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Grown–up Talk Playing with Materials
Part of the fun in art is experimenting with the properties of the materials. Children love to explore the possibilities. They find that crayons
are hard and make colorful marks. They can press hard to make a darker mark or lightly to make light marks. They have many color choices. Paint offers fewer color choices, but when colors run into each other all kinds of surprises happen on the paper. Applying color with a brush is exciting too. Dough is entirely different. It requires squeezing, pushing, and rolling the material. These are a child’s experiences. As they work, children are learning all kinds of things about the material and what it can and can’t do. Children may be so interested in working with the material that they do not make a “thing”. It is easy to look at the results and think that their time or the materials have been wasted. However, when a child is actually engaged in experimenting with the material, lots of learning is taking place. This child may make a “thing” the next time or the time after that. I do not push children into making a “final something” when they seem to be enjoying the process of working with the material. When working with dough, I like to suggest words that give children ideas for how to handle it. Words like squeeze, poke, pinch, and roll build a child’s vocabulary while giving them practical experience with this new medium. Allow children to play using just their hands. On another day, give them tools from your kitchen to experiment with. Children will model the kinds of things that they draw. A snake is a favorite subject because once the clay is rolled back and forth, the result is recognized by most children as a snake. This kind of discovery is wonderful. Do not feel that you need to suggest these types of ideas. Some children who have difficulty drawing will find that they are very proficient at modeling a three-dimensional object. Others who feel comfortable drawing may have difficulty forming an object from dough. They may want to flatten it like paper and draw into it. That is acceptable, but at some point, you will want to encourage that child to make a form that stands up. Usually, they will discover this on their own when you allow lots of undirected playtime. By allowing time to experiment, you will be helping the child to gain more experience and soon the one who found it difficult will have no difficulties at all.
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