An Encounter of the Mind and Hand: Painting

During the first week of school, we introduced painting on an easel with tempera paint to support peer-to-peer relationships and begin building our community of learners. To encourage and foster this experience, we placed two easels side-by-side as a means of encouraging the children to look at each other's work and talk or begin a dialogue with each other about what each was painting. We also intended for this experience to open the possibility for each child to learn from and about the other.



We purposely chose four colors for the children to explore- red, yellow, blue and white- hoping that the children would discover the new colors they could make when the colors were mixed. We selected the thick consistency of the tempera so that the children might discover the various textures they could create with the paint brush or with their hands.

In reflecting upon the context of this experience, we realized that, much like the first marks on paper with a pen, this experience was an extension of their journey of writing! As a child becomes a maker of artistic symbols or representations using lines and shapes, he/she begins to realize that the marks on paper is an extension of their thoughts made visible. The visual symbols not only are the beginning of writing/reading symbols, but also the development of a child's ability to plan and think. With each additional experience using paint, they learn to control their movements and decide which lines should be long or short, straight or wavy, thick or thin, which color to select and where on the paper to place the paint.  The simple marks become more controlled, reflecting their growing awareness of the nature of the material and their own creative expression much like a pencil or marker on a paper.


Our Observations: The emergence of an artistic community
As Ms. Jordan encouraged the children who were painting to observe the changes in texture and colors, she noticed that instead of choosing another area to discover while they waited, the children who wanted to paint gathered around the easels. As this experience unfolded, the children's enthusiasm for painting became contagious. The easel area became not only a place to explore painting, but also a tool for building our community! As excited as they were, we found that the children were building relationships with each other and  building a relationship with a new medium- paint.                                   

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