Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Lessons from Punch Art

      oct 23 002
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.
oct 23 007
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.oct 23 039 oct 23 045

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

Firstly that the children love to hammer. 
oct 23 035 oct 23 036
That in their own time and way they could figure out how to use the hammer.
Which side to pound the golf tee?
 oct 23 057 oct 23 058
How to use the hammer to pull the tees out of their picture?
oct 23 009

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.
oct 23 038 oct 23 044
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.
oct 23 059 oct 23 060
Interesting that what started out as ‘oh no I shouldn’t have done that’,
ended up to still be a positive experience.