This summer I learned a lot from the children of St. Patricks, school age group 1. I learned that everything surrounding us in the world is information, textures, smells, sounds; all of it can help us to learn more about our lives, our community, and ourselves.

Through an exploration of textures, smells, sights, sounds, and imagination, we worked together to unearth new information about ourselves and the world around us.

While exploring textures, the children investigated their classroom in all new ways, climbing under their desks, peering up at the windowsills, and finding new objects to test the textures of. We used plasticine, paint, and “texture passports”, little books with pages to fill with texture prints. The children quickly filled their books with every texture they could find, often asking, “Is this a texture?” before quickly taking a print of their newfound texture. Together we explored the idea that anything that can be physically felt is a texture.

We also used scent to explore what our communities are filled with. The children’s minds were teeming with ideas when we used stickers and maps to identify where we smelled certain things in the neighbourhood. They immediately identified the smells they loved, and those they did not, by placing stickers on the map. One child said, “I like when school smells clean, and when the snack in my lunch is oreos.” It’s so interesting how something so seemingly simple as a smell can evoke strong feelings in all of us, as represented by this child.

On to the next sense, sight. The children loved representing the things they see from their view using acetate, cardboard, and markers. While they scoured the room for what to draw, I noticed many children enamoured with everyday objects; a backpack, a sonic toy, a baseball cap. To me, these objects were small, simple; but through the eyes of the children, these were the most important things for them to represent. This shows that children see the world through a lens not yet clouded by the views of society, and their interests come from a very pure place of exploration, play, and intrigue. Their favourite things were not big or new or grandiose in any way, they were the simple, everyday joys of a child’s life.