The Art in Movement

Paint is going in every direction, children’s giggles and excited screams fill the room and in the end; there’s a one-of-a-kind masterpiece. Experiences like these are what has been filling our week in Shale room.

We’ve talked a lot in the past on how sensory play is vital in our young toddlers emerging understanding of the world. At this age, they are often feeling new textures and materials every day for the very first time with a sense of wonder and excitement. Sensory experiences are often simple yet powerful for our Shale friends, using water of all different colours, sand, soup and all kinds of simple loose parts. Art can also be viewed as a sensory experience for the children. This week, while we are deep in our journey of unpacking movement – we uncovered another sensory aspect – the art in movement.

Painting has seemed to be our main focus this week, however, we have used it in many unorthodox ways! If you look near our peek-a-boo window in the hallway, you can see beautiful pieces the children created with Cassi. She provoked our movement interest by using paint coloured golf balls and a bucket. The children each took a turn shaking their bucket, each generating a one-of-a-kind masterpiece. You can see how the colours crossed paths at different speeds and each created their own lines of direction. This was a very exciting experience for the children – it gave them a sense of total control.  They could shake it fast or slow, move it up or down and really test their limits on their sensory discrimination and body movements. Thanks to Theo’s ever growing interest in vehicles and wheels, we also experienced some track painting. Instead of making this a one time experience, Sarah decided to try some project practice in the Shale room, slowly building this multi-layered art piece. Using one colour each day, we have been using our toy cars and trucks to make tire tracks across a black piece of paper. Each layer totally changes the way it looks and if you look closely, you can almost see how the children were feeling in the exact moments they painted. Lucy May, who was feeling unsure of the experience at the time would go very slow with her tracks. Next, Thea would do the complete opposite. She was feeling very excited to participate and moved the car faster and faster over the same area of the paper – back and forth. It’s these simple experiences that can help the children gauge an understanding of the new materials they are using. Through this playful exploration and investigation they are building theories about the world around them – cause and effect, creating patterns and relationships, and developing vocabulary to describe the things they are doing. This is the art in movement.

Hope you had a wonderful weekend,

Sarah, Cassi, Young and Emily