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.

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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

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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 

Open Studio Snapshots - Exploring Paper

Last month, I invited families to join their children here for our first Open Studio of the year. Seeing as paper was the first material that children used in the Studio, it only seemed fitting that this be the subject of this initial Open Studio. Here are some photos of an evening spent exploring this remarkable material (with some tape thrown in). 

Simon and his mama, Kendra (our pedagogista), spent a long time playing with really big pieces of transluscent mylar and white paper. Simon summed up some differences he learned: "This one (the white paper) doesn't make any sound and this one does. This one (the mylar) is fast and this one is slow."

Maddy and her dad, Justin, worked with colored cardstock. Maddy made the snowflake decorations you see on the table by layering strips of blue paper over each other and taping them together. She went on to make many other creations, such as a phone made entirely out of paper. 

Anna and Julie, two sisters, played with the paper hanging from the ceiling. After much pulling and tugging, they finally managed to pull down a thick rope of brown packing paper.

O. brought pieces of colored acetate and tissue paper over to sticky contact paper taped to the window. She carefully arranged each piece, beginning with a series of vertical lines, then adding some horizontal ones. 

Harlan and his mom, Sky, worked with tape and paper. Harlan created a three-dimensional haunted house, with many curving pathways. Sky used black tape to collage a black tree against a blue background.










It really is beautiful to see so many children and parents from across the classrooms of PTCC join together, creating and exploring side by side, in one room. Thank you to everyone who participated in making our first Open Studio a huge success! 

Starting off the Studio: Ruminations and a Paper Investigation

How will we use the Studio? 
Which material will we use to begin our Studio journey?

These questions are constantly on my mind, not only at the beginning of each school year, but during all the months that follow. Each year, the use of the Studio shifts a bit as we try to navigate the ideals we hold as a Reggio-inspired center and the realities of serving 90 children, infants through preschoolers, spread throughout three separate buildings. Now that we are settling comfortably into the routines of the year, I want to take some time to reflect on the questions that have driven these shifts, to share some thoughts about what I do and why, and to tell a little about the subject of our first Studio adventure - paper.

How will we use the Studio?

Right now, children's visits to the Studio are primarily centered around getting to know a few key materials one at a time, building a repertoire of expertise that will serve them throughout the year. A few groups have also started visiting together to explore particular themes of interest, such as ramps and balls, music and movement, and building train tracks. This really points to the fluid and flexible nature of the Studio - it is an art room, a laboratory, a meeting room, a dance floor, a recording studio... and the list goes on. However, throughout all of these pieces, it is a place for focused work of one form or another. This focus may come from the side of the materials ("We're going to explore wire today! How can we change this piece of wire?") or it may come from the side of ideas ("Today is about building our animal sculptures together! What parts do we need? What materials should we use?") - but in either case, the focus is there.

This is a practice that has taken me several years to develop, and it is something I am still working on. When I first took on the job of atelierista, this element of focus was already partly in place, but there was also a sense of "free play" - of doing whatever you wanted with any of the materials. At first I went along with this, knowing that this is how things had been done, but I felt that there was something missing - something that I believed was at the heart of the Studio. I saw a lot of children using materials for the sake of having them - gluing piles of beads and glitter to paper or wrapping sticks with a mile of tape simply for the sake of taking them home to their mommies and daddies. There is nothing wrong with this, of course, but, as my fellow atelierista, Anna Golden from Sabot at Stony Point, writes, "... that's not what studio thinking is all about."

So what is studio thinking about? It can be stated as a framework, a set of eight habits of mind, such as "envisioning," "developing craft," and "engaging and persisting."  For me, it is about learning about materials in order to use them to create the things you want to create and to follow through on your ideas with success. It is also about developing a practice of using materials intentionally and respectfully. It is about recognizing that every material has potential that is worth exploring. These are the ideas that I strive to embody through our use of the Studio, whether the children who are using this space are 5 months or 5 years.

Which material will we use to begin our Studio journey?

In the same blog post, Anna asks three important questions regarding materials for a Studio:

How do children use materials? 

Which materials serve children, considering Gardner's multiple intelligences?

Which ones have most potential for creative thinking?

The Studio is home to a variety of materials - paint, clay, glue, yarn, cardboard, tape, fabric, markers, wire, wood, and more. I feel that all of these can be used in multiple ways, can serve as outlets for sensory experiences as well as expression, and have a lot of potential for creative thinking and problem solving. The question is, where should we begin this year's journey in developing the "studio thinking" already mentioned?

This year, I chose paper as our starting place.

Paper is a material with a huge amount of potential. It is extremely malleable, yet it also has structural integrity - it can hold the shape into which it is twisted or folded. It comes in a variety of colors, weights, sizes, and textures. It is also very accessible - it is my go-to material for infants at the start of the year. A fellow teacher, Lise White, and I once followed an extensive investigation of young toddlers and paper. As one of the proverbial hundred languages for creative expression, paper is one with a wide and fascinating vocabulary.

Paper also offers a challenge. It is a material that we often use as a surface only - a place to draw and write. We don't often use it on its own, for its own unique properties. In offering paper to children, I was beginning the year by asking them to look at things - this material specifically - in a new way.

In order to really get at this idea of learning a material's own unique vocabulary, I initially offered paper to the children entirely on its own. No drawing utensils; no scissors; no tape; no glue. Just paper. Granted, the paper itself did not take just one form. For visual simplicity, all of the paper was either white or black, but some of it was small, and some was big; some was hanging from the ceiling, while other pieces were spread on the floor or arranged on a table; some pieces were flat and untouched, while others were already wrinkled from being crumpled; the weights of the paper ranged from thick watercolor paper to very lightweight tracing paper. In order to invite children to start thinking about the many possibilities of this material, it seemed important to offer up a variety of possibilities as to what this material could look and feel like to begin with. 

At first, many children asked, "Where are the markers? We need scissors!" Even some very young toddlers entered with the question, "Markers? Draw?" The challenge I had foreseen was clearly there - these children were used to acting on paper in a two-dimensional way. I was interested in seeing what they could do when they started to think more three-dimensionally. I gave them one question as further provocation: "How can we change this paper using just our hands and bodies?" Here are just a few answers from children across the center ...

Sam shook and waved the paper, sometimes wrapping it around his body into a big "mountain." 

Phineas, Harriet, and Alisa used a big piece as a house. "Come through the door in the front, not the back."  

Morgan ripped the paper into smaller and smaller pieces. She found that if she pulled it in one direction, it ripped easily, but if she pulled it in the other, she couldn't rip it at all.

Raphael scrunched different papers next to his ear. "This one sounds different. This one sounds soft. This one sounds loud."

Alvida and Lundy pulled down the paper from the ceiling. "Reach up," Alvida said, encouraging Lundy to help her try to pull down the pieces that remained. 

Justin ripped a piece of paper into small scraps. Arranging theses careful, he announced, "This is my control station. These are the controls." Each piece of paper became a button or a lever. 

"You can make shadows on it," Jone said of a big piece of paper lying on the floor.

E. folded the paper as she explored the different textures of its two sides.

Through this experience, the children learned a great deal about the properties of the different papers. For instance, some were easy to rip, while others were nearly impossible. The diaper table paper was flexible enough to  tie together, while the cardstock and watercolor paper could actually stand on their own if they were folded the right way.

I love that the Studio can be used as a place to not only build on children's interests, but to challenge them to build new skills and try on new perspectives. By investigating paper on its own, in this focused environment, children across our center discovered so many more uses for it than merely drawing or painting on it - they began to appreciate it as a unique material in its own right.

Do you see "Studio thinking" at work elsewhere in our center? 

What memories do you have of being introduced to art materials - of getting to know these "languages" ?

Paper, Light, Clay: Open Studios Thus Far

So far this year, I have offered four Open Studios (one with paper, two with light, and one with clay), inviting families into the Studio to play with and explore these materials with curious minds and eager hands alongside their children. This has been the most successful series of Open Studios I have hosted in my time as atelierista, which leads me to examine my own hopes for these precious afternoons I spend with families and what has made them so special this year.

The Open Studio for families is a great tradition that was begun by my predecessor, Viki, as a way of offering parents (and grandparents, uncles, aunts, etc.) an opportunity to share an experience in the Studio with their child. As Kendra has discussed before, our philosophy hinges on families as partners in our teaching and important members of our school's community; the Open Studios that I host every other month or so are one way in which I strive to welcome families into the Studio.  They give families a chance to learn a bit more about this space, some of the materials we explore here, and what their child in particular will do in this space, with this set up.

Last year, I wrote this post about our first Open Studio as part of our clay exploration. I was wondering how I could use these special afternoons as a way of also inviting parents into our pedagogical practice and encouraging them to consider some of the same questions we ask while working with young children. My solution to this question for this year has been to ask the families who come to the Open Studios to first read these pieces about exploring art materials alongside infants, toddlers, and preschoolers. I also try to have short versions of these available as handouts and to have poster versions up (although I admit I ran out of time to prepare these things for the latest one). In addition, I post questions to guide our thinking around the room, along with sticky notes and pens for adults and children to record their answers. Here are a few of the questions and answers from each Studio:

"How can you change paper using just your hands?"

"Wrinkling, ripping, waving, scrunching."
"Twisting, tearing, zig-zag, throw in the air."

"What did you learn about paper?"

"It makes a good wrestling mat."

"It makes big noises when you kick it and hit it."

"You can pick up REALLY big pieces." 

"(How) can you alter light?"

"'Blue on it, now black on it... green there!' Simon noticed changing light most when he was moving cellophane and drawing on the light table."

"Shadow is formed when light is blocked. There is heat, too when light is produced."

"What did you learn about light?"

"Light comes down down on it, like this." 

"K. learned that light comes in different shapes." 

"You can mix colors even without paint."

"What makes clay special?"

"You can change it many times."

"You can use it over and over again."

"You can play with it and use it for fun."

"I love the way it feels when I squash it in my hands."

"It involves all the ancient elements: earth, air, fire, metal, water."

Some of these answers came from adults, some were children's answers, and a few were a combination of the two. In every case, it seemed as though answering the questions helped to put some of our own learning and the learning we were witnessing in others into words.

In addition to these questions that I posed, I heard the parents themselves asking more questions of their children as they worked, and many of them were open-ended and inviting: What does this paper sound like? Where is that light coming from? How did you make that with the clay? Parents also asked me about the materials they encountered, questions that seemed to suggest an interest in potentially extending these experiences into their homes:  How do you get these ideas for provocations? What kind of lights are these? What type of clay is this? Where can I get some? 

I also noticed parents asking open-ended questions using their actions, rather than their words. A father turned and quietly watched what another child's work, inviting his daughter to look at the discoveries of this child.  A mother with her infant child gently brought some rope lights to her lap, running her hands over them as she held them within reach of her son. A father rolled a simple ball of clay, offering it to his daughter to see what she would do with it.

These meetings in the Studio together have also offered parents from multiple classrooms the opportunity to meet and converse with one another about subjects other than just the material. By the end of each Open Studio, many of the adults in the room have met someone new and shared a conversation with them about their children, their experiences in Cambridge and at PTCC, or their interests outside of here. I remember one of the sessions with light occurred right before Thanskgiving; as the children and parents spread and scooped sand into trays on the light table, the discussion shifted to the subject of the holiday, the traditions of the different families, and the many ways of cooking turkey. You often hear that art can bring people together in unexpected ways, and I think this is an instance of one of them.

Throughout these evenings, I was struck by the care and attention that parents were paying to their children, and the attention that adults and children alike were paying to the materials set out before them. One parent observed that the questions I asked were much more focused on the "how" ("How are you using it?" "How did you do that?" "How did it change?") of the material rather than the concrete question of "What are you making?"; I felt that the people present at the Open Studio were also embracing these "hows" rather than the "whats." I was also amazed at the attention they were paying to each other, the negotiations that happened within this shared space, and collaborations that sometimes grew out of this. I am so grateful to work in a community full of people of all ages who are invested in the work we do and are willing to learn more about it through the "hands-on" setting of these Open Studios.

Looking forward to the next Open Studio (most likely in April), I am wondering:

- What else might I offer parents to give further insight into our work as a center and my work as an atelierista?

- What should we explore together next?

Paper and Problem-Solving

When I brought down a bag of papers for our youngest infants to explore in their classroom, there was a wide variety of shapes and sizes - crinkly, refracting mylar; fragile tissue paper; smooth butcher paper; long, crumpled diaper table paper; letter-sized drawing paper and watercolor paper.

While many of the other papers were bigger, more noisy, or more colorful, this last piece - the (relatively) small rectangle of thick watercolor paper - became the most intriguing for me, and for one of the infants, Morgan. 

Morgan first noticed this page after she had spent several minutes grabbing, squeezing, and mouthing some of the diaper table paper. It was easy for her to grab this paper anywhere and hold it up to her face, crinkling it as she needed in order to put her mouth around it. However, on her first attempt to pick up the watercolor paper, Morgan discovered that she could not use the same techniques to pick it up. The paper was so stiff, it did not bend or crumple easily in her hands. In order to pick it up, she had to search out the edges of the paper, grip them, and keep a tight hold as she lifted the paper.

Next came the problem of how to maneuver the paper for tasting. At first, Morgan tried bringing the paper flat up to her face. However, the paper pressed against her face while remaining flat - she could push her mouth against it, but not around it. She couldn't taste and suck on the paper the way she wanted to. Again, she had to work through several trials of rotating the paper and pulling at its edges before she was able to bring a corner to her mouth. Satisfied, Morgan mouthed the paper for a minute, then began to re-examine the paper, searching for a different place to taste and try. After much trial and error, she succeeded in folding the paper and half. Holding the paper closed, she then brought the folded spine of the page to her mouth to tray out. 

Watching Morgan's investigation of this particular paper, I thought of how different an infant's understanding of this page was from an adult's. Although this paper was thicker than most of the paper we adults use in our daily lives, it was more similar in size and appearance to the computer paper we so often print and write than most of the other papers available to the infants that day. Adults' experiences with long strands of diaper paper, big sheets of butcher paper, and swaths of mylar are undoubtedly much more limited than those we have with single sheets of white, 8.5x11 paper. Yet, for Morgan, this particular format required far more manipulation in order for her to answer the series of questions, "How do I hold this? Now how do I pick it up? Now how do I taste it?" than the others did. While the others were bigger, longer, more fluid, and seemingly unwieldy, this rectangle was actually more unwieldy for Morgan. Also, as her teacher, Sarah, pointed out, the piece of paper was quite large from her perspective, and it required her to position it carefully if she wanted the paper low enough to rest her mouth on it. 

In broader terms, Morgan's interaction with this paper seems to me a very physical example of examining a problem from different angles in order to come to a solution. Morgan was literally investigating the many angles and perspectives of the paper, and through this process, she was able to discover the best ways to mouth it the way she wanted to. It also speaks to something that our pedagogista, Kendra, shared at our Center's Parent Night - babies are moving through the cycle of inquiry (asking a question, proposing a theory, testing the theory, revising the question) all of the time!  

Reflecting on Morgan's paper experiment, I am reminded of how important it is to take the time to investigate the many sides of a problem. If you don't turn it over in your mind, you may never fall upon the solution that eludes you at first. If you don't turn a piece of paper over in your hands, you may never have the satisfaction of tasting it for the first time.