Changable Sign Posts

It's Scott from Brick by Brick. I love to repurpose materials—use materials in ways different from their intended purpose. 

This particular idea came from my wife. (Did I marry the right person or what?) I came into the room one day and found these.

Sign posts for our the blocks center! When we've used our logos before, we've taped them to blocks or cardboard tubes. That still works great. But Cindy wanted something else.

She got plastic lids, wide craft sticks, and clothespins. She made a slit in the lid and inserted the craft stick. Using hot glue, she secured the stick and then glued the clothespin to the other end of the stick. Presto! Sign posts that can be changed as we see fit.

Our boys really enjoyed using these signs. They built and incorporated the signs in their construction. They read the signs, at least some of them. 

They added them to what they built. Then they built specific structures for the signs. (And sometimes they built and ignored the signs. That's okay, too!)

I think these sign posts could be really useful in other ways. In addition to using them for street signs or other block play, here are some ideas I had.

• Clip on words cards for kids to read or write or spell with letter tiles.
• Clip on letters for kids to rearrange to spell their names.
• Add cards with numbers and kids could count out quantities. 
• Clip on sorting categories and kids could place items or pictures under the appropriate signs.
• Add statements or key words in different centers or other activities.
• Clip on instructions for a recipe or science experiment.
• Use name cards for place settings or other dramatic play in the home center.

I love repurpose ideas and these are a great addition to our collection of resources. Thanks, Cindy!!

Straws in the Blocks Center

Hi! It's Scott from Brick by Brick. I love to repurpose items and use them in different ways in the preschool classroom.

Sometimes I get things without any particular idea of what I'm going to do with it. (After all, I have those great thinkers in my classroom!) One day in the grocery store, I saw packets of neon straws. I tossed a pack into my cart and took them to my classroom.

I decided to put the straws in the blocks center. My group likes to build and I want to give them some different things to work with. We were talking about wells, so I also added a couple of small buckets with yarn attached. (In the past, kids have built wells and pretended to scoop out water.)

A couple of boys decided to use the straws as "water." They stuffed the straws into the buckets and transported them across the center. They dumped the "water" onto the picture of the well, I think to fill it up. The boys worked at this for a while.

Meanwhile, in another part of the center, one of my builders was at work creating a large structure.

After the others left, the builder completed his building and began to scoop and play with the straws.

Then he decided to incorporate the straws in his structure.

I love how each straw is strategically placed. He worked really hard to find just the right spot in his structure.

I enjoy exploring and experimenting just like my kids. Sometimes I'll put things out and they will be ignored. Sometimes the kids do things that I expect. And sometimes I get a block structure filled with straws. And if I put these same materials out with a different group of kids, I'll get a different result.

That's what's great about the early childhood years. Children are exploring the things they want to know more about or things they wonder. And, with a tiny push like a new material or a different idea, they explore into really great areas.

What experiments and explorations are you seeing in your classrooms?

A Cupful of Ideas

It's Scott from Brick by Brick. I love to repurpose materials—use materials in ways different from their intended purpose.

Cups - paper and plastic cups - can be versatile resources in the classroom. Of course, you can use them for snacks and drinks, but they can be so much more than this regular, expected use.

You can use them to pretend to eat. 

Use plastic cups and plates as part of your pretend play area. We placed some in a basket with a tablecloth and we had an instant picnic! If you do not have play dishes, take a trip to the discount store and get some disposable cups and dinnerware. These make great and inexpensive possibilities for playing out family situations and pretending to work in a restaurant. (Yes, it's close to intended use but still great play possibilities.)

You can use them for art.

Place cups with a stamp pad or with a shallow pan of paint. Kids will enjoy pressing the cups into the stamp pad or paint and then onto paper. They can create lots of circles or experiment with using the cups. Or make a group of circles and then use a marker or pen to create faces. I always say that you can paint with just about anything and disposable cups are great for stamping circles and exploring form.

Make a drawing "propeller" by cutting a slit a cup and sliding a craft stick through it. Then tape markers to the ends of the stick. Kids can draw with the propellers, a fun variation to using markers.

You can use them to hold stuff.

Of course, you can place collage materials or markers or other small items in cups for a center. You could use them to sort items or to transport items in a game.

You can use them to build.

Add cups to your blocks for more building possibilities. Or just build and stack cups. I always enjoy adding different elements to the blocks/construction area and watching how kids use them. You don't need a grand plan. Let the kids explore their creativity with the various materials.

You can use them to scoop and pour.

Place cups with sand, water, grain, or whatever you want to scoop and pour. Kids will enjoy experimenting with scooping, filling, and pouring materials. Cups of any size can be used, but I'd recommend smaller cups for this purpose. (You have less in a cup at a time that can cause a mess.)

You can use them for outside sculpture.

Some colorful plastic cups and a chain link fence make great basic materials for sculpture. Encourage kids to create a design or let them place cups randomly. The overall effect is really cool. (And a great way to exercise those fine motor skills! Manipulating cups into the fence can be a challenge.)

What ways have you used cups in your classroom?

Visit my Dollar Store and Dumpster Pinterest Board and my blog for more repurposing ideas.

FOSTERING CREATIVE & CRITICAL THINKERS - Transference of Knowledge!

BUCKLE UP!

The process of learning is amazing to behold.  Especially when you have the opportunity to collaborate for years with creative and progressive programs. One such organization is Child-Parent Centers, Inc., an exemplary Head Start program in Tucson.  

This blog is dedicated to their children, teachers and parents.

Enrique C. Feldman, Founder
Global Learning Foundation, Artist,
and Children's Book Author

I had taken a break for a from my blogging with so many wonderful projects which have taken my complete focus.  Those projects are surfacing now and so am I!  To preface all the beautiful images you're going to see, which are examples of children's work with materials, I want to make something very clear.  This blog and the children's work it highlights are much more than cute & cool.

The work you're seeing is the byproduct of weeks and in some cases months of:

• Teachers asking children great questions
• Children and Teachers having authentic conversations
• Exploring with materials before deciding on which ones to use

With that in mind... up, up and away!

The role of materials is essential to creating invitations for any aged learner to explore, consider, strive and eventually THRIVE!  Take a good look at the first image below.  Which do you think the child started with?  Which one took longer?  Why?  Notice that I love to use questions, even with you, the reader... why do I choose to do that?  (I encourage you to use the comment section below)

WHAT & WHY

As adult learners we quite often ask questions starting with "What?"  Nothing wrong with that and certainly, sometimes it is a great word to use.  What about why?  lol... couldn't help myself! 

What would the world look like if we asked "Why?" more often?  For example, with the next image, I could ask a infinite number of questions.  How about this one...

Why do you think this child chose to create this structure/image?  Is there a central focus, and if so, was this done on purpose?  Hmmmmm.....  I can hear you thinking and I love that sound... silence... the sound of thinking!  Let's remember to embrace the silence once we ask a question.  Many of us adults ask a question, followed by the sound of our own voice, again speaking.... I know I do sometimes.... embrace the sound of thinking, that glorious silence, especially when working with young children.

SYMMETRY and ASYMMETRY

Now hold on....these are pretty big words for preschool children, right?  Not really.  There was a time when I would have thought so.  In my many years of working with children, my experience has shown me that:

• When you embody the thing you are learning, you can learn anything, including advanced vocabulary.
• When you offer any aged learner the chance to learn with different approaches, you elevate their level of engagement.
• When you offer different ways of experiencing the same concept, you by default introduce the idea of "transference of knowledge" (understanding how concepts make sense in different areas of study).

3D and 2D

#Whynot? The ever popular fortress image!  I know I loved forts when I was little... but wait, is this a fort?  What else could it be?  How many different things could this represent?  And, do we take the time to have these kinds of conversations with our youngest learners.... how about our older learners?

The ability to see images in our own head in both 2D and 3D is very closely related to our ability to visualize.... so, is this just an image of a fort?  I think we should all think about how empowering this kind of work can be for learner and teacher/parent!

MATERIALS and COLOR

So what is a young child thinking when they choose a color?  Did they know that the blue and the red would provide fantastic contrast?  Did they first explore other colors?  Does that thing in the center turn or twist?  If so, why?

Are the questions we ask more important than the "answers"?  I have my opinion and I encourage you to consider your response.

BALANCE and FUNCTION

I wonder what this child knows about balance?  I wonder if the word "Fulcrum" was introduced?  I wonder if they first saw something like this in real life.

Should we keep wondering?  Should we model wondering?

hmmmmm...

Depending on your personality type, you might be wondering, "but what are the exact steps to take when having children work with blocks and creating visual art?"  May I suggest a different question? Perhaps...

• What kind of materials do your children enjoy the most?
• Have you asked them why?

• What kinds of real life objects excite your children the most?
• Have you asked them why?

• Can you find materials and objects that interest your children?
• Can you connect these materials and objects to words, math, and science?

I wonder and I hope you do to!

I'm looking forward to my July 10 blog, which will be a very special one indeed, titled "The Art of Living".... and now that I think about it, my August 10 blog will be just as special, titled "Sam the Ant - the hero in us all!"

Ciao!

Enrique C. Feldman
Founder, Global Learning Foundation
Performing Artist and Composer
Author, Living Like a Child
Creator, iBG, Intellectual Brainwave Games (coming soon)
Co-Creator, The Inner Journey Theatrical Show
Co-Author of Sam the Ant, a new kind of children's book series (coming soon)
Producer, Kaleidoscope (Children's Album in consideration for a Grammy 2017)

Straws in the Block Center

It's Scott from Brick by Brick. I love to repurpose materials—use materials in ways different from their intended purpose.

Sometimes I like to experiment and just put different things in a center or activity...to see what the kids will do. Their imaginations and creativity seems boundless. 

One day I put straws in our blocks center. I didn't have a preconceived idea of what they would do. In fact I had just bought the straws on a whim. 

The kids played with them in different ways. They scooped them with the buckets I had there. They "poured out" the straws. They stacked them inside the buckets like pencils in a desk cup.

In another part of the center, one of my builders was creating an elaborate block structure. When the other kids left the center, he went over to the straws and began to play with them.

Then, slowly, he began to incorporate the straws in his structure.

He looked for just the right place to put the straws. Careful work and rearranging until everything was just right.

Repurposing can give us resources to use in different ways. Repurposing can trigger curiosity and creativity in the children we teach.

Cardboard Construction

It's Scott from Brick by Brick. I love to repurpose materials—use materials in ways different from their intended purpose.

I've written before about my struggle with tossing a box. But you cannot keep every box. What else could you do with it? Cut it up and build with it.

We have a collection of cardboard pieces. Some are from cutting flaps off boxes or cutting up the box itself. Some are left from art projects or other activities. Some are former packing materials (inside boxes!). 

Recently I placed a collection of cardboard pieces with my blocks. My kids had a great time exploring the possibilities.

Cardboard pieces make great roofs. They make great ramps.

They make great walls or floors. We have discovered all kinds of ways to use those cardboard pieces.

I am continually surprised and impressed with all the ways that kids can creatively use...well, just about anything. And these recent experiences with cardboard pieces are no exception.

How have you used pieces of cardboard? Share any ideas for art or construction or...anything.

Tape Adventures

Hi! It's Scott from Brick by Brick. I love to repurpose materials—use materials in ways different from their intended use.
We love tape. We use tape in the usual ways - to stick things together.

Recently we made scrolls as we learned about people writing many years ago. We used tape to attach straws to paper and roll it up, just like they did with scrolls.

We used tape in other ways, too. We use tape in art experiences quite often.

Sometimes we use tape with paper to just create. We sometimes add stickers to the mix, too.

We have used tape to mark off areas and make a collaborative "quilt" drawing.

We have used tape to help decorate shakers and other instruments.

We have painted over tape to create interesting designs.

Tape has other uses in other areas of our room, too.

We have used tape to create areas for building or playing games.

We have used tape to make letters and spell words.

We love to use tape to create roads...all over the place.

We even use tape as a fashion accessory!

Tape - it's not just for sticking things together or wrapping gifts. (But we've done that, too!)

How have you used tape?