Pumpkin Paint?

Here our practitioners provided an invitation to learning using pumpkins, paint and a large sheet on the floor, this developed quite quickly as you can see into body painting, the children led the way , sharing their ideas and urges of how they wanted to paint, with support from the practitioners in helping the children get undressed to enable them to carry out their urge.

When you understand individual children, we can provide a rich and powerful learning environment led by the child & not our pre-determined expectations of what & how they should do things

Have you ever wondered why some children just love to paint themselves instead of the paper?

It’s NOT because they are trying to annoy us adults or go against our instructions, to only use the paper to paint on .

Children learn in a multitude of ways and some children have specific ways that they make sense of the world.

Through repetitive actions (schema) children are finding out, being curious and constantly learning. It’s all part of their learning process and we need to recognise different types of schemas in play.

“A schema is a pattern of repeated actions. Clusters of schemas develop into later concepts" (Athey, 2007).

To understand that children use play to collect information, and they do this in a methodical, logical and systematic way, through the use of their senses and constant movements. The way children learn through PLAY is incredible

Just because it doesn’t make sense to us adults - doesn’t mean it’s not making sense to the child.

They will use their entire bodies and senses to find out about the world around them, this in turn can also send calming signals to the brain.

(bringing order, understanding to what can seem a crazy and chaotic world. Let’s remember - they are finding out, discovering and all essential curiosity to learn more.)

Have you ever noticed a child may cover themselves in paint?

Are they wrapping themselves up in a blanket, sheets and covers?

Perhaps dressing themselves up in layers & layers of clothing?

Wrapping or bandaging up toys and dolls?.

Maybe you’ve noticed that children will completely paint or colour over a picture or painting? They will cover the entire picture - right up to the corners and covering the original drawing!

All these are ways children are learning and is meeting the child’s individual needs and learning styles. It’s what’s called a Enveloping schema

There are many different types of schematic learning styles and it’s important as educators, we understand and can recognise the different ones.

You will need...

• Paints,

• Large sheet of paper or a bed sheet
• Pumpkins 
• Paintbrushes

Watch, wait and wonder.... see how the child's play evolves