Materials
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Slowing Down and Embracing the Silence
Working with charcoal and paper was a beautiful, albeit messy, way to slow down and pay attention for everyone. I noticed moments of true connection between the children and educators that I did not necessarily notice before the introduction of the paper and charcoal. I noticed Katlyn slow down and spend serious time quietly making strong connections with the children while they engaged with charcoal. There were beautiful connections between educator and children as they explored how charcoal made marks, how it made dust, how it was messy, but that messy bit on our hands could be turned into new mark making. At one moment it was so calm and…
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Charcoal in the forest
Today we divided the classes into two groups – one would remain in the classroom and continue their charcoal markings and the other group had the opportunity to see if they can find charcoal in the forest. The children were encouraged to consider connections between the forest and the charcoal during the previous days. Many of their charcoal creations expressed such consideration for these interconnections. A small group of children venturing outside seemed highly motivated for the opportunity to pursue charcoal in the forest and were eagerly anticipating such encounters. On the way out of the centre, a child in was asked by a child where we were headed. He…
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Charcoal experimentations
Our explorations with charcoal yielded exciting possibilities. Our interaction with charcoal today represented an experimental and experiential step into the unknown (for children and educators alike). The room embraced the mystery of this new experience as the mystery had been building and unfolding since its announcement to the children on Monday. On Tuesday morning the children arrived to a room radically transformed from the one they knew on Monday. Many of the room’s familiar items (shelves, tables, carpets, building blocks, etc.) had been relocated and replaced with large rolls of white paper taped to the floor. The children were very curious about this sudden transformation and what it revealed about…
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Working with Charcoal and Paper – response
Its interesting how Shelley and I track charcoal beyond its materiality. It is not about charcoal, but it is about charcoal…bodies and movements with charcoal, paper, and the floor together, on the ‘inside’ inspire/reflect/remind us of bodies and movements with pathways, critters, plants, wind together on the ‘outside’ so then does inside-outside blur? Can it? or do they remain separated? and Why!
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Working with Charcoal and Paper
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Working with Charcoal and Paper
My relationship with charcoal is one of indifference. As much as I adore stirring the hot coals in a bonfire, boxed-up uniform artists’ charcoal for me leaves something to be desired. I sat back, committed to observing the toddlers as they confronted this new material in their space. As I watched, I started to make marks with the broken bits of charcoal that had scattered across the paper. I found myself distracted by the movement of the little bodies all around me. Distracted in a good way… I began to attend to the physicality of the experience—the energy shifts, the varying density of the marks they left behind on the…
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Working with Charcoal and Paper – response
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Improvisation with charcoal & paper
Laura and I sit at a table with paper and charcoal and a small group of children. Laura notices a large dark scribbly drawing that had previously been made. She says, “This reminds me of a dark forest. Who want to meet me at the forest?” The children and educators use their charcoal to draw paths to the dark forest. They meet and gather there. They begin to find spiders and bats in the forest. They leave and come back several times. Some are hesitant to return but are encouraged to visit again. Their desire to meet others keeps them coming back.
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Charcoal proposals & invitations
A Walk in the Forest There was much enthusiasm about the possible interactions with paper and charcoal. Charcoal has been used by artists for a very long time, dating back to 15,000 BC. The children were invited to join these long artistic traditions within many cultures around the world. To set the scene and foreground the importance of charcoal as an art material, we placed large pieces of white paper on the floor and offered children thin willow charcoal sticks. In this initial exploration in the classroom, the children began to understand some of the properties of charcoal: “Charcoal is brittle, fragile and easily breaks when pushed on paper’s surface.…
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The Experience
Lines began to move rapidly from one place to another, offering the extension of a line from one being to another, waiting for the line of travels to connect to the feet of one’s body. Charcoal moved with the bodies in fast pace, with gentle pressure to the paper. Slowing down was not offered through the children’s bodies, but from the noticing of the marks left behind as the charcoal travelled across the paper. Fingers pushed tiny pieces of charcoal, but the creation of dark, thick lines moving from beneath fingers was noticed. How could such a small fragment offer such darkness? Intricate and thoughtful up and down movements with…
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The Beginnings
We would like to propose that together we focus on the arts of slowing down, paying attention, and noticing. hat it might mean for us to support children to notice and slow down when we go to the forest. How might we invite children to slow down rather than “consume” everything they find/see in the forest? How do we invite children to focus, slow down, and notice? If a child picks up a stick, we might become curious about what it is about this particular stick (and not others). Can we stay with what children notice about this stick (and challenge them to think beyond) rather than moving on to…
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Charcoal
We are inviting the children to engage in the arts of slowing down, paying attention and noticing. Because the children and educators are interested in visiting and sharing stories about the nearby forest, we want to extend what happens in the the forest into the classroom. For the past few months, we have been observing children’s engagement (even fascination) with sticks/branches/logs in the forest. In order to connect to children’s interests, we are inviting children to explore charcoal and paper. It matters deeply what materials we invite into our classroom. Paper and charcoal link us directly to forests – they start in forests… The sticks that children are fascinated with…
