Artasia at Bennetto
Jamesville Bennetto
🖌️ Artist Educator: Sophie Hewitt & Vania
Reflection: Weaving Stories
During week three, my Focus On Youth colleagues and I were talking about how to get the children interested in that week’s activity, centred around the concept of Time. The activity involved creating a web of tape and string, and the kids were very curious about what we were doing as we started setting up.
One of my FOY colleagues suggested we theme the activity around a story, and we came up with the idea of creating a beautiful buffet of treats for a giant spider who would visit at night. The kids got really into it, using the cellophane to make insects, people, and foods for the spider to enjoy. Some of the kids made toys to put on the web, in case the spider got bored, and there were many drawings of spiders that were spread throughout the web.
When given a story, the kids’ creativity exploded, spiralling into further stories about what the spider might like to eat, play with, or what they might look like. The kids were also fascinated by the coloured cellophane, layering pieces to create different colours, drawing on it with the acrylic markers to make images that looked like stained glass, and exploring how the world looked when looking through the cellophane. The kids excelled at exploring the materials and story that we provided them, and used their imagination to expand upon the activity and make it their own.
To see more of Sophie’s work, check out her website.
Did I Accidentally Start a Mythology in a Kindergarten Class? - The Story of Atlas the Spider
I arrived at the kinder room and started setting up the week 3 activity for the minders. The activity involved setting up string attached to chairs and using clear packing tape attached to the string. When I worked with the kinders yesterday at a different school, I told the kids this was a spider web and we had to feed the spider by putting art supplies in his web.
After I finished setting up the room, I sat with the kinders on the carpet and used my best teacher voice – soft, loud, and inviting:
Hello friends. Today I set up a big spider web made out of tape and string for my friend Atlas the spider. Atlas is not your typical spider, he is large, sparkly, all white, and he only eats art supplies. He loves all things shiny, sparkly, colourful, and fuzzy so we have to decorate the spider web with art supplies so Atlas has yummy food to eat!
The kids were bursting with stories and questions. They raised their hands and I picked them to share. They told dreams they had of spiders and re-called memories of seeing spiders in their waking life. They asked questions too:
“How big is Atlas?” He is very big! His body is the size of our circle!
“Will we get to see Atlas?” He only comes at night, so we will not be here to see him.
“My shoes are sparkly. Will he eat my shoes?” No he would never eat anything that belongs to anyone, that’s why we are making him a web! So he knows it’s okay to eat our supplies.
“Does he eat cars?” No, those belong to people and would not fit in our spider web!
I found it interesting that Atlas the spider was developing a morality of what he does and does not eat. This was partly to quell the typical fears around giant spiders – he had to be benign and harmless.
100 Languages:
- Drawing
- Sculpture / Making
- Movement / Dance
- Storytelling
- Building / Constructing
- Mapping
- Dramatic play
- Digital expression (e.g., photo, video)
- Sound / Music
- Mark-making
- Dialogue
- Observation / Noticing