                              (Roy et al. 2015, p. 11)

In this journal, I experiment with a variety of materials which are described as ‘bones’ of curriculum (Carter & Curtis citied in Pacini-Ketchabaw et al. 2017, p. 3). I ‘emergent listen’ to the materials and surroundings. I speak the languages of materials to create my own language and tell my story.

# data[].attributes.body
Leaves are the tool to paint