Now paper is a marvelous material...–David Hawkins

If you've ever seen an infant with paper then you know that Mr. Hawkins has a point there! Infants can spend quite a while exploring any type of paper's particular properties, from how it feels, to how it crumples and what that sounds like, to how it floats through the air when you drop it–properties that we grown-ups tend to just fly by.

In many ways art for young children continues in this vein; it is important both as a multi-faceted sensory experience and as an emergent means of expression. We use the term "process art" to describe our approach. The emphasis is on how children choose to interact with the materials provided, rather than on any particular end-product. There is no example provided and teachers do not make comments about whether children's work is "good" or "bad" or "right". Instead, the experience usually evolves as children make discoveries, experiment creatively, and ask questions, and they are finished when they say they are finished. We have also been talking about slowing down the art experiences that we facilitate. Rather than spending a morning covering pumpkins in paint, glitter, glue, and feathers, maybe we will take a day to explore how painting them with different brushes and natural materials results in different textures, then another day to incorporate glue and investigate what sticks and what doesn't, and yet another day to explore properties of glitter. And we can always make adjustments along the way to follow children's interests. If we have taped paper to the table with the intention of painting it but find the children are more interested in the tape than anything else, then a morning exploring tape is probably the most fruitful way to spend our time.

If you want to read more, a brief but useful article about process art is available here and if anyone's really ambitious, the book Infants and Toddlers at Work by Ann Lewin-Benham is an excellent resource about how experiences with different materials influence brain development for infants and toddlers.

Thanks for reading!
Megan

News and Reminders
Our lost and found is getting a little out of control; it's now in a big basket in the entry way. It will be there for one week, so please look through and grab what is yours. After that we will donate the remnants to Goodwill.

The MVS Halloween Parade will be on Oct. 31 from 10-11am. We will start at school and walk down Thomas Lane towards the village. All family members welcome!

Save the date: Our annual Stick Season Social will be on Saturday, November 4. More details coming soon.

Classroom Updates
This week we have an update from Jacob in PS2, but in lieu of the rest here are many photos from the week. A big highlight was PreK's field trip to Shelburne Farms–scroll down for Sarah's photos.

Preschool II
The PS2 adventures continued with forest walks collecting leaves, climbing rocks, and leaving the trail to “bushwhack” as W called it on our way back to school.  We glued the leaves we collected along the Woof trail to a large sheet of brown paper so we could paint over them. We found some leaves easier to glue than others and discovered that painting them was the most fun. We spent two mornings this week exploring the forest behind school and found some interesting rock formations and downed trees to climb on. The rock became both a boat to board—with sticks as ropes to help each other on and of—and a unicorn’s lair with its own magical cauldron where a magic potion of leaves, pine needles, and water turned us all into flying unicorns.  As Halloween approaches we have been sharing our costume ideas and singing songs about pumpkins and witches. And finally after starting a new line up routine counting in Spanish, we have sparked a new fascination with other ways of saying the same thing. All here, all clear—Todo aquí, Todo claro.