Creative Exploration with Paper by Maisha Tasnia

Paper Exploration

s8197839 — 2025-07-31 00:35:05 UTC

I chose 8 kinds of paper with different lengths, texture and weight to explore and see how differently or similarly they react/respond to my actions.

Picture of my chosen Material

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Materials to Support my Play

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Paper Influences Our Actions

s8197839 — 2025-07-31 11:54:25 UTC

According to Pacini-Ketchabaw et al(2016), paper moves and responds like an active partner and paying attention to how it flutters and folds opens new questions about how materials influence our actions. Like in this video, I tried to tear the card board piece with my hands but I could not do so. So it influenced me to explore if cutting it with scissors does the job. I cut it from one side, it seemed to resist so in turn, it influenced me again to cut it from another side to see if it cuts easier and to my surprise it did. I noticed how the texture and weight influenced how I engaged with it. I learned that paper is not passive but it has a kind of personality to it.

Paper Making Sounds

s8197839 — 2025-07-31 12:33:56 UTC

When I crumpled this paper, it made a loud, crisp crunching sound that caught my attention. I did not expect the sound to be so sharp and textured. It suddenly reminded me that paper not only speaks visually or through movement but also through sounds. This sound was a kind of material language, as it invited me to crumple it again to see if it keeps on producing the same sounds and to play with its texture and it reminded me that even ‘simple’ materials like paper can speak back in ways we do not always expect.

Pacini-Ketchabaw et al. (2016) encourage us to notice how materials respond to our actions and “set things in motion”. In this case, the sound of the paper moved something in me as it sparked curiosity and made me more aware of my sensory relationship with it.

Crumpled Papers with Traces

s8197839 — 2025-07-31 13:53:10 UTC

As I crumpled these papers, which once were smooth, I observed how it left marks of my own actions as if creating a memory of my interaction with the papers. This can be related to the text from Encounters with Materials in Early Childhood Education where Pacini-Ketchabaw et al. (2016) state materials hold memory and respond to our interactions. The authors encourage to notice how materials change and leave marks and how those changes hold meaning. As materials are described to having agency, I noticed that the paper did not return to its original form. It carried the marks of my interaction with it, suggesting that materials are not unvarying, but they evolve through relationship and are alive.

Spraying Water on Paper

s8197839 — 2025-07-31 14:09:25 UTC

As I sprayed water on the baking paper expecting it to become fragile and wet, I was struck with a new-found knowledge where it surprisingly resisted water and remained quite firm still. Moreover, it dried down quite quickly too which was unexpected as well. This reminded me of Ann Pelo’s (2016) emphasis on paying attention to how materials respond and invite us to engage deeply, as I kept on spraying more water to see if the paper becomes weak. Spraying water was not about making something, it was about watching, observing and being curious. Pelo encourages us to support a kind of inquiry where importance is put into the process and the material becomes a co-teacher through its reactions.

Notes Taken during Class

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Notes Taken during Class(Other Side)

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Refrences

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Pacini-Ketchabaw, V., Kind, S., & Kocher, L. L. M. (2016). Encounters with materials in early childhood education. Taylor & Francis Group.

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