At its best, the kindergarten program should flow from the students' interests, with very little activities initiated by the teachers. It should grow organically and change as the children inquire into a subject. For example, we started with a dot a few weeks ago, which led to lots of dots, then to mixing colours, then to mixing light colours, then to shadows and light.
As part of our fall inquiry, we started with a leaf, then collected lots of leaves, and made collages, drawings, and leaf prints. Hoping to continue the excitement about using leaves as an art medium, we put out paint, paper, leaves and some sponge brushes. The children used their new knowledge of colour theory to create all sorts of shades from the primary colours.
We were expecting the children to interact and explore the leaves together, to produce something like this:
But as the project progressed, it became clear that what the children were actively engaged in was not the leaves, but the sponge brushes. At first, we tried to steer them back to the leaves, but once we gave them "leave" (pun intended) to follow their interests, this is what happened:
The children used the new brushes to create bold, colourful, and striking designs. They were very proud of their abstract art, and used lots of oral language to explaing their creative process and their reasoning behind artistic choices.
We learned that what the teachers have in mind might not be the lesson a student needs. The students themselves can initiate their own learning and create their own exploration opportunities. Our job as teachers is to recognize this when this organic learning is happening and to ask questions that challenge children to think more deeply and to engage on a higher level.
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