October 31, 2018<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There was much enthusiasm about the possible\ninteractions with paper and charcoal. Charcoal has been used by artists for a\nvery long time, dating back to 15,000 BC. The children at St. John Early\nLearning Centre are invited to join these long artistic traditions within many\ncultures around the world. To set the scene and foreground the importance of\ncharcoal as an art material, we placed large pieces of white paper on the floor\nand offered children thin willow charcoal sticks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In this initial exploration in the classroom,\nthe children begin to understand some of the properties of charcoal. Charcoal\nis brittle, fragile, and easily breaks when pushed on paper\u2019s surface. Charcoal\nleaves deep marks on paper that can quickly fade with a simple touch (charcoal\u2019s\nimpermanence). Charcoal travels from paper to hands to floor to clothes and\nback to paper. Charcoal slides easily over paper, leaving different kinds of\nmarks (children are beginning to wonder how they might replicate some of these\nmarks). Charcoal becomes dust.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As we notice what children notice about\ncharcoal, we are reminded of the importance of getting to know a material in\norder to come to terms with the material itself (as artist Andy Goldsworthy\nreminds us).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For many of the children, this is their first\nencounter with the material and they are enjoying charcoal\u2019s free and\nexpressive style. We want to honour the time that children need to become\nfamiliar with the material (to know what charcoal is capable of) before\ninviting them to focus on a specific idea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Although charcoal\u2019s properties surprised the\nchildren, they didn\u2019t hesitate to quickly engage with the material. In just a\nfew minutes, children made many charcoal drawings: portraits of each other,\nportraits of dark forests, drawings of \u201cmarching\u201d lines, drawings of lines that\nconnect us all\u2026 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is through these stories that children are\ngetting to know charcoal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
October 31, 2018 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 at St. John Early Learning Centre are 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 begin to understand some of the properties of charcoal. Charcoal is brittle, fragile, and easily breaks when pushed on paper\u2019s surface. Charcoal leaves deep marks on paper that can quickly fade with a simple touch (charcoal\u2019s impermanence). Charcoal travels from paper to hands to floor to clothes and back to paper. Charcoal slides easily over paper, leaving different kinds of marks (children are beginning to wonder how they might replicate some of these marks). Charcoal becomes dust. As we notice what children notice about charcoal, we are reminded of the importance of getting to know a material in order to come to terms with the material itself (as artist Andy Goldsworthy reminds us). For many of the children, this is their first encounter with the material and they are enjoying charcoal\u2019s free and expressive style. We want to honour the time that children need to become familiar with the material (to know what charcoal is capable of) before inviting them to focus on a specific idea. Although charcoal\u2019s properties surprised the children, they didn\u2019t hesitate to quickly engage with the material. In just a few minutes, children made many charcoal drawings: portraits of each other, portraits of dark forests, drawings of \u201cmarching\u201d lines, drawings of lines that connect us all\u2026 It is through these stories that children are getting to know charcoal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[16,5,18],"class_list":["post-383","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-forest-tensions","tag-charcoal","tag-materiality","tag-noticing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/witnessingruinsofprogress.climateactionchildhood.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/witnessingruinsofprogress.climateactionchildhood.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/witnessingruinsofprogress.climateactionchildhood.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/witnessingruinsofprogress.climateactionchildhood.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/witnessingruinsofprogress.climateactionchildhood.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=383"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/witnessingruinsofprogress.climateactionchildhood.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":384,"href":"https:\/\/witnessingruinsofprogress.climateactionchildhood.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383\/revisions\/384"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/witnessingruinsofprogress.climateactionchildhood.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=383"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/witnessingruinsofprogress.climateactionchildhood.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=383"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/witnessingruinsofprogress.climateactionchildhood.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=383"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}