Materials Playgroup - Subtle Environmental Changes

You may have noticed that we have offered the same activities each meeting, but we make changes or add things based on our observations of your children and their work.  Having the same, but slightly different, activities provides a comfort level for children.  They walk in familiar with a medium or material and with confidence that, I can do this.  The changes also engage children in new ways, which extends their experiences.

We have opened with clay each week, starting with a large hunk, and then added implements and changed the presentation to balls and slabs.  We had one friend who was reluctant to touch the clay.  Having tools and other found objects has encouraged everyone to get involved.  Many children seemed to be interested in filling their slabs with objects and some took delight in seeing the imprints that the objects could make.

Our workshop has been a place where children have built tall and tested the balls and tubes.  We also noticed how much children have enjoyed the tape.  We decided to combine the tape and tubes to see if children would be interested in using the tape as a tool to create tube pathways for the balls.  A few friends explored the tubes on the walls with balls and some put other tubes inside the taped tubes.  Moving the tape to the other side of the room where there are windows and ledges brought new ideas about how to use it.