Pretend Play & Magical Thinking

     Doing this assignment brought back so many memories. When I was around six years old I was obsessed with stuffed animals and would always bring all of them to life. Each one had their own personality and I would play "house" with them where I would act as the mother of my stuffed animals. Around that same age I received a gift that was one big bear/dog (not really sure what it is) that I have been stuck with until today. He had a personality until I was around ten and then I grew out of it. However, for this assignment I decided to bring him back to life. I still call him by the name that I would use when I was younger, which is Horace. I have no idea why I decided to call him that, but it I loved it and it stuck. He is fluent in both Spanish and English and loves sports. He has travelled the World with me, everywhere I go he always comes along. Horace was born in the United States, but has hispanic background. His favorite place in the world is Buenos Aires. He is pretty tall for his age, which benefits him when he plays basketball. His favorite food is pizza and dislikes poutine, since he has no idea what it is. He is still getting to know Canada and so far he is enjoying the city life. 
     This weeks are word is: imagination. According to Schirrmacher and Fox (2009) imagination is forming a mental image that is perceived as unreal, in which children can use during play, such as dramatic play. I believe this is the perfect word for this assignment. Children use creative thinking to have their objects come to life. The way the children choose the objects' personality, likes and dislikes I believe is using their imagination in a creative way. 
      I find this activity a great way for children to enhance their imagination. When I was younger, I enjoyed bringing objects to life and it would give me a way to express myself. I feel that having children doing activities such as this one, can give them the opportunity to express what they are feeling. It can be included into the classroom routine, have each child bring in a stuffed animal or an object and have them bring them to life. It would be interesting to see what each individual child comes up with! There are many ways in which teachers can bring in the idea of pretend play and magical thinking, and this activity is definitely a way. 

Horace

Schirrmacher, R., & Fox, J.E. (2009). Art and creative development for young children (6^th Ed.). Belmont, CA: Delmar. 

Grocery Shopping with a Twist

www.google.com/images

Every time I go to the grocery store I always find it extremely boring so I usually go in and come out very quickly. However, for this assignment I actually stayed a bit longer to observe the different shapes, sizes, color and texture of fruit. I love fruit and I am very picky about the fruit I buy, it needs to be the perfect texture, color and shape for me to pick it out. My favorite fruits are apples, oranges, and kiwi therefore they are the ones I buy the most and do not really look at the rest. Even though there I mostly enjoy kiwi, apple, and oranges there are others that I also enjoy in this category such as:
-Strawberries

-Bananas
-Grapes
-Peach
-Pineapple
-Mango
-Lemon
-Pear
-Plum
-Raspberry
-Papaya
-Watermelon
Every fruit has its own texture, size, and shape. According to Schirrmacher and Fox (2009), "texture refers to the surface quality of a work of art...rough, bumpy or smooth, wet sticky or dry" (p.144). When really observing the texture of my favorite fruit (kiwi, apple and oranges) I noticed that they are all different. Kiwi has a rough and dry texture, apples have a shiny and smooth texture, and oranges are rough, sticky and sometimes wet kind of texture. When comparing these fruits to the other fruits in the category, I really noticed that actually every single fruit is different in texture. Pineapples are rough and dry, and grapes are wet and smooth.

When sketching a kiwi, an apple and an orange I really tried to demonstrate the different texture in which each fruit portrays. Not only do fruits have different textures, but they can also be used to make a variety of smoothies, combining many fruits into one drink.The idea of categorizing can be brought into the classroom, it does not necessarily need to be fruits it can be anything that they can categorize based on shape, size or texture.

Apple 

Orange

Kiwi

Schirrmacher, R., & Fox, J.E. (2009). Art and creative development for young children (6^th Ed.). Belmont, CA: Delmar. 

Painting with Scissors

Sponge Painting

www.google.com/images

When I was younger, especially in preschool I always enjoyed sponge painting. Every time I would paint whether it was with hands, paintbrush, or sponges I feel like I had been give the opportunity to express myself and feel so free. No instructions, no one telling me what to do, simply paint. However, out of all the different ways in which one can paint I find sponge painting to be more fun. 

www.firstpalette.com

As an activity for young children I would give them the option of big, small, round, or rectangular sponges and give them the freedom to do whatever they feel like doing. They can even cut them to a different shape if they'd like! Children will then choose any color of paint they wish to use for the painting. They will have the opportunity to explore the paint and mix colors to get a variety of colors throughout their painting. They will then dip the sponges into paint and move the sponge onto the blank sheet of paper. With sponge painting children can cover the whole paper with different colors with the sponge or even make a tree with the tapping of the sponge. Sharing experiences, emotions or their own personality can be expressed through painting, in this case sponge painting. This allows for children to really express themselves and feel that they have full power of what they are doing. No instructions no right or wrong answers. 

Once finished with the activity, children can share with the class what their painting is about. They can share what shapes they used and why. They can also share to the class why they decided to make that image or why did they combine the colors they did. 

In relation to this activity, the art word of the week is shape. According to Schirrmacher and Fox (2009), "shape had its own qualities and personalities: simple, complex, circular, anglur, big or small" (p. 140). Shapes are used throughout this activity when choosing the sponges and using the different sizes and shapes to create whatever it is the children want to make.

Schirrmacher, R., & Fox, J.E. (2009). Art and creative development for young children (6^th Ed.). Belmont, CA: Delmar.