Lessons from Punch Art

     
Interesting how innocent our mistakes can be.

This morning at the art table I made the above punch art
and hung it on the window. 
I wrote the instructions,
"draw a picture, use the golf tees and hammer to punch holes"
and then I left the table.

I never thought everyone would draw a jack o’lantern. 
A big reminder not to make a model for children to follow. 
It can so hinder their own creativity. 

But I did observe a couple of positive things during today’s activity.

Firstly that the children love to hammer. 
 
That in their own time and way they could figure out how to use the hammer.
Which side to pound the golf tee?
  
How to use the hammer to pull the tees out of their picture?


And I also listened to the grown ups talk. 
One mentioned that this activity reminded her of a Lite Brite. 
Another asked what a Lite Brite was.
 
Luckily I have a couple in the cupboard and was able to bring it out so the
children could use them.

This began a brief conversation about texture – smooth vs rough.
 
Interesting that what started out as ‘oh no I shouldn’t have done that’,
ended up to still be a positive experience.