Katie posed a challenge: Can you move your bodies like the brushes that made these paintings?
The children did a lot of hopping!
Would repeating this activity help them to construct a more refined sense of the movement required to follow the path of the painters' strokes across the canvas? Now that they have painted themselves, would they recognize more possibilities for the movement of their painting tools?
Some of the children were hesitant; others more immediately active!
Connor is a blur in this photograph. Ava took the challenge seriously (as she does most things).
Max had seen "that artist" (Pollock) "in a book about artists' paintings."
Connor had seen Starry Night "in a museum."
They were delighted to recognize them.
Katie read the book, Action Jackson, pausing to ask questions and to answer the questions posed by the children. "Why?" was the most frequent question!
After reading that sometimes bugs and other refuse would fall into a wet painting, and Pollock would leave them where they fell, Katie asked why he would do that. Max answered, "I know. It has a different kind of detail."
Katie suggested the term "texture," and Max explained what that was ( though I could not hear his response).
"Why did he paint like that?" "Crazy" seemed to be the description of choice for Pollock's paintings, but "messy" and "silly" were also suggested.
How might the children's ideas change as a result of getting to know Jackson better?
One child asked, "Why did he make so many paintings?"
But Katie didn't hear the question.
It is sometimes hard to hear, and sometimes to understand, young children's questions, even in a situation like this where they are all attentive and quiet. How can we be sure to capture these moments in discussion when the children are telling us what they know, and what they are curious about?
What documentation tools might help us capture these moments that have so much to tell us about our students, what they know and what they are ready to learn?
During snack, new friendships continued to form and solidify.
Max and Jack will be a pair to watch in the coming weeks; they will have much to teach us, as bright, vocal children who quickly found one another!
The children assemble around the blank canvases. With tools in hand, they explored brushstrokes and waited patiently for something colorful to spread on the beautiful white surface.
What is the value of waiting? How can we make it a productive part of classroom life?
These quiet moments provided a space to think together about the possibilities of filling the blank canvas,
and the beauty of the surface itself.
This was an important part of instruction (and relates to Jackson Pollock's practice as well).
Wonderful reflections on the importance of "white spaces" in teaching and learning can be found at the following links from Camp Creek Blog:
www.whiteoakschool.com/camp-creek-blog/2009/1/.../white-space.ht...
www.whiteoakschool.com/camp-creek-blog/.../white-space-as-a-learn...
The tools available to the children suggest different approaches to mark making,
and make different marks.
This is fascinating as a first stage of their explorations.
The children stayed with their first tools for a very long time.
After some exploration, the children discover their hands. . .and the canvas becomes more unified in the process, as discrete areas are joined and colors mix.
Watching other children, stepping back, getting new tools are all significant parts of the activity.
Jordan moved each group to a new canvas as interest began to lag.
Finally, as the children lined up for clean up, Max returned to one of the three canvases, the last he had worked on, and smudged the colors together with his hands, using great care to blend colors, fill the canvas, and add texture.
He asked for a paper towel and returned to very carefully wipe the paint off of the masking tape that held the canvases to the tarp on the floor. He seemed intent on finishing the painting. His movements around the canvas, the way he surveyed the surface, were very much in the spirit of Jackson Pollock (although the style of the painting is very different).
When I am in my painting, I'm not aware of what I'm doing.
It is only after a sort of 'get acquainted' period that I see what I have been about.
I have no fear of making changes, destroying the image, etc., because the painting has a life of its own. I try to let it come through. It is only when I lose contact with the painting that the result is a mess. Otherwise there is pure harmony, an easy give and take, and the painting comes out well.
-- Jackson Pollock, My Painting, 1956
This is Jackson Pollock's explanation of his process of painting. Do the photographs suggest that the children in preschool and kindergarten experienced their paintings in a similar way?
"I painted like Jackson Pollock." "Impressive!" said one parent. "Who?" said another!
Isn't it wonderful that their children now have something to share with them!
After going back and reading your first post, I am so eager to see the friendship between Max and Jack on Saturday! I loved how your story time also doubled as discussion time, and allowed for a more fun and comfortable way of sharing ideas. I also loved Max's reaction to bugs falling on Pollock's paintings. Instead of being grossed out, he gave a thoughtful response. Leaving time for a student to think about a question is very important, whether that student is in kindergarten or high school.
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