After visiting the Wonders of Learning exhibit in Vancouver last month,
I was inspired to make a permanent spot for the overhead projector in our room.
It is placed on a low riser and illuminates on to the wall.
The children have been experimenting with how it turns on and off.
What parts move? How does it work? What will reflect on the wall?
They have been exploring with a variety of materials.
Coloured blocks, rock mats, clear paper weights, old slides and more.
Making the connection between what they put on the projector, what they
see on the wall and describing it.
This week I added black outline pictures printed on transparencies.
I was a bit surprised that the children wanted to colour them.
I don’t provide colouring sheets in the program as I feel that they
don’t offer much for creativity but I was surprised how attractive
this is for the children.
And surprised that it is mostly girls that are attracted.
Driving home today I thought back to my experience with colouring books
and fondly remember colourfully filling in each page.
I felt like an artist.
I talked to my daughter, who is now 24, about this and she remembers colouring
and enjoying it too. She felt that it did offer her creativity because she could
decide if she wanted the tree to be pink or rainbow or whatever colour she desired.
So by not providing colouring sheets in my program am I missing
an element of creative art for the children?
I would love any opinions on this.
I found your projector project to be very interesting. It is something that I think that I would like to do in my classroom but I will have to figure out how to make a projector as our school does not provide them for us to use. In response to your question about the color pages...in our area (central Illinois) the big HOT topic is not using worksheets or coloring pages/books. I have been in the field of early childhood for 26 years and I have seen the pendulum swing both ways. Current research says that coloring pages stifle a child's natural creativity and artistic ability. Research says that children do not learn from writing on worksheets. I have found in all my years of working that different children learn in different ways. As old as I am I remember doing worksheets from the old mimiograph machines and I LOVED worksheets... I excelled at worksheets. I am a visual learner and I needed worksheets. THe same with coloring pages. I learned about line and shape, shading, drawing in detail. Even to this day if I need to draw something it is much easier for me if I have a visual to look at and copy. I believe that many children are like that as well. Yes, there are some who would prefer the blank wall and the hands on letters and shapes and numbers. I have learned there is no "right" or "wrong" way. As every child is an individual, there are individual ways of learning.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your thoughts and you're right that each child learns in a different way. I believe, like anything in life, you need to find a balance. That no one way is the right way. Thanks for replying.
DeleteI believe in a lot of what you are saying. As long as there is a well stocked creative art are that addresses "all leanring styles" and children a free to choose how they use their creativity, AND coloring sheets are not a permanent replacement for other forms of creativity ... Why not ? The children can create their own colroing sheets from the use of the over head!
ReplyDeleteI like your idea of the children creating their own colouring sheets. I could provide permanent black markers with the coloured and clear overhead transparencies and watch what comes of it.
DeleteYou've given me something to think about - thanks