loosely told stories

Invitation to play. What would you like to make today?

Today I take a break from reflecting upon individual students for reporting to revisit the story I began in the last post: loose parts exploration in my classroom. While loose parts play is difficult to categorize because it allows players to imagine endless scenarios and enjoy a tactile experience, there are rather different directions that this play can take. In part one, I looked at the play that evolved when I brought buckets of water-softened beach stones, driftwood, and bricks, and also shared a beautiful provocation in the form of photos of stone balance structures created by Peter Reidel. Those stone and wood stacks still grow, tumble, and grow anew in the class. The same materials also spill onto the carpet and onto nearby tables, with jumbles of fancy fabric samples and empty frames, and bowls of stones, glass gems, seeds, acorn caps and other purchased and found treasures.

              

This week I looked over my hundreds of photos and video clips and felt such delight. Hundreds of images, because once students know you have a capture device, you are always on call: "Come, take a picture of my pattern!" or "Can I make a video to share?", "Can we show this to Ms. Croft's class?".
All around me, students using the language of design: "I used light ones and dark ones in my spiral", "These lines are bumpy, but these ones are straight", "We made a mandala out of stones and jewels", "I made a pattern. These are bricks, these are stones, acorns, and the shells of the snails".

Creations made in the classroom and in our nearby park.

Loose parts are a natural part of the classroom from the beginning of the year, involving much more than artistic or aesthetic exploration. Building structures for small world play, forts to play in, and ramps and mazes, all take place with loose materials such as large wooden blocks and slabs, tree slices, cardboard tubes, and found objects. Adding the little items such as glass gems and shells came slowly over the year, such as when I made my own little light box in the fall. Students enjoyed the light and shadow play, but it wasn't until I began to share images made by "land artists" that I saw the change happen, like it did last year in response to the same provocation. Sharing a selection of Andy Goldsworthy's other-worldy ephemeral art resulted in silence, and then applause. I recommend trying it with your students - many artists experiment and even excel at land art, but there are none in the world like Goldsworthy for sheer wonder. An excerpt (click to play) from "Rivers and Tides, or a slideshow (click to play) of images of his works from over the years would be a nice start. Another inspiring artist to share with beautiful examples of both stacks and mandalas can be found here.
 

 

One way to provoke an interesting conversation about what makes art, and what students think about a  style of art, is to use the images in a daily sign-in question. For one week, I had students choose between styles of art they might like to try ("Would you like to try to balance stones or make a design?") or which materials they would like to try ("Would you rather use stones/glass gems/pine cones?") or respond to an artist's work ("Which one of these pictures inspires you to try your own?").

Students mixing materials, and also mixing up their choice of playmates. New voices heard in creative area.

I've come to notice how loose parts art have changed the social dynamics in the room in several subtle ways. My "creative area" (the only name I could come up with for the spot in my room with sinks, paint racks, craft and writing supplies, play dough, and natural light from the windows) was often visited by students who enjoyed creating works of art: paintings, little books, clay sculptures, leaf rubbings. Yes, clipboards were taken elsewhere for drawing or writing, but unless I set out new provocations such as vegetables for stamping with or made ice-pop paints with students, many children opted out of visiting this area. Sharing land art images and providing many natural  or open-ended materials lead to artistic exploration taking over the room: light table spirals, stacks on one carpet, structures on the other, flowers and people and other representational art made in frames on tables.

  

Another change in dynamic is the change from individual focus on product (making a painting to take home or hang up in class gallery) to process, often involving several students. There is something almost magical about walking around the room, no longer hearing: "He got brown paint on my painting!" or "I need that colour, hurry up!". No more worrying about the direction to take or fretting over the finished product. The students have no "finished" product to take home, but what they have gained in awareness about art and about themselves is immeasurable.

Loose parts art invites collaboration and problem-solving. Sometimes it looks like several students working on their own little pieces in frames but sharing bowls of materials, chatting about their designs, offering each other new parts to add or asking for someone to pass them another item. Perhaps it is because I have been collecting so many materials to use, or perhaps it is the sheer pleasure gleaned from playing with beautiful, tactile materials, but I rarely see arguing over materials even in such close quarters as the table below.

A group of morning friends share materials and space, chatting about their choices and designs.

Sometimes it looks like one child beginning a small pattern and then, slowly or all at once, being joined by several more students bringing more materials. Time after time I have watched students enter into a process already begun, adding their ideas, sometimes knocking things over, sometimes changing the story or design quite radically. What amazes me is how this happens quite organically, with no arguing when a balance stack is accidentally knocked over, and such rich talk amongst the collaborators. The other aspect of this collaboration that delights me is the stamina the children display. I am not entirely certain if this is possible simply because students have developed self-regulation by this time of year, but to see a child or a group work hard and maintain focus for close to an hour, in a busy, noisy room? It is truly a marvel to behold.


Here are some examples of that magic at work.

Here are some of the students' creations as captured, by request, in 6-second vine clips.
Note: links will open in a new window, on desktop computer. On mobile device it may open in browser or in vine app if you have it installed. Sound will be off, click on the speaker icon to listen.

The bridge over the dangerous river

"This is our mandala for our birthday friend" made by the AM class for M on her day.

 The big reveal!

T's beautiful frame design

Another collaborative project begins