261/365

My partner and I were inspired by this idea for our weekly playgroup. Rolls of paper towel, food colouring and water, a variety of droppers for all fine motor levels (including one turkey baster), and we have the easiest art experience ever. The kids loved dripping and squirting colours all over their canvas. After playgroup, streams of paper towel were draped over everything around the office to dry.

Then... what to do with them? While we are trying to emphasize process over product with our arts & crafts experiences in playgroup, it seemed awful to think about just putting all the paper towel in the garbage after all that fun (not to mention incredibly un-eco-friendly).



So, after using some other colleagues as sounding boards, we came up with a few ideas. I am hoping to turn several sheets into decorative flowers to add to the springtime ambience in our playroom. Other sheets were glued onto card stock this afternoon, embellished with curls and shapes, and adhered to the windows looking into our playgroup. Photos of the kids in the process of creating were then glued on top of this to create an artistic photo story for parents and staff to admire.

I have loved watching the children create and explore with the art supplies we put out; and then taking their art one step further as we display it in the classroom. I hope they like it, too!

Left and Right OR 202/365

I am left-brained. And not just left brained, but SO left-brained. I like planning and structure. I'm not a heart-on-the-sleeve kind of girl. I did well in math, and love numbers. I enjoy writing. My way of thinking is sometimes so linear that rulers get jealous.

This is not to say that my right brain never speaks its voice. I have a good sense of colour. I am a visual learner. I love music. Still, right-brained thinking is certainly not my default at any given moment. That being said, I value things that are associated with the right side of the brain: creativity, art, colour, feelings. I have been trying to exercise my right brain more recently, encouraging it to take over sometimes:

• At work, we continue to infuse more concepts from the Reggio Emilia philosophy into our playroom. The decor is coming along nicely; currently, my partner and I are trying to decide if we need to rearrange furniture to better utilize the space (feng shui, anyone?); I'm trying not to let my left brain get stuck in the functionality of the room as it currently is. We are also setting out a variety of craft materials for the children to create art with--and not just the typical crayons, pom-poms and glue. Some of our recent craft materials have included fish tank gravel, marshmallows, twigs. I have spent some time this weekend cutting shapes out of used gift cards--recycling at its most interesting. I have also decided to start scanning some of the kids' art so that our Office Manager can start embedding it into the newsletter instead of Microsoft's clip-art (no offense, Bill).

• My photography is sometimes a paradox. The visual 'eye' needed for photography definitely comes from the right brain (I have even noticed that when I put the viewfinder up to my eye, I naturally go to my left eye, which is controlled by the right side of the brain. Interesting). That being said, I think I'm a left-brained photographer...if such a thing exists! It's taken quite a bit of training and conscious effort to remember to shoot a subject from a myriad of unique and different perspectives, let alone get crazy artistically abstract with my photos. My default is definitely to capture things as they really are, and in the moment; I'm pretty sure I don't even use a tenth of the potential that Photoshop holds for photography. And really, I'm okay with that. It's creative enough just to grab those unique perspectives of the world around me, and I've been working on doing that more often.

It is a long weekend here in Alberta, and I have been using my time today on a couple different photography projects. Letting my right brain influence my cropping, colour-matching, and organizing. I would love to see what it all looks like on an MRI...

73/365

Project: Ikea Meets Reggio is complete!

After generous coatings of paint in softer, earthy colours, the Play Doh table was reassembled and brought back to the office. It flows so much better with the overall decor of the playroom that it took my partner a minute to realize I'd brought it back!

So that's one down... :)

When in Reggio OR 68/365

Because The GRIT Program (where I work) is a family-centred educational program, we work in family's homes, as well as neighbourhood preschools and kindergartens. We don't have a classroom of our own. We do, however, have a playroom, and run a small playgroup a few times each month for the kids in our program.

As we always try to adhere to current research and best practice for child development and education, we are presently trying to adopt many aspects of the Reggio Emilia Approach in our playroom. One of the most salient changes we are making is to the decor and 'ambience' of the environment.

On a tight budget, my partner and I have been brainstorming the little things we can change in the classroom--for little or no cost--to make it more conducive to learning through play and discovery. Knowing some of the benefits of plants, we placed a few in the classroom last month--each originally a cutting from a plant or two in our homes. They are thriving quite nicely. I also managed to obtain some fish for free, and they have drawn interest from some of the kids over the last few weeks. We have also gathered some natural materials (namely, sticks and pebbles) for the children to play with and explore in the different centre areas.

We also know that when we display the children's art work, it will 'pop' more if the playroom isn't busy with the primary colours (vibrant red, yellow, green and blue) so traditional of preschool and kindergarten classrooms and equipment. While there is nothing wrong with these vibrant colours, per se (after all, they're generally the first colours children learn developmentally), they're certainly not easy on the eyes. And sometimes there can be too much colour in one's learning space. So this weekend, I undertook Project: Ikea Meets Reggio.

For several years, the Play Doh Table has been a bright green and yellow Ikea table. My partner and I felt no guilt in covering it over with a few coats of paint (sorry, Ikea!). We were given some paint by a colleague in a natural taupe and chocolate brown. Perfect. With the long weekend at hand, I knew I would have ample time to prime and paint new life into the table.

So it was that on a Friday evening, I found myself dismantling the legs from the top (thank you, Ikea!), and applying two coats of primer over the bright, glossy colours. It looks better already.