Artasia at Queen Victoria

For my site visit, I went to the school to talk with the educators about the Artasia programming this summer. All of the kinders were playing in the yard. They showed curiosity in me as a new teacher. I told them I would be doing art with them this summer. I noticed a hula hoop on the ground and told the children I had a trick to show them. I proceeded to show them a hula hoop trick in which I methodically move the hoop to make it look like it is not moving. The children were transfixed and said I was a magician. I humbly leaned into this comment by inviting them into my world of magic. I told them that they were magicians too and handed them the hoop. They were eager to show me their magic – some spun the hoop around their arm wildly, some rolled the hoop across the pavement, some twirled the hoop on the ground. They were all very excited by what the hoop could do. Two children and I quickly improvised a game where we rolled the hoop across the yard while someone else threw a ball through the hoop while it was rolling. We entertained ourselves with this for a couple of minutes. After the magic was explored, I wanted to show the children how I isolated the hoop for my trick. I performed the trick slowly so they could see how I held the hoop at the bottom (6 o’clock), then twisted it (9 o’clock), then let it roll on my knuckles (3 o’clock), then brought it back down to the bottom (6 o’clock).

I appreciated this moment because I got to share a skill with the children and use it as a doorway to validate their own creativity. Their curiosity about my hula-hoop trick and their desire to participate in making-making fueled their own expression and creation. Children see themselves in the process of creation – they see someone doing something and they want to emulate this process. Unlike adults, they rarely consider if they should do something based on how “good” they will be at it. They are instinctive researchers of the world. When presented with a mystified process and provided with tools, they will experiment to uncover the mechanics of the process or at the very least the mechanics of their own ability. This is why the children started playing with the hoop – they were curious about how I did my trick and they also wanted to explore their own ability to manipulate the hoop as well. This related to the theme of body because the children were interested in how they could use their body to move the hoop and create magic. 

– Vania