Extended Encounters: Part III

**This post is the third in a series about our three-month material investigation. To read more, go to the first post here.**

Going Deeper

Spending an extended period of time with the same material led many classrooms to really delve into the possibilities and potentials of their chosen area of exploration. Teachers and children alike developed new understandings and expanded their vocabularies as a result. 

“I never had the depth of knowledge [about natural materials] before… I was learning what items are called what names. I went from an admirer of nature to understanding a little bit more about it. They were playing around with it all the time… but some of their questions were fascinating and led to introducing new vocabulary like density. … and exploring along with kids perhaps at the same level at times brought me joy…. I don’t know why, but the whole time, a piece of poetry kept coming to my mind:

“To see a World in a Grain of Sand

And a Heaven in a Wild Flower 

Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand 

And Eternity in an hour…”

 From Auguries of Innocence by William Blake

- Akbar, Toddler 2 North

“I think that the requirement of using the material in your curriculum everyday really forced our team to push past what the surface level uses of paper were. We spent the first weeks having paper in our room and building up our children's vocabularies about the material. But once we had spent a few weeks on that we were forced to dig deep into how paper can be used in the classroom. We found ourselves asking questions like  "what does paper sound like" or "what happens to paper when it gets wet." And as we expanded our idea of how "paper" could be in the classroom so too did our children. Today if you took all the paper out of our classroom, it would be mostly empty.”

- Wheeler, Toddler 1 South

“... because the kids are so much shorter, they would notice things on the ground, and it reminded me to look down not just up… and the question “what’s inside” sparked a lot of interest… it was amazing how happy or angry they got depending on what was inside the acorn.”

- Elayne, Toddler 2 North

“When we decided to explore natural materials for the first three months of the year, I had no idea how far we could go with offering authentic, raw materials from the outdoors. In the past, we had laminated leaves to offer our babies a close-up, yet indestructible way to access the leaves that fall to the ground. This year, we have offered fresh leaves, branches, pine cones, and even produce from our garden! … It’s been thrilling to see our babies, as young as three months, reach for and grasp leaves and pine cones. As they’ve grown, we’ve expanded our exploration by offering giant leaves from collard green plants, for example. How exciting it is to see how babies can make their mark, and thus, learn about natural materials, when they wouldn’t usually have access to them!”

- Christina, Infant South

“It all started with a lid. We brought lids into the classroom in August because it was a loose part that we had available to us. I had the expectation that children would use metal lids to explore sound. Although the infants did explore sound, I was amazed by the variety of ways children interacted with lids, and how their actions led us teachers in the development of our loose parts exploration over the past few months. After the children explored the sounds of the lids, they began experimenting with how the lids fit into different objects. This helped expand our loose parts curriculum into containers of different sizes. Next, the kids seemed interested in how the lids stick to other objects, and this informed our investigation of magnetic properties. The children currently seem interested in the shape of the lids, and we plan to investigate wheels and things that spin. I am amazed that the infants have shown interest in lids constantly for three months! I am fascinated by the new properties of this material that the kids continue to discover, and how their interactions with one material have been a driving force for our curriculum throughout the year. I am eager to see what the children discover next, both with lids and with other loose parts!”

- Hannah, Infant North

Extended Encounters: Part II

**This post is the second in a series about our three-month material investigation. To read more, go to the first post here.**

A Portal to Possibilities

In almost every classroom, the longevity of our exploration allowed the materials to not be simply a focus in the room, but a catalyst for other important work by children and teachers. It often served to highlight, support, and sustain larger questions, which might not have been visible without our intense observation and thinking about the original material in question. 

“Wood was present in our classroom in many forms and discussed in team meetings. I am less sure if it provided a lens for getting to know each other or a rich focus for the class. We definitely had fun. 

Early on we had a few conversations about the sensory experience of wood - what it looks like, feels like, smells like. However the children in P1 seemed more interested in what you could do WITH wood, and TO wood, than in the intrinsic qualities of wood itself. Children often used sticks in dramatic play indoors and outdoors… They used wood as a background for activities such as building, sorting, and counting… Combining wood with other materials such as string and wire and tape offered opportunities for children to create new things... They were excited to collect sticks on the river walks and on the playground, and to use tools such as drills and saws with wood... It seemed to me that their interest was in the experience of using the tools themselves, and less about how they could use tools to discover more about wood."

- Loren, Preschool 1

“The Natural Materials area in our classroom seemed like the place where the children came together and did a lot of coordinated play as well as side by side play…. These open-ended materials showed me about each child and how they thought, what their interests are and what excites them. C was all about cooking and using her imagination, M loved to sort, and R liked to bring other materials such as trucks or blocks to the Natural Material area to create something different. For me having the Natural Materials in the classroom brought this classroom together, from the children that moved up from Infant North to new children that started this year, to all the teachers.”

- Caroline, Toddler 1 North

“... I never would have guessed [the natural materials] could be used so many ways… seeing [them] used as placeholders for food, being carried around the room… and the joy of using the things they had grown in the garden…"

- AJ, Toddler 2 North

“Our investigation of loose parts has been so transformative in my thinking and even in my everyday life. I love the planet and feel that we should find value in our environment. I was not expecting this investigation to bring me more insight in my everyday thinking when we started, but surprisingly it has extended out in what I have been observing in the community I live and participate in… Loose parts are an intricate part of our classroom identity and opened a bigger question for me and my team about "how do things/people/community fit together?" I believe that this is a concept that is at the core of humans, our identity, and the need to connect. I am surprised that that is what I found from the experience, and I love that it has bent my thinking. This world is made of loose parts and we can get philosophical and say so are all individual people, we are searching for a sense of belonging and acceptance, not in spite of but because of our miss matched attributes.”

- Aleksandra, Infant North

“As we started to amass natural materials the children began to think about categorization and where and who the objects "belonged" to.  We created a natural materials shelf for our classroom and the children sorted the objects to place on the shelf.  During their play they would often return to the shelf to gather materials they needed.  The theme of belonging has since been an ongoing thread in our classroom that children, teachers, and families are exploring through multiple facets of our curriculum.  Our natural materials investigation was therefore a catalyst for a much deeper dive into questions such as:

"Does it belong?"

"How does it belong?"

"How do you come to belong? (to a group, game, place, community)"

- Amanda, Preschool 2

“We started off with a very large, nondescript clay block and a few hand tools. As weeks passed children’s interactions with the clay changed. I was intrigued, observing the changing relationship of each child with the clay as well as how their relationships with each other evolved when working with the clay together.... In their early introduction to clay the physical act of working at changing the block of clay seemed to be their main goal… As the clay chunks became smaller and more easily moved by the children we started to observe more individualized clay exploration. It became apparent when each child claimed chunks or slabs on their own they named, with pride, a specific creation such as “pizza”, “tree” “pasta”. As a group, they influenced each other more and began to migrate to the same play concepts and ideas while the individuality of their clay objects became an extended social experience… Eventually the small parts and tools used to alter the clay started to become something more... Patterns created from using materials emerged and took on their own meaning. The clay investigation came full circle. In the Studio small parts were hidden deep in a clay block by half of the class. The other half went to the Studio on another day and worked at extracting the pieces their friends had hidden, using tools, both side by side and together, for a common goal.”

- Janet, Toddler 2 North

“In the beginning of the year, [we] introduced a few of the natural materials by creating still lifes... As the year progressed we decided to challenge the children by having them create their own still life and draw it. One thing that surprised me about this investigation was how focused the children became and the pride that [this experience] instilled in their work. What brought me joy during this investigation was how the children then started taking pictures of their own work - I believe this investigation of the material helped them to gain confidence in themselves.”

- Ally, Preschool 2

Extended Encounters: Reflecting on our long-term material investigations

“A first encounter for children with materials… is a necessary step in children’s process of knowing. Through such encounters and explorations, children build an awareness of what can happen with materials, and adults build the ability to observe and support the significance of each particular experience.”

-        Giovanni Piazza, “Materials, Relationships, and Languages,” in ed. Gandini, Hill, Cadwell, and Schwall, In the Spirit of the Studio, p. 13.

-----------------------

How do we build a relationship with a material? What can we gain by continuing to engage and re-engage with a material over an extended period of time? These were some of the questions at work for both teachers and children this year as each classroom embarked on a three-month-long material investigation together.

At the start of the year, each classroom chose a specific type of material (light, paper, loose parts, clay, natural materials, paint, or fabric) to explore, signing on to have that material present in their classroom every day and be part of their documentation, reflection, and curriculum planning for the next three months. Five classrooms chose natural materials, one chose paper, one chose clay, and one chose loose parts, and away we went!

Our material investigation was by no means an easy undertaking. It required stretching, growing, learning, and disequilibrium on the part of teachers and children. The same way that children often express frustration as they learn a new skill or grapple with a new concept, many teachers found themselves challenged to think differently about their material and its possibilities. 

Different classrooms took different approaches to this project – some classrooms set themselves a focus from the start, while others explored more openly, waiting for an interesting question or idea to arise. Some materials came with particular challenges that necessitated flexible thinking and collaboration on the part of teams. For many classrooms, the material itself provided a lens or portal through which other threads could be explored. In a few cases, however, the natural material itself proved the catalyst for going deeper, encouraging the children and teachers to learn more about that material’s unique possibilities. 

Many of our teachers took time to reflect on their experience with this long-term investigation, using the following prompts as a starting point:

• How did your understanding of the material and its possibilities change over time?
• How did children's interactions with the material change over time?
• What was surprising or challenging to you during the investigation?
• What brought you joy during the investigation? 

Excerpts from their reflections are collected here under the groupings of “overcoming challenges,” “a portal to possibilities,” and “going deeper” in order to share one facet of our work with you. Of course, there is always overlap, and there are cases where teachers’ words could fit into any of these categories. In each case, I used my best judgement to put them under the heading that seemed the best fit. Thank you for reading and please share any of your own thoughts and experiences from this investigation!

- Katie

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Overcoming Challenges

Many challenges arose for different teachers over the course of this work - some expected and some not. Sometimes it was a challenge to find the right approach to the material in order to engage both the children and teachers in the exploration. In other cases, the material itself necessitated flexible thinking around issues, such as how to use it safely with young children. 

“It was hard at the beginning to include a material that none of us were quite interested in. Over time, though, the children's interest in this material evolved to another unexpected way of usage: Space. Children demonstrated awareness of the material as a tool to create a physical space and define it, moving the paper as a "stage" to sit, jump or play on it, or using it to hide. This was amazing to see. It brought me joy to realize the many ways and uses the children gave to sheets of paper.”

- Connie, Toddler 1 South

“At first, I thought that the children would show interest in the properties of paper by exploring it in ways that included trying to rip it, crinkle it and scrunching it up into a ball. I was surprised to see that the children rarely did any of those things and would only engage with the paper when teachers initiated the paper play… The challenge for me was that I didn't know what the next steps would be after making paper. It was challenging to continue to have to think about this material that the children seemingly weren’t interested in - and I think that the teacher's lack of consistent of enjoyment with the material also played a huge part in it as well….I think that the dynamic between the children and paper, and each teacher's investment in this material investigation shifted when I hung the Tyvek paper up in the corner. It led to thoughts about space and prosocial behaviors amongst the children. This was exciting! It felt harmonious to be able to combine the paper investigation with a thread that was so prevalent in our room.”

- Myra, Toddler 1 South

“Exploring natural materials in Infant South has been both invigorating and just a bit worrisome. It has been a learning experience when it comes to offering babies materials that are safe. But mostly it’s been fun to watch what they do with leaves, how we offer leaves and how they have been studying the myriad of leaves. It's been such a joy to watch how our babies have shown how long the process of exploring one material can go on for.” 

- Dilcia, Infant South

“Something I found challenging was... diving deeper into our seed pod focus of our natural materials. We had some photos of seed pods but we never got around to doing anything else with the thought. Another challenging thing... We had a plan to crack open some acorns a few more times with T2 but because it’s considered a choking hazard, we had to stop. Unfortunately, something out of our control...However, at my old center, bringing any materials from outside or from home was never even heard of and I was told we weren't allowed to (along with many other things we weren't allowed to do).” 

- Kelsey, Toddler 1 North 

“Throughout this emotional time [the start of the year], clay was offered during each morning and afternoon provocation….Almost immediately, the clay became food… Each child seemed to find comfort and safety with this thread…. [However} after a few months of their exploration of cooking and clay, the idea seemed to fizzle. I was frustrated because it felt like we hadn’t done enough. It seemed like other rooms had found their “thing” and were taking their material investigation further and further each day. It wasn’t until Ivonne brought up the idea that, “children will explore something until they find an answer, or will give up because they have lost interest” that I was really able to reflect on our use of clay. Did the children let go of the cooking idea because they finally felt safe and secure in the classroom? Were they able to accept the idea that their parents would come back at the end of the day? Was cooking a way for them to connect, share and learn alongside their peers, despite their big emotions? 

These were questions I wanted to find answers for. So, I observed. I watched the children come into the classroom each morning, happier and happier as each day passed. I listened as parents told us “She spent the entire weekend missing school and wanting it to be Monday!” I learned from the children that not all questions have clear answers - sometimes you have to stop looking to find it.” 

- Imy, Toddler 2 South 

“At the beginning the kids didn’t really know what to do [with the natural materials]… they mostly didn’t really use them. What brought me joy was, as we left them out, they used them more and more, and they used them lots of different ways.” 

- Kerri, Toddler 2 North 

“Our interactions with the material first started off very simple with a slab of clay on the floor. Children would break off pieces of the clay and call it pasta, pancakes, or waffles, perhaps mimicking what they had eaten for breakfast before coming to school… After some time exploring the idea of cooking, and adding natural materials, interest started to fade away from the clay, so we decided to change how it was presented… to help them re-engage with the clay… but we had no such luck. At this point, we were feeling a bit stuck, but we then started to think about the element of surprise, and hiding/finding objects [in the clay]. We first started to do this just in the studio, bringing one group to the studio to hide objects and one group to find objects. Through this we noticed that children started to become curious about loose parts, so in our team meeting we talked about bringing loose parts to the classroom. Once this was done, children started to re-engage with the clay, and we observed children build (vertically and horizontally), hide, make marks, and so much more.”

- Kate, Toddler 2 South

“Not that it was a competition, but I'm not sure who has enjoyed our material investigation more; the babies or me. I obviously love natural materials, and I was excited to share my enthusiasm with our babies, families, and teammates. I was a bit intimidated at first, however, because I am not used to delving into an investigation right away, especially when we are so focused on just getting to know our babies and help them eat and sleep. But having a focus on a type of material, even if I didn't really get to observe it in action every day, still helped me get to know our babies through their individual styles of exploration….[sometimes the material itself] was ancillary to the relationship building that was happening at the forefront of their exploration. I learned about how an ongoing material investigation like this is not just about them learning about the material; everything that comes out of it is valuable.”

- Amara, Infant South

“In the beginning of our investigation, hearing the term ‘loose parts’ made me wonder what that really means. I have been taking out some loose part materials to investigate over the past years, but I had not really intentionally thought about how much a loose part can be used in different ways and how children would investigate this specific material differently than others...I also struggled to set up the classroom with only loose parts - I still find myself taking out blocks and other materials that I never thought would be considered loose parts. But I learned that anything you find is considered to be a loose part.”

- Gladys, Infant North 

Our Neighbors, The Robins Have Some Eggs!

  

 We have watched as a pair of robins built and then rebuilt their nest.   

Now the mama is sitting on her eggs each day, and in a week or so, there will be babies!

This nest is outside the piazza window of the building where our youngest children spend their time. After a toddler built herself a step out of large box to better see the nests, I put a sturdy stepping stool beside the huge window and now anyone who can walk and climb a ladder can get a little closer to see the robins care for their eggs. 

Watching animals in their natural habitat helps us build empathy, curiosity and our powers of attention. We learn about natural systems and that humans are only one species among millions of others. These dispositions of naturalists will serve children over their whole lives.

 

“Our work as teachers is to give children a sense of place — to invite children to braid their identities together with the place where they live by calling their attention to the air, the sky, the cracks in the sidewalk where the earth busts out of its cement cage….

When we talk about the natural world, we often speak in generalities, using categorical names to describe what we see: "a bird," "a butterfly," "a tree." We are unpracticed observers, clumsy in our seeing, quick to lump a wide range of individuals into broad, indistinct groups. These generalities are a barrier to intimacy: a bird is a bird is any bird, not this redwing blackbird, here on the dogwood branch, singing its unique song.”

(Ann Pelo, A Pedagogy for Ecology. Rethinking Schools, Summer 2009)

Conversations with Nature: Preschool One Explores Natural Materials

“We often forget that WE ARE NATURE. Nature is not something separate from us. So when we say that we have lost our connection to nature, we’ve lost our connection to ourselves.”
                                                                                   ― Andy Goldsworthy

Autumn in New England is full of natural beauty – from golden leaves floating to the ground to acorns nestled in the grass to branches blown free by the winds.  These objects call out to be touched, gathered, collected, and children often do just that. Pockets that were empty before the trip to the playground return crammed full of bark and twigs and stones. Long sticks are brandished like swords and left unwillingly beside the door until they can be used again. These things entice us, draw us in, and call to our creativity. They are one of the hundred languages, and, if we make space, we can speak through them. This is Preschool One’s story.  

Rivers and Tides

We began our work with natural materials in the Studio by watching pieces of the documentary, Rivers and Tides.  This documentary features the work of artist Andy Goldsworthy, who creates beautiful installations – some in museums, but many of them outside – using entirely natural materials. I love this documentary because it not only showcases Goldsworthy’s breathtaking creations, it also shows his process. You can see his attention to detail in finding the perfect piece to add to his creation, as well as his frustration when one of his projects collapses midway.

I projected the video on the wall without sound, occasionally prompting children’s conversation with questions, such as “What does that remind you of?” or “What do you think he is using?” Here are some of their thoughts about what they witnessed*:

Alisa – It’s a snake.

Y. – Did you know there’s paths like that?

N. – Maybe it’s a drawing.

Justin – Maybe it’s lava.

E. – Hey all those are blowing away from the snake.

Justin – There’s something inside them – a sea snake.

A. – We see ice.

F. – His hands are cold.

Y. – What is he making? He’s eating it. Ew.

E. – It’s cuz all the other pieces are just like it and he can stick the pieces to the pieces.

All – BRAVO (when he finally sticks his last piece of ice).

N. – It’s a snake tree.

Justin – Maybe he’s making a nest.

Arnaud – Maybe he’s making a nest out of trees.

A. – I think he is making a house for him. He’s using stone.

Justin – Looks like a pile of rocks.

Gus – Maybe it’s melting – now.

Alisa – It’s a web.

Y. – You know why it’s not a web, because there’s a hole on a stop sign.

F. – Why is there a hole there?

Y. – Maybe so it can be a stop sign.

The Building Process

Following the video clips, I moved away the projector, spreading out several work surfaces on the floor, as well as baskets filled with many of the same materials that the artist had used. As children began building, I could see ways in which Goldsworthy’s work directly influenced their designs and their methods. Their great care in building creations using sticks, rocks, pine cones, acorns, and leaves seemed to echo the deliberation and concentration we had witnessed in the video.

As Gus surveyed the materials, he asked, “Can I make like he did?” beginning to collect sticks for a “nest.” Later, when he wanted to make one of the sticks stand up, “like a tree,” he made use of a glass jar as a stabilizing device. When A. laid out a small circle of rocks, she said, “I made what he made. I saw he made a hole with rocks, so I made a hole with rocks.” El. created a long line using all of the rough-edged rocks available. Arnaud and Justin built intricate traps, where each acorn cap or stick had a job to do.  N. enjoyed making matching stacks of things, such as a series of tree ring towers. Phineas overlapped a series of sticks, which he described as “just a design.”  E. worked to cover the entire surface of the different squares of wood set out alongside the materials. She would search for the perfect rock to fill each space, creating an orderly mosaic of materials.

Questions of Scarcity

I noticed that order and space became very important for many children over the course of the visit – lining up a series of sticks that were big enough to stretch across two other sticks like a bridge, filling a small square with only smooth stones… This meant that many conversations arose around the issues of scarcity – not having enough to finish a project you had begun – and stockpiling – holding on to many things in order to use them for future projects. Such conversations are part of the preschool milieu – how do you share space and resources with 15 (or, in this case, 4) other kids? The unique piece of this Studio experience was that this was a space dedicated to using just these particular materials, leaving more room for these discussions to happen. In many cases, the children discovered that their worries about someone else taking “all” or “too many” of something were unfounded, or that they really did not need all of the pieces they had been fighting to keep. For instance, when Gus was working to create his “tree,” the glass jar he wanted was full of sticks. He quietly sat down by the jar and began to empty it out. A. and E., who were working nearby, watched him.

A.: Oh no, he’s taking everything!

E.: Oh no, and I need sticks!

At this point, Gus left with the jar, leaving a pile of sticks on the floor.

E.: Oh, he just took that jar.

Katie: Did he take everything?

A.: No, he left those.

Katie: All he needed was the jar, so he left the sticks for you.

E.: That was nice of him. I guess I only need a few sticks.

Where the River Meets the Sea: The Big Picture

Through this experience, the children gained practice in appreciating, using, and re-using these natural materials. Treated as loose parts, the possibilities of sticks, rocks, and leaves multiplied, while children’s concerns over quantity and ownership gradually diminished. My wish is that this way of being can extend beyond the classroom into the greater natural world, where we can recognize forests, mountains, rivers, and more as treasures held in common, worth defending to be appreciated again and again by generations, rather than used up for the sake of one. We are the stewards of the earth, and we are charged with the task of passing that stewardship on. The best way I can think to do this is to help children engage with nature, cherish it, and not merely preserve, but share it in good faith. 

*The pictures featuring Goldsworthy's work are screenshots from Rivers and Tides.