My inquiry into using natural materials to creat arts in ECE by

Introduction

asheryuen108 — 2022-05-13 05:24:45 UTC

During my exploration of art creation in Early Childhood Education, I found that natural materials are the essential parts of our life, but we have been ignoring them in the field of artistic creation. Natural materials could be a great topic as the raw materials to create art with children, since natural materials are very easy to access, and they will enhance and embed the education on the environmental protection for children.

Artefact 1 - Clothing

asheryuen108 — 2022-05-13 06:50:16 UTC

The design can be divided into four forms of arts
1. Colours
2. Pattern designs
3. Images on the clothing
4. New Materials
These four forms of art also can be combined into one piece of clothing or used separately.
As natural materials can be linked to colour art by using natural dyestuff such as leaves and flowers to colour the fabric. And natural materials can also be linked to material arts in clothing, by using unusual materials for modern clothing such as leaves, branches, and animal skins.

Artefact 2 - Sound Making

asheryuen108 — 2022-05-13 06:55:33 UTC

Artefact 3 - Music

asheryuen108 — 2022-05-13 06:56:03 UTC

Artefact 4 - Light

asheryuen108 — 2022-05-13 06:56:20 UTC

Light can be found everywhere around us, but most of them are artificial lights, and light has been seen, but also invisible because it does not have a shape. However, the shadow could show us the shape of light for a coral.

Artefact 5 - Painting

asheryuen108 — 2022-05-13 06:56:38 UTC

Painting with natural materials has been a easy and interesting crafting activity. Also people can be very creatively to creat a painting with natural materials. The common used natural materials for printing are: gumnuts, dried bankisa flowers, acorns, sticks, seed pods and more. The first thought I had in mind was using flowers to colour, sticks and leaves to form the painting. And then I will be trying to use some watercolour paint to work with natural materials like flowers and leaves for marking with the ink onto paper.

Artefact 6 - Sculpture

asheryuen108 — 2022-05-13 06:57:15 UTC

The type of sculpture has been evolving and keeps changing since its creation. The most common material was gypsum, iron and cotton, and they are minerals that make them natural materials. However, the natural material I was wondering could be woods and rocks, making the sculpture fit into nature better.
Therefore, I will be choosing basic natural materials like sticks and leaves from the park or a forest to build the sculpture. And the idea of a sculpture made of natural materials was to build a sculpture with essential natural materials and fit into nature.

Artefact 1 - Discussion and implication

asheryuen108 — 2022-05-13 12:47:03 UTC

Humans have been wearing clothes since ancient times, even before civilisation started. In the very beginning, clothing was designed for keeping the body warm and protect from scratches.
For the material, humans started with very basic natural materials such as animal skins and leave to cover their bodies and remain warm. As time moves people started using agricultural plants like cotton and other synthetic materials to make clothes.
And nowadays, clothing is something more than a decoration or a tool to keep warm.
Artist has started to use clothing as a platform for them to perform their art. Which is a way to express their feeling, presentation of a message, or communication with the audience. (Taylor & Francis 2014)

Therefore, in implication, educators and teachers should give children an opportunity to discover what they can do with the natural materials that teachers provided.
Linking back to the four forms of clothing art, educators could provide some natural materials such as flowers, and berries to allow children to colour their own cloth to find out and build connection between them and natural materials.

References

asheryuen108 — 2022-05-13 12:57:52 UTC

Anon, 2022. [online] Available at: [Accessed 13 May 2022].

Anon, 2022. Olga Ziemska Sculpture. [online] Inhabitat - Green Design, Innovation, Architecture, Green Building | Green design & innovation for a better world. Available at: [Accessed 14 May 2022].

Anon, 2022. Dyeing Fabric with Fruit. [online] Seamwork. Available at: [Accessed 12 May 2022].

Hanna, W 2016, The children’s music studio: a Reggio-inspired approach, Oxford University Press.

Matthew, A., 2022. Water play, music play & children: a natural combination. [online] Child's Play Music. Available at: [Accessed 13 May 2022].

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

Roots & Wings, 2021, How-to Guide: Reggio_inspired Light and Shadow, 2021, Roots & Wings, viewed 14 May 2022,
https://www.careforkids.com.au/child-care-articles/article/312/the-role-of-sound-play-in-early-childhood-services

The Art of Clothing: A Pacific Experience. (2014). United Kingdom: Taylor & Francis.

Artefact 2 - Discussion and implication

asheryuen108 — 2022-05-13 13:04:27 UTC

Sound making can be used in many different ways, such as in videos, films and music. In films, sounds make the film more colourful and more attractive. Some sounds could be a decoration of the picture. Also, making some sounds like the sound of rains, wind and sea will make the person feel that they are actually in that environment, so it could make people feel relaxed, calm or other feelings.
In practise, educators and teachers should offer children the opportunity to try making sounds by providing basic natural materials such as sand and leaves. And Allow them to explore the possibilities.

asheryuen108 — 2022-05-13 13:05:14 UTC

As the video showed, sounds can be found basically everywhere in the natural environment. I found that inspires me to reconstruct the sound from one material into the sound of another material.
Therefore, I decided to explore as many sounds as possible by using natural materials. And after I found the sound I have been looking for I will be trying different ways of reconstructing the sound such as putting them into a bag and shaking, squeezing, or hitting other objects with them.
Such as, putting sand in a bag and squeeze it, it will make the sound of stepping on snow.

asheryuen108 — 2022-05-14 07:23:48 UTC

The video showed us, how wonderful could the music be by using natural materials.
In the beginning, it is quite similar to the sound making part, because we have to find out what exact sound could be found from what material by testing them out. And we need to find out what role could the sound be in part of the music. So there is a lot to be found out. And unfortunately, I could not find enough natural materials to make a music performance within 2 days, but my audio file will give you a glimpse of the whole performance.

Artefact 3 - Discuss and implication

asheryuen108 — 2022-05-14 07:52:06 UTC

Throughout the music production, we have learned that nature is somewhere rich in arts, including music. From the chirps of birds to rocks hit by coconuts, they all could be wonderful musical performances. In early childhood education, music is an important tool to communicate and build connections with the children, even very young infants can detect changes in the melodic contour of a familiar song (Jensen. 2001, p17)
In practice, it is similar to the sound making part, educators and teachers should be offering opportunities for children to explore the capability of one natural material. Therefore, educators and teachers should be picking some common used natural materials such as sand, round rocks, water, and leaves for children to practise musical performances. (Hanna, W 2016)

Artefact 5 - Discussion and implication

asheryuen108 — 2022-05-16 09:11:42 UTC

We have found that we wont only to able to use pens to paint, we could also stick flowers to a paper or use flowers to dip into watercolour to paint with it. Not only flowers, we could also use sticks, rocks and gum-nuts to draw a painting of a forest.

In practice, educator and teachers could use those materials to show children what shape could the material be on a piece of paper. It will inspire children to use their imagination to connect the painting with the natural environment they have ever been.

Artefact 4 - Discuss and implication

asheryuen108 — 2022-05-16 09:21:19 UTC

The shadow of a natural object can be seen differently while the object has been changing. In the classroom, the shadow can be a different play for children to find out the difference between the actual object and the shadow of it.
Therefore, educators and teachers should offer children opportunities to explore the change and movement of the shadow of a natural object they picked, it can be a rock, tree, or coral like shown in the picture. They will be able to explore the possibility of the shape-changing of their natural object. (Roots & Wings, 2021)

Artefact 6 - Discuss and implication

asheryuen108 — 2022-05-16 11:19:14 UTC

We have found that using woods and leaves to create a sculpture will fit into nature. Apart from that, we could also use some flowers and gum nuts or other pieces from the park, especially the parts that are no longer needed for plants and on the ground. With more colours for the sculpture, this will be more attractive to children and there will be more space for children to use their imagination.
In practice, educators and teachers should build a basic frame of the sculpture due to the complexity of sculpture for children, and offer children additional sticks, and flowers to decorate and colour the sculpture.

Conclusion

asheryuen108 — 2022-05-16 12:22:14 UTC

By using natural materials in early childhood education, we have seen many brilliant ideas for artistic creation with children. We have explored the possibility and capacity of natural materials around us. Before this project, we have been ignoring natural materials for a long time, and we and the children did not know they are capable of creating art. However, after this project, we will have a better understanding of them.

asheryuen108 — 2022-05-16 12:30:48 UTC

Sounds of sugar bags, banana and gum-nut