Revisiting Characters in a New "Language"

One of my favorite activities to do with children involves encouraging them to recreate and revisit something they've created in another/different form (e.g. making something out of clay that they've drawn, or painting a picture of a recently built block structure). As the Reggio Emilia approach teaches us, children express themselves in "the hundred languages". 

Below is an example of taking a character from a book and revisiting her in a new "language". The 4 year old child who sewed this character had recently cut her own hair. Perhaps she identified with the sad face going along with the crazy hair, or maybe she just really enjoys this part of the book. When I invited her to do some sewing with me up in our sewing loft, she grabbed this book, flipped right to this page and said, "I want to sew that one!" I observed (and verbalized back to her) that she chose fabrics that closely resembled the colors chosen by the illustrator of the book. She also made the decision to stuff her sewing so that it would be "big and fluffy" like in the picture.

Hello...is this thing on? Well, let's get started then!

The invitation- I set up some random lego-type pieces at the back table in our "studio" (inspired by Reggio Emilia's use of an atelier). These were a donation from a family who had "too many legos" and thought we could use them in a new way (of course we can!). I explained to the children that these pieces don't all connect easily as they came from various sets, but I offered the idea that if they want the pieces to fit in a certain way, we could use the hot glue gun to secure them.  I requested that the children draw a sketch (before, during, or after they had the chance to glue) of their new creation. 

I enjoyed observing the children as they worked on this project in very different ways. Some children chose to sketch out their ideas first. They wanted to get their plans out on paper as a sort of blue print of what their creation might be.  Others wanted to wait until they were done building so they could draw the image exactly how it turned out in 3D.  Still yet, there were some children who would start sketching, touch and rotate the pieces in their hand, add a little here and there, and then go back to their sketch to add more details. As an observer and documenter I am always interested in the 'how' and 'why' children do what they do. I love offering the children freedom to approach the project in whatever way appeals to them and then sitting back and observing what comes next.

As the children were finishing their projects at different rates, I offered one more provocation. We had been discussing throughout the day that it was national "Put a Poem in your Pocket" day. In going along with the thread of interest from earlier in the day (writing poetry with other teachers, reading various children's poems, clapping out the beats of music with another), I invited the children to create a poem, song, or story to go along with their new creations. Each one of the children was more than happy to tell me his or her poem/story/song and I wrote their words down for them verbatim.

For the children who chose "song" we found it appropriate 

to draw musical notes before and after their words.

Here are the final products on display for parents and friends to appreciate!

The children were invited to make their own decisions on whether to leave their creations on display for a few days or take them home. Just as the children were differing in their approaches to creating their inventions, several decided they needed to take their projects right away to enjoy at home and others wanted to keep theirs on display for other people to admire.

                          

 

Thanks for reading!