Monday, November 28, 2011

Who wants an end product?

It's always interesting, at the art/craft table, to watch adult and child interact with the materials provided.
The adult wants to know what we're making.
The child just wants to do.
Today was an example of that.
At the table there were available pipe cleaners, beads and coloured pasta.
When a child sat down they picked up a pipe cleaner and started threading the pasta and beads.
When an adult joined them there was talk of necklaces and bracelets.
When the children were left to their own they continued to thread, often taking off what they had and doing it all over.
Experimenting with how the beads fit beside or over top of other beads.
They figured out how to get the pasta to stay on the pipe cleaner.
And they talked about what colours they liked.
It was possibly my fault because in my weekly newsletter I suggested jewelry making.  Emphasizing that this activity is great for fine motor development and eye hand coordination.  Also mentioning the possibility of talking about patterning.
What did I learned at school today?
Don't put my thoughts and ideas of an outcome onto others.