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In this journal, I chose the “Communication through materials” concept to explore the experience and connection with different kinds of materials such as clay, paper, painting, and wooden blocks in early childhood settings. I used the relevant journal articles “The Hundred Languages of Children”, “Encounters with Materials in Early Childhood Education “and The Place of Blocks in the Early Childhood Curriculum: Do We Need a New Set of Free Wooden Blocks? to take advantage of useful and main points in my digital journal. There are many materials that I used to explore and create the activity for children that they can engage in their early childhood settings.

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Paper can be used for writing, painting, crafting, and journalising, it is essential for our use in life. I experimented with paper that it can be moved and manipulated in many ways. I scrunched different types of paper, and this demonstrated that different kinds of paper may have different kinds of movement and folding. This process was that I scrunched the piece of paper into small and then straightened it out again. Then I saw many undulations and folds on the paper. It was shown that the paper was wrinkled and had recorded a moment. Then I move paper in the air so that I can feel the movement of it. According to Ingold (as cited in Pacini-Ketchabaw et al, 2017, p.41), we can feel the rhythms of pause and engagement, flows and movement of paper.  Experimenting with paper that me wonder with many questions “What could it become? What could be done with it? (p.33). Then I continued to play with the paper and put it into the water to see the flow and movement of the paper.

I wonder if I reuse paper to create a toy. So, I used the paper that I scrunched to make a paper airplane that reminds me of my childhood when I played with my friend at the church.

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This picture storybook is very inspiring and interesting to me how they use paper to make dolls and colour them. It is very attractive, and the book is called “The Paper Dolls”. Picture books for children that tell stories and communicate information through many pictures with text or without text. The visual art or verbal form of picture books will help the children recognise the literature, build their literacy, and bring the enjoyment of reading (Nodelam, 1988, p.3). Inviting children to sit at a table and reading a story to them in an early childhood setting and asking them some questions related to the story. How many dolls a little girl has? What colour are they? What is happening now? When they answer and share their thought, educators can add more information to enhance their experience of learning and their imagination. Remembered what children say or show their interest in picture books that educators can add to the journal.

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Painting activities in early childhood settings are considered vital for children that can create a rich and engaging art education, and aesthetics and enhance the imagination and creative thinking of children at an early age (Cutcher & Boyd, 2016, p4). It also helps children feel relaxed and develops their spatial intelligence and visual expression. Painting is very useful and essential for children at early learning centres because that brings a lot of benefits to them such as supporting children’s emotional well-being, improving memory and concentration, and developing their creativity, colour recognition and artistic skills ((Cutcher & Boyd, 2016, p6. My process was that I used colours to put on my finger and stuck my finger on the A4 paper. As a result, I created a finger painting on paper and started to do it with my other hand. Besides that, I had my ceramic fog that I could paint on it as my final product.

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As an educator, I will give children a big clay on the table and let them play, create and shape in characteristics, animals, shapes and kitchen toys in their own ways. Playing with clay in an early childhood setting helps children develop their imagination, hand and finger muscles, and also learn about the texture, shapes and forms. Moreover, it improves eye and hand coordination, express their emotion and improve their concentration.

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Painting activity is very interesting for children in early childhood settings when educators set up a painting table with many colours and brushes and invite them to participate so that they can start painting whatever they love on paper. Based on their picture, we can understand what they are going to communicate and convey their thinking and develop their languages in their own picture. Painting also helps them feel relaxed and develop their artistic skills at an early age.

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I chose the song “We Are the Clay and You Are the Potter”. Educators can sit with children while they are exploring with clay and open the song. This song is all about introducing different kinds of animals made of clay such as lions, birds, frogs and elephants.

The lyrics are below:

We are the Clay and You are the Potter (3 times)

All of us are the work of your hands.

I’ll fly like a bird, (Shh, shh)

Be bold like a lion, (Roar, roar)

Jump high like a frog, (Hop, hop)

God, make me what you want me to be.

Strong as an elephant, (Vroo, vroo)

Kind as a kitty cat, (Meow, meow)

Wise as an owl, (Who? Who?)

Me! That’s what I’ll be!

Educators engaged all the children to sing a song together. Moreover, the children can sing and add new words or phrases to the song while they are playing with clay.

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In early childhood settings providing blocks for children that support cognitive development, and develop skills in early numeracy such as size, geometry, measurement, quantity, length and weight. In my opinion, when I started playing with wooden blocks it improved my spatial awareness, motor skills and cognitive flexibility. My process was that I played with a wooden space puzzle that I could move, lift and build the blocks to complete my puzzle. It strengthens my arms, fingers and hands and develops my memory when I build the blocks. According to Janine & Dyne (2001) stated that “blocks are considered as the most useful and versatile toy or product in an early childhood program and one of the finest learning tools available to children (p. 8).

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In many learning centres, they have different kinds of blocks for children to build by themselves. For example, they can build houses, shapes and animals by their creativity. Educators can put all the blocks on the table and children engage and start to build the blocks which can develop their memory, numeracy, literacy and physical development.

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The process was that I rolled the clay as a ball and played with it and felt cold in my hand. Then I tore it into pieces, rolled it as a ball and then put them back together as a big ball.  Also, I can twist shapes and mould the clay in many shapes, and any animals that I love to do. I feel the texture of the clay and continue to explore and feel the movement of the clay. Yazbeck 2013 stated that the idea of “Space for things to happen” as children should embrace and start exploring and experiencing the clay and other materials. Also introducing clay as an activity at an early learning centre that children can engage and encounter with clay. It was put on the red table in large chunks that attract children to touch, smell and feel it (p.47). and

I continued playing with clay and created a turtle and wondered if I leave the clay outside. What might happen to the clay? Would the clay dry? Would the clay remain intact?

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I started discovering clay and had some imprints that communicated and related to nature. On my table, I pressed the clay and moulded it into many shapes such as squares, hearts, and circles that I feel very interested and relaxed. Being touched and feeling the texture of the clay and encountering it to roll, pinch, pound and twist brought me back to my childhood. Moreover, I displayed several loose materials next to clay such as red flowers, pine twigs and leaves. Then I pressed them against the clay to make imprints that some could mark clearly, and others did not. Experiencing clay and some kinds of nature such as flowers, leaves and pine twigs reminded me of the entanglement between me and natural materials. I can spend hours playing with clay and exploring to make different kinds of animals and flowers. Playing with clay in early childhood settings is an effective clinical intervention for children that brings more benefits and reduces anxiety for them at school (Rahmani & Moheb, 2010, p.24)

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I painted with watercolours and through the pictures, we can understand the meaning and learn the languages that I want to convey in the picture. Using watercolours develops the children’s imagination, colour recognition and memory development if they spend time painting, they can remember which colours are for different kinds of animals, flowers, sun and trees. Using colours to create a picture so that we can clarify our ideas, share our thoughts and maintain relationships with others.  Images can speak and convey messages to others and for the children, it is useful if they are accessed and experienced to use watercolour for their entertainment and relaxation (Fellowes & Oakley, 2014, p.27).

I started cutting small pieces of paper as my craft and painting with the yellow and black colours on it and then arranged it into bees and after that, I used glue to stick small pieces into my final product. I experienced painting that brought me back to my childhood and felt relaxed after the full week of work.

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Educators introduced children to work as an artist, set up arts and crafts that allowed children to paint as they wished and provided some materials and cutting crafts for children to create their own crafts and paint whatever they loved on the paper.

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https://www.youtube.com/shorts/c7q-bmn51B0  - YouTube Link for playing with the instrument 

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Providing instruments such as guitar, piano, and xylophone for children to play at an early age helps them to develop their fine motor skills and coordination of their hands and eyes. They can enjoy and relax with the sounds of the instrument, and they can start dancing and moving around along the sounds. It also provides children with stimulation and helps to develop their brains (Dale, et al, 2009, p.3). The instrument for my invitation is a Wooden Xylophone that children can play by themselves without instruction. They can start using the wooden stick and tap on the xylophone to make sounds.

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Discovering different kinds of material makes me feel surprised and excited. I continue to wonder if I put clay or paper into water. What will happen? Which can be used after or not? These experiences develop my cognition, physical skills and imagination when encountering these materials. In an early childhood setting engaging with art is better for children to develop their learning process, their languages and their communication (Pacini-Ketchabaw et al, 2017, p.22).

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Curcher, A & Boyd, W 2016, Preschool Children, Painting and Palimpsest: Collaboration as Pedagogy, Practice and Learning,

https://doi.org/10.1111/jade.12113

Fellowes, J & Oakley, G 2014, ‘Understanding oral language’, Language, literacy and early childhood education, 2nd edn, Oxford University Press, South Melbourne, pp.16-45.

https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/vu/reader.action?docID=4191368&ppg=40

Janine & Dyne 2001, The Place of Blocks in the Early Childhood Curriculum: Do We Need a New Set of Free Wooden Blocks? Victoria of Wellington Te Herenga Waka,

http://researcharchive.vuw.ac.nz/handle/10063/920

Nodelman, P 1988, Words about Pictures: The narrative art of children’s picture books, Words About Pictures,

https://books.google.com.au/books?hl=en&lr=&id=IdCwtcCmN9oC&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=picture+book+journal+article&ots=hJHKa5qH78&sig=Ow0yuFJRxTUpz3FgNN3Q2A4hBI0#v=onepage&q&f=false

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

https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/vu/detail.action?docID=4649662

Dale, P, Bates, E, Reznick, S & Morisset, C 2009, The validity of a parent report instrument of child language at twenty months, Journal of Child Language,

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-child-language/article/abs/validity-of-a-parent-report-instrument-of-child-language-at-twenty-months/FB4BD8CC87C104DC505CCD21733729D2

Rahmani, R & Moheb, N 2010, The effectiveness of clay therapy and narrative therapy on the anxiety of pre-school children: a comparative study, Procedia Social and Behavioral Sciences, pp. 23-27.

Yazbeck, S 2013, Movement and Clay, Journal of Childhood Studies 38(1)

DOI:10.18357/jcs.v38i1.15438