Pages

Sunday 19 October 2014

more light exploration...

On Friday we explored light again... after playing in puddles outside we came in and looked at images of our light play from Wednesday...

It was interesting to see what caught the children's imaginations... it was very much the photos of themselves... and the short films.. so we have plans for next week to show five short films that I take of the children to reflect upon... of course less films if the children have a greater need of time to reflect on each one... we talked about having films of everyday things, not just of activities, in order to help the children become aware of their actions, their routines, and the small things in life...

In the afternoon my daughters came over together with two of their friends (13-14 yr olds) - and they played with the children. I set up  the light installation again, to see how the children would interact this time... I used the photographs from the reflection session in the morning, including the films.

The teenagers seemed mostly interested in creating with the magnetic tiles and the lights... apparently a kind of Hogwarts... the preschoolers observed their collaboration, their discussions and joined in and helped too.

When it was time to pack up my daughters asked to explore the emergency sheet/tent - as they knew it had a tunnel like property (since we have played with one at home). They put a string of lights inside... which we could see from the outside... and then the children (regardless of age) all took it in turns to walk and crawl through the glowing silvery tunnel.

There were slightly less children than the morning of Wednesday, so this could have also influenced how the light was explored, as well as having older children there... but there did seem to be a different level of exploration. There was less role-play that leads to the chase play... and more play of the exploratory kind... if I dance and wave the chiffon what happens? if I run back and forth through the netting what happens? can I make the balls of light become the same colour by timing how I switch them on and off? The children watched each other and then tested themselves what their friends had been doing...

It could be a good idea to do this one more time (at least) and possibly add some more materials to see how it affects the play and exploration...

 exploring shadows
Exploring shadows with chiffon scarves

 exploring the sensory experience of the material and light pouring over the body

 construction with magnetic tiles and light


 lights on the inside of the tunnel taken from the outside... the material has such an interesting property of being not fully transparent... only when the light source is stronger on the other side...



 going through the tunnel

No comments:

Post a Comment