-
Avocado Encounters – Extended
I do love how easily it marks up. I love how I can manipulate charcoal in ways that make me feel like an artist. I’ve never really paid any attention to shading in order to make a particular thing I’m drawing look round or to account for the light and think about shadows. In fact I’ve never really noticed shadows from an artistic perspective before. I definitely never noticed that an avocado seed can actually cast a shadow over the rest of the fruit depending on the light. I’ve never taken any art classes, but charcoal has a certain way about it that offers me the illusion that maybe I…
-
The Hollowed Log
November 16 Today we walked to the forest. One child offered us a question that inspired our forest visit: Where does charcoal live? The walk to the forest was especially exciting: the first snow of the season! The children are unusually aware of their surroundings because everything looks different with the snow.
-
Where does the charcoal live?
November 16, 2018 It all started with a question: Where does the charcoal live? On a cold, snowy November day, the children and educators decide to walk to the forest and venture on a quest looking for charcoal. The children scamper around the forest paths with big smiles on their faces, oblivious to the cold. They’re so well wrapped up in thermal and waterproof layers and so engaged with their outdoor experience, they seem to hardly notice the weather. Snow covers the forest floor in layers. As the children walk up the trail, they come upon a tree that fell a few months ago. We know this trunk. We visited…
-
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…
-
We Did This (Leaving Our Mark With Charcoal)
We sit on the floor and revisit our work together. Who did this? Using a finger we trace the marks left on of the page. There are long ones, smudged ones, short marks, dark and light marks. The variety is endless and evolving. Every touch, with or without charcoal, changes the marks. We observe and discuss these communal offerings, sometimes asking who made this? Sometimes we are silent and trace the marks with our fingers. We revisit our experience. We lie on the floor and look up at our work. We flatten our faces to the wall and observe up close. We point out features of interest to each of…
You May Also Like
Disturbance
-
Mushrooms and tracks
Our small group ventured out to the forest this morning. We left the centre with an intention to link our experiences with the charcoal to the forest. Our experiences from the day before lingered with ideas of mark making, tracks and circular marks on the paper. We set out to pay attention and notice these connections on our walk in the forest. At first our walk was fast paced, and the children quickly moved. We had to intentionally pause and slow down. I stopped at a puddle where a large impression was embedded into a mud puddle, drawing the children to come back, pause and look at what we had…
-
Lines & Charcoal
November 2 Lines—the children have noticed that charcoal easily makes lines. Perhaps it is the intensity of the lines charcoal makes that fascinates the children. Perhaps it is the power of lines themselves that keeps the children engaged? A few moments tell us that lines are not just marks on paper. It seems as if the lines have come alive for the children. A child shares a line with me tracing a thick charcoal mark on the paper that starts where he is and ends on my foot (about a metre away from him). I immediately pass the line back to the child who quickly marks another long, thick line…
-
Searching the Forest for Charcoal
November 1 Today we divided the classes into two groups. One would remain in the classroom and continue their charcoal markings and the other group would be given the opportunity to see if they could find charcoal in the forest. During the previous days, the children had been encouraged to consider connections between the forest and the charcoal. Many of their charcoal creations expressed these interconnections. The group of children venturing outside seemed highly motivated for the opportunity to pursue charcoal in the forest. They eagerly anticipated such encounters. When we got to the forest, the children searched in many spaces for traces of charcoal. Some children located dark-looking wood…
-
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…
-
Experiencing and Experimenting with Charcoal
October 30/31 In preschool room 2 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. Our room embraced the mystery of this new experience. The mystery had been building and unfolding since its announcement to the children of preschool room 2 on Monday. Then 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…
