Art: Drawing Faces

 
A child’s drawing skills becomes more complex as their fine motor skills develop. After many drawing and scribbling experiences, as a child approaches the 3 or 4 year old mark, they begin to explore representation in their drawings. Their circular shapes become faces and first images of people.

 
I noticed my preschool son drawing people, with a head and a few other body parts. I was keen to take advantage of his interest in representation and engaged him in a conversation about his drawings.

 
Engaging children in conversation about their work allows them to think more deeply about their work and allows for more meaningful experimentation.

 
Using a mirror, I invited him to explore faces and its features. Together we discussed our physical characteristics: our eyes, ears, nose, mouth, chin, hair.

 
You can extend these discussions and build up your child’s vocabulary of a given physical characteristic. For example, when talking about eyes, incorporate these words where appropriate : blink; blue eyes; brown eyes; hazel eyes; green eyes; grey eyes; eyebrows; eyelashes; eyelids; wink. Or for mouth: chew; eat; lips; sing; smile; speak; talk; taste; teeth; tongue.

 
After our conversation about faces and using the mirror and himself as a reference, he began to draw faces with more defined facial features. Scribbles made their transition to representations.

 
It takes time and effort on our behalf, but investing in conversations with children about their work helps them realise and become aware of their potential and ability. Even those children who are reluctant to draw are usually very proud of their newly discovered skill.

 M: 4 years
June 2012

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Science

 
Science is not just a body of knowledge. Science is also a process of investigation. It is concerned with finding out about the world in a systematic way.
 
An important part of science education provides students with the processes and skills required to investigate and acquire knowledge about themselves and their environment.
 
The investigation process includes:

• Observing
• Proposing explanations
• Predicting outcomes
• Testing predictions
• Modifying understandings
• Making predictions supported by testing
• Explaining and applying understandings

 

Simple Experiment: Air Taking Up Space

 
What is air? What are its’ characteristics?
 
Using this simple experiment, we investigated an interesting characteristic of air.
 
You will need a funnel; empty bottle; balloon, masking tape, rubber band, water.
 

 

 
{Observe, Predict Outcomes, Test Predictions}
 
Put the funnel into the mouth of the bottle and before pouring water into the funnel, let children predict what will happen when they pour water into the funnel. (N & M predicted that the water will flow into the bottle).
 
Pour the water into the funnel and observe, the water flows into the bottle.
 
{Observe, Predict Outcome, Test Predictions}
 
Now, secure the funnel onto the bottle so there is no space between the two.
 
I found it very difficult to seal up the bottle. I tried using some clay at first, but that failed miserably. In the end I had to stretch a balloon over the top of the bottle; cut a tiny hole in the stretched balloon to put the funnel into; put the funnel on top of the bottle through that tiny hole; tape the funnel onto the bottle with masking tape and secure the funnel to the bottle again with a very large elastic band.
 
Before pouring water into the funnel and now sealed bottle, let children predict what will happen when they pour water into the funnel. (N & M predicted that the water will flow into the bottle, as it had done before the bottle was sealed).
 
Test predictions by pouring water into the funnel and now sealed up bottle.
 
Observe that the water remains in the funnel does not flow into the bottle. (N & M exclaimed, “The water is stuck!” . Using their fingers, they even tried to push the water into the bottle, but the water still didn’t go into the bottle.)
 

 
{Propose Explanations}
 
Let children propose why the water has remained in the funnel instead of flowing into the (sealed) bottle.
 
Discuss what has changed; the bottle has been sealed off so things can’t get out.
 
Now that the bottle is sealed, air can’t get out. Water can’t get into the bottle because it’s already full of air. Before we sealed up the bottle, air could easily get out of the bottle and make space for the water poured in through the funnel.
 
{Modify Understandings}
 
Although we can’t see air, we know it’s there and it takes up space.
 

N & M: 4 years, 1 month

 

The post Science: Simple Experiment – Air Takes Up Space by Pauline appeared first on Lessons Learnt Journal.

When crafting with my children, my goal is to provide them a wide range of experiences.

I want them to know there is no wrong way to do craft.

It is building, expressing and observing. It’s about exploring materials and techniques, rather than to simply complete projects.

Gather the materials for your paper fort:

• Electrical tape, assorted colours;
• Scissors;
• Coloured prism board paper, assorted colours, cut into squares.

Explore:

• Make stripe cards by sticking electrical tape on the paper squares.
• Experiment with different lines. Try some diagonal, vertical or horizontal lines. Place them the same distance apart or varying distances. Try overlapping some lines.
• Try different colours and observe how background makes a difference. Which combinations have the best contrast? Let your child explain which colour combination is their favourite and why they chose it.

Build your paper craft fort:

• At each side of the square; cut a 1cm line in the middle.
• Using these small incisions, slide the cards into one another to build your paper fort.

 N & M: 4 years
June 2012

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Just last week, my boys were keen to make something; an uncommon event which caught me unprepared. My eyes scoured around for something to work with. Our huge family sized bag of uncoloured pasta presented itself. I needed something quick to make the pasta snazzy. So, instead of coating our pasta with food colouring, we dressed them up in tin foil.

Materials to source: Tin foil, penne pasta

Set the stage for play:  Cut up small pieces of tin foil just large enough to just wrap around the edges of the penne. Roll up individual pieces of penne. (My preschool sons enjoyed helping me roll up the penne in the foil. My toddler was determined, but his fingers didn’t seem to be on the same page as his determination). Press firmly around the edges and grooves of the penne for more definition. Place a combination of plain penne and tin foil penne in a large tray with some bowls and pipe cleaners.

We sorted, poured and threaded pasta. My toddler enjoyed threading the pasta immensely.

I extended the activity for my preschoolers to some simple sequencing of plain and tin foil pasta.

Tin foil pasta. A snazzy way to dress up pasta for play and crafts and here’s my favourite part: no drying time required.

N & M: 4 years
E: 1 year, 11 months
June 2012

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