Wk4 RR Curtis Carter 08 chptr 3 enhancing w materials PDF

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© Curtis, Deb; Carter, Margie, Nov 01, 2007, Learning Together with Young Children : A Curriculum Framework for Reflec Redleaf Press, Saint Paul, ISBN: 9781605541730

3 Enhance the Curriculum with Materials The materials have their own inner life and their own story to tell. Yet they can be transformed only through their encounter with people. When we leave room in construction with materials, leave silence or pause or breathing room, that helps the materials themselves to express what they can express. elena giacopini

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aterials in early childhood programs are the bones of the curriculum and the foundation

You carefully select the gift and present it in a beautiful way, with colorful wrappings, ribbons, and fond

of the teaching and learning process. They support what the program values, and frame the possibilities and actions for living and learning with children. Collections, offerings, and arrangements of materials re-

words. You eagerly anticipate the surprise and delight your gift will inspire, and you trust she will love it because it came from knowing her so well. In child care

flect your values, what you believe children deserve and are capable of, and how you see your role. What

lationship with the children. The materials represent a bit of you and who you are, as well as the tender way

guides your current thinking about materials and how the children use them? Do you look forward to discovering interesting treasures to give to children? Do you eagerly anticipate what children might do with the materials you give to them? If you compare collecting

in which you know the children. The children accept these gifts with appreciation, bringing their own ideas and passions to them, which in turn is a gift to you from them. To enhance children’s use of the materials toward

materials for children to the pleasure of finding a gift

more complex learning, you must challenge yourself to become mindful and deliberate with what you provide and how you provide it. In this chapter, we offer a set of principles to help you examine the elements and possibilities inherent in the materials you collect.

for a dear friend, you will likely transform the way you view your teaching job (Brosterman 1997). When you want to give a gift to someone, you happily search for something you think she will love.

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or teaching, the gift of materials comes from your re-

ENHANCE THE CURRICULUM WITH MATERIALS

These principles will enable you to see the “inner life” that materials can express during encounters with people, as Reggio educator Elena Giacopini suggests in the opening quote. The last half of the chapter presents an additional set of principles describing guidelines for how to organize and set up materials as invitations for focus and intention. If you carefully study the photos, examples, and stories given in this chapter and take the time to try the activities mentioned here, you are certain to grow your skills, knowledge, and understandings, and experience the enhanced joy

© Curtis, Deb; Carter, Margie, Nov 01, 2007, Learning Together with Young Children : A Curriculum Framework for Reflec Redleaf Press, Saint Paul, ISBN: 9781605541730

and richness materials can bring to your daily work with children.

Principles for Examining the Elements and Possibilities in Materials n

Select materials using an enhanced view of children

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EXAMINING THE ELEMENTS AND POSSIBILITIES IN MATERIALS Children constantly use materials to learn about the world, explore their questions, and represent their thinking. Their initial work is to examine the properties and functions of materials. As children manipulate materials and learn their properties, they begin to notice something in the material that reminds them of something they already know. With this connection to something familiar, they begin to use the materials to symbolically stand for that idea or experience. As children get more familiar with how objects can represent ideas and concepts, they begin to intentionally use materials for this purpose. Our colleague Joan Newcomb calls this “thinking in things.” Teachers can plan for and enhance this process by reflecting on your own ideas and experiences with materials and seeking to know as much as you can about the materi-

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Invent new possibilities for familiar materials

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Draw on the aesthetic qualities of materials

als you offer. These principles and examples can serve as a useful lens for examining and selecting materials

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Choose materials that can be transformed

to heighten your curriculum.

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Provide real tools and quality materials

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Supply materials to extend children’s interests

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Layer materials to offer complexity

Principles for Arranging Materials as Invitations for Focus and Intention n

Create orderly, beautiful arrangements

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Provide a background for the materials

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Store diverse items in matching containers

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Group together similar materials with different attributes

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Give attention to size, scale, and levels

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Arrange materials to suggest how they might be used

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Reposition materials to spark a new interest

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Display books and other visual representations with the materials

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Offer collections of materials to highlight a learning domain

Sandbox Gifts Examine the collection of materials offered in the sandbox in figure 3.1. The staff of this program took the time to collect and present materials in this way because they believe children deserve experiences that invite their fascination and sense of adventure. They also believe the children in their group will be capable of learning to use the materials with skill and care. As a result of these beliefs, the teachers make a commitment to find multifaceted materials, carefully arrange them, and then guide the children in their explorations.

56 LEARNING TOGETHER WITH YOUNG CHILDREN

ration of textures, temperatures, motion, and sound. They don’t tap into children’s deep desire to learn and hone their skills and aptitudes, nor do they cultivate sustained attention to their explorations. If you were to examine what children are offered across different cultures, you’d learn that children acquire whatever the adults value and believe the

© Curtis, Deb; Carter, Margie, Nov 01, 2007, Learning Together with Young Children : A Curriculum Framework for Reflec Redleaf Press, Saint Paul, ISBN: 9781605541730

children are capable of, need to know, and deserve (Small 1999). This is a powerful reminder as you examine your own view of children when providing and using materials with them. Reflect on your own atti-

Figure 3.1 Earlwood Children’s Centre

tudes and approaches as you study these examples of teachers offering materials from the standpoint of an enhanced view of children.

• PRINCIPLE •

Select Materials Using an Enhanced View of Children The educators from the schools of Reggio Emilia have advanced the professional discourse about how teachers’ image of children dramatically affects the kinds of materials you offer and how you expect children to use them. Your image of children limits or enhances their experiences and abilities. Consider the typical materials available for infants and toddlers. Most of them are made with bright, primary-colored, hard plastic surfaces and commercial cartoonlike figures designed to beckon children’s attention. They usually have a cause and effect component for the child to stumble upon or be shown—a button or knob that rings a bell, whistles, beeps, or lights up when you push it. Once the child figures out the simple ways for using the toy, there is little else to engage with. What do these materials say about the image of these young children? Inherent in these toys is the view that babies have limited capabilities or inner resources so they require attention-grabbing, over-stimulating, external experiences in order to stay interested in something. These materials have a narrow focus on health and safety, and a mistaken view that these children “can’t do much.” Such materials do little to engage a child’s lively mind or extraordinary ability for sensory explo-

Figure 3.2 Martin Luther King Jr. Day Home Center

The children in this room regularly climb on the chairs, tables, and anything else they can find to get up higher. The program budget is on hold and the teacher has been told she’ll need to wait to buy a piece of equipment for indoor large motor play. In the meantime, she wants to offer the children a challenging but safe opportunity for climbing. She used some sturdy block shelves as the base for this Plexiglas mirror bridge. Sitting close to the children as they climb, she sees the determination and feeling of competence they gain as they make their way across the bridge. The teacher looks forward to helping the children negotiate the new challenge that emerges as they head toward each other in the middle of the bridge.

ENHANCE THE CURRICULUM WITH MATERIALS

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• PRINCIPLE •

Invent New Possibilities for Familiar Materials Do you see yourself as an inventor and explorer side by side with the children as you plan and interact with them around materials? If not, you might start by looking at the typical materials associated with good early childhood programs—blocks, sensory tables, puzzles, painting easels, and clothes and accessories

© Curtis, Deb; Carter, Margie, Nov 01, 2007, Learning Together with Young Children : A Curriculum Framework for Reflec Redleaf Press, Saint Paul, ISBN: 9781605541730

used for dress up. Early childhood educators are indebted to the pioneering work of researchers and practitioners such as Friedrich Froebel, Rudolf Steiner, Maria Montessori, Caroline Pratt, and the educators from the schools of

Burlington Little School

Figure 3.3

The variety of glass containers these boys are using offers them rich experiences for their sensory investigation, including exploring volume through the height, width, and transparency of the containers. The fact that the containers are glass instills a greater sense of responsibility as they play.

Your Turn What is your reaction to figures 3.2 and 3.3? How do your values and your view of children contribute to your response? Now, consider how your view of children is influencing the materials you offer. Make a list of five materials that you regularly provide to children. What values and images of children do these materials suggest?

Reggio Emilia. Based on their deep interest in and observations of children and their fascination with theories about children’s development and learning, they invented learning materials that today are often taken for granted and used without much thought. When you take the time to examine more closely why these materials are used throughout early childhood programs, you discover the obvious: young children are drawn to these materials because they offer multiple possibilities for pursuing different learning domains in an active, open-ended way. As you reconsider these familiar materials and study the vigorous thinking of the previously-named inventors and researchers, you might discover for yourself the deeper fascination and insight that informed their work. As you look more closely at the possibilities, you will be able to highlight the attributes of familiar materials by offering them in different combinations or within a special setting. You can closely observe the children’s use of these materials and work to expand the potential they hold for deeper meaning, joy, and complexity. Study these examples for using typical materials in new ways.

© Curtis, Deb; Carter, Margie, Nov 01, 2007, Learning Together with Young Children : A Curriculum Framework for Reflec Redleaf Press, Saint Paul, ISBN: 9781605541730

58 LEARNING TOGETHER WITH YOUNG CHILDREN

Burlington Little School

These popular building toys are placed on a mirror in front of a sunny window, taking advantage of the interplay of light, reflection, and the colors of the translucent blocks. The addition of books related to color and other objects for investigating colors extends the possibilities for further study and deeper understandings.

Burlington Little School

A thoughtful teacher carefully chooses puzzles with more than one way to use them. This particular puzzle can be put together in its frame, or used to create a design using the elements of color and shape. How might further study occur as a result of using the puzzle with the mirrors on the shelf and wall?

Block building in this room has many layers of complexity and, literally, multiple levels for investigation. Notice the different surfaces, heights, and sizes of platforms for building. The clothesline, pulley system, and spotlights invite creative endeavors in engineering and design. How have these typical building blocks been enhanced by this teacher’s invention?

Evergreen Community School

ENHANCE THE CURRICULUM WITH MATERIALS

© Curtis, Deb; Carter, Margie, Nov 01, 2007, Learning Together with Young Children : A Curriculum Framework for Reflec Redleaf Press, Saint Paul, ISBN: 9781605541730

Observe the out-of-the-ordinary materials offered in this dramatic play area. Along with some traditional materials for dress up and tea parties, there are also keys, stones, and various other loose parts. What guesses do you have about how children will use these props in their dramatic play?

Hilltop Children’s Center

Clifton School

The infants in this program will be surrounded by sounds, textures, and softness as they make their way into this unique structure designed for their exploration and learning. How did the inventor of this musical landscape take into account the children’s abilities and interests in order to expand their exploration of sound?

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60 LEARNING TOGETHER WITH YOUNG CHILDREN

Your Turn • Choose a typical material in your room and observe how the children use it. • Draw on the children’s use of the material to brainstorm a list of ideas of other ways this material might be used or added to.

© Curtis, Deb; Carter, Margie, Nov 01, 2007, Learning Together with Young Children : A Curriculum Framework for Reflec Redleaf Press, Saint Paul, ISBN: 9781605541730

• Try something from your list, observing what happens with the children as a result.

Wondrous Water This water fountain is in the entry area of a child care program where children and families wash their hands upon arrival. The glimmering, golden basin is irresistible to the children as it is just their height and the children can easily turn the water on and off all by themselves. If you look closely at the water on the child’s hand and on the basin, you can see the beauty and wonder of this magical substance called “water” as it drips, splashes, and reflects the light and color around it. The expression on the child’s face signifying his passion for this experience is infectious.

• PRINCIPLE •

Draw on the Aesthetic Qualities of Materials All of us collect fortunes when we are children— a fortune of colors, of light and darkness, of movements, of tensions. Some of us have the fantastic chance to go back to our fortune when we grow up. Most of us don’t have that chance— that is the tragedy. —Ingmar Bergman Human beings, and children in particular, are drawn to the sensory and aesthetic properties of materials. Ingmar Bergman, the Swedish film director known for rich and unusual visual imagery in his films, reminds us in this quotation that aesthetic elements are fortunes that heighten our pleasure and interest in the world. Young children continually notice these elements and offer you the “fantastic chance” to revisit with them in your daily work lives. Aesthetic is from the Greek word meaning “a perceiver” or “sensitive” and is a branch of philosophy dealing with the nature of beauty. The word aesthetic can be used as a noun meaning “that which appeals to the senses.” The early childhood profession has a long history of providing sand, water, fingerpaint, and other materials that attract children because they excite and soothe the senses. Yet the notion of aesthetics can go far beyond these typical approaches. Cultivating an aesthetic sense enhances the ability to see, explore, appreciate, and find joy in the beauty of the world. Aesthetic beauty can be found in the shapes, forms, lines, patterns, textures, light, colors, shadows, and reflective aspects of the things around you. It is part of the natural world and also visible in most human endeavors including art, architecture, many areas of design, and even cooking. Experiences within the aesthetic realm can evoke feelings of wonder, cu-

Martin Luther King Jr. Day Home Center

riosity, surprise, humor, awe, inspiration, and a sense of peace and tranquility. Rather than just relying on naturally occurring aesthetic experiences, imagine how you could enhance children’s instinctive inclination to notice aesthetic elements with more attention to them in your program. You can add liveliness, calm, complexity, and beauty

ENHANCE THE CURRICULUM WITH MATERIALS

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to your curriculum by planning for these materials as an integral aspect of your days together. You can respond to children’s innate awareness of this aspect of the world by carefully selecting and arranging materials to highlight the rich aesthetic elements surrounding you. Study these examples of teachers bringing beauty and wonder to children’s learning with atten-

© Curtis, Deb; Carter, Margie, Nov 01, 2007, Learning Together with Young Children : A Curriculum Framework for Reflec Redleaf Press, Saint Paul, ISBN: 9781605541730

tion to aesthetics.

Burlington Little School

The teachers in this room have given extra attention to adding materials to enhance aesthetic development beyond typical materials for sensory play. The shiny metal tubs that range in size from small to large and the matching metal containers and scoops invite children to notice further aesthetic details and concepts beyond their sensory investigation. The sparkly sand pellets (found in the cat litter section of pet stores) and the plastic swans and snowflakes evoke treasure hunts, dramas, and a sense of wonder.

Earlwood Children’s Centre

The caregiver in this infant program has planned this offering of materials with attention to many aesthetic elements. Notice the variety of textures in the fabrics, feathers, pillows, and play things. The sheer fabric hung above the area takes advantage of the outdoors, creating dappled light and shadows. Study how the use of color invites attention as well as unites and creates a soothing feeling. The children are drawn to the objects, which are hung where the children can reach them, as they shimmer and move in response to the breeze as well as the children’s actions. What else do you think will attract the babies as they spend time in this space with these materials? How would you feel as a caregiver in this environment?

Earlwood Children’s Centre

Sunflower School

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© Curtis, Deb; Carter, Margie, Nov 01, 2007, Learnin...