Artasia at Ellis EarlyON

Week 4’s activity was about energy and motion – how do we link kinesthetics to art? I brought in two activities to do in tandem- a wax resist drawing activity with bleeding tissue paper, and the salad spinner with acrylic paints. I realized there was a lot of sensory potential with the sponges and the spinning, and the children met me where I was with energy and excitement- as well as some relational maturity.

A few children really took to the bleeding tissue, and had a lot of fun utilising the sponges and making “colour juices” by using sponges to carry pigmented water from container to container. A child commented a lot on the smells of the water- the purple water smelt like grapes, the red like cars. Another child pointed out that the water didn’t actually smell, it was just colours. The first child rolled that around in their mind a bit and shrugged. “Well, that’s just how my brain works.” The second child nodded in understanding. “Oh, that makes sense. I didn’t think about it that way! That’s cool.”  The first child smiled and they started to use the sponges to mix the colours together. I was so amazed at that simple acceptance of neurodiversity!

There were lots of other moments that day of understanding and energy- as we only had one spinner, the kids had to take turns. One child was really eager to spin and kept trying to wiggle his way in to take over. The child whose turn it was asserted her boundary- “hey, it’s my turn right now, but we can share this spin if you want to press the button down with me, okay?” They both put their hands on the spinner and realized together the salad spun much quicker than just one person pushing it down. There was a lot of maturity shown by that one child, and I made sure to commend her for sharing when she didn’t have to.

Though I went in with the expectation of energy, I realized that in these sensorial experiences, a lot of relationships came with it as well. 

– Kento C