Drawing Activity
using non- digital technology
Passion
vine moths are a very interesting topic in the centre at the moment; where I
have observed the children out in the garden looking at them and collecting
them. I wanted to extend the children’s learning on these moths by looking at
the detail and getting the children to draw and talk about what they see and
know about this type of insect. So I placed pictures of these passion vine
moths on to the arts table with a wide variety of non- digital technology like
crayons, coloured pencils and felts for the children to create their image of
their own passion vine moth, or what they see in the garden.
I decided
to place out different types of drawing tools for the children to explore the
similar types of technology that can do the same thing but in different ways. “Opportunities
to explore and communicate in the visual arts continue to expand as
technologies and multi- disciplinary practices evolve” (Ministry of Education,
199, p, 23). In the activity I set out a number of technologies that has
expanded throughout time, which has been designed to give more opportunities to
become more creative in the visual arts. As I placed out the pencils, crayons
and felts to get the chance to explore the different forms of technology to
create their own moth. Through this activity I noticed the children preferred
to use the felts and crayons over the colouring pencils. I never noticed this
before because I have not offered all these types of drawing tools out all at
once. While observing this I could see the children had a better grip of the
crayons and felts. I believe this is because these forms of non digital
technology are thicker to hold and it gives the children more control of their
drawing. “Through activities in design technology children can learn how to
explore, control and improve aspects of their environment” (Fisher &
Garvey, 1997, p, 5). This helps the children’s hand and eye coordination, because
the children feel comfortable holding and using this drawing tool and can
control it well to draw on to the paper.
I did
feel the reason the children chose these two forms of technology was because
while the children were drawing their lines were bolder and more noticeable to
see rather than the faint lines the colouring pencils produced. I asked the
young girl that was sitting next to me “do you like the crayon more than the
colouring pencil” to hear the child’s voice on this she said “yeah I like the
colours”. Once I looked I noticed the crayons and felts were brighter and had
more of a selection to choose from where the pencils were a variety of colours,
but I guess they didn’t have that wow factor that the other forms of technology
had. Through this technology I could clearly see the children were learning and
developing colour skills from the shades of colours, and they were learning the
names of the colours, because some children were asking their peers and myself
“what is this funny colour” because there were different shades of colours, and
some children were unaware that there were different tones of one colour.
“Sharing ideas with others, children develop their ability to identify and
describe different sorts of information”(Ministry of Education, 1996, p, 97). This
leads to children learning language skills, because I could see the children
pronouncing new words and colours from their discussions, while developing
their vocabulary.
The main
thing that I have learnt from this activity is that I didn’t realise crayons,
pencils and felts were a type of technology, now I am aware I can see how much
learning and development children gain from using these materials. This
technology helps children to “Development the ability to hold pencils and
crayons between the thumb and the first finger is important, using exercise of
the muscles in the hand” (Somerset, 2007, p, 28). It makes me what to encourage
children to use these forms of non-digital technology to help children gain writing
skills and to be able to go to schools and have the understanding of how to
hold a pencil properly and feel comfortable using it.
References
Fisher,
R., Garvey, J. (1997). Investigating technology, Book 2. Contributions by Harriman, S., & Robinson, R. Addison
Wesley Longman: Australia
Ministry
of education. (1993).New Zealand Curriculum. Wellington, New Zealand: learning
media.
Ministry of Education. (1996). Te whāriki: He whāriki mātauranga
ngā mokopuna Aotearoa: Early childhood curriculum. Wellington, New
Zealand: Learning Media.
Somerset,
G (2007). Work and play in the early years. Auckland, New Zealand: The New
Zealand Play centre Federation.
Picture References
Google
images. Passion vine Hopper moths. From terrain.net.nz. retrieved from http://www.google.co.nz/imgres?q=passionvine+hopper&um=1&hl=en&sa=N&rlz=1R2SUNC_enNZ364&biw=1253&bih=636&tbm=isch&tbnid=QkGmIau4h9HJCM:&imgrefurl=http://www.terrain.net.nz/friends-of-te-henui-group/local-insects/nymphs-fluffy-bums.html&docid=_ZxxU7Fx26bnGM&imgurl=http://ketenewplymouth.peoplesnetworknz.info/image_files/0000/0000/9064/Scolypopa_australis__Passionvine_Hopper-10.JPG&w=1024&h=767&ei=ZmRkT5v9FrPmAXbw5SpCA&zoom=1&iact=rc&dur=287&sig=109479144694320832924&page=1&tbnh=137&tbnw=183&start=0&ndsp=17&ved=1t:429,r:2,s:0&tx=86&ty=81
Google
images. Children drawing:
rgbstock.com. Retrieved from.
Google
images. (2007). Children drawing, Tweet buzz.bitesizemovie.com. Retrieved from,
Google
images, (2012). Add containers of felt
markers, pencil crayons, and wax
crayons. thedeliberatemom.blogspot.com.
Retrieved from,
Kia Ora Rebecca,
ReplyDeleteI can see you have taken into consideration the feedback from your last blog. You have written a lot more about the learning you gained through it from your detailed observations of the children. It’s great to reflect on these simple non digital technologies to investigate what children prefer and why they do. I enjoyed reading the child’s voice as it showed what they felt about the experience and not just your examination of the activity. Maybe next time you could ask all the children as some could feel differently to others. Another aspect you could also look at is the paper being used. If it’s glossy then some materials won’t be able to be used. Also the size, colour and shape can sometimes determine what they draw. You included much appropriate aspects around the holistic development the children gained from this activity. As well you related the children’s learning back to great pieces of literature that were relevant and interesting to read. Rebecca tumeke on a well reflected blog.
Megan
Rebecca, it is awesome to see you following the children’s interests and extending their knowledge through non digital technology. I think it’s great that you observed the children using the different non digital technologies and noticing what they preferred to use. I can see through your second blog you have taken in your feedback and used it to write a deeper reflection of what learning you gained. I like seeing that you involved the child by asking her what piece of technology she preferred. Do you think this helped you understanding of why they liked the felts and crayons more? Could you have asked the child more questions and deepened her understanding about the different types of colours and why they are not the same as the pencils? Do you think children would choose the colour pencils over the crayons and felts if they were as bright as each other?
ReplyDeleteKa pai Rebecca this is a fantastic reflection that kept my interest the whole way.
Rebecca, I can defiantly see your improvement from your last post and can see you have taken the comments in consideration. Well done. I can clearly see what have learnt during this experience as well as what knowledge the children gained. It is great to see what non digital technology learning opportunities there are, non digital technology is everywhere and it’s great that you noticed non digital technology in the class room. Collage, pasting, cutting, different textures paper are all non digital technologies, maybe you can have these accessible to the children at all times. It great to see you follow the children’s interests and what they would prefer and why. It was great to read your blog and very interesting. It is nice to see you follow through with the children’s interests. Well written post Rebecca. Good to see you use relevant pictures.
ReplyDeleteHello Rebecca,
ReplyDeleteIt is so great to hear you discussing about all of the different aspects of this non digital technology. It was very informal to state how you discovered all of the structure of the felts and crayons to further your understanding on how they work and the outcomes that are beneficial for the children. I could fully understand the image that you created by ensuring that you had relevant evidence such as literature and pictures. Visual aids are a great way to further learning. I also thought that the last paragraph was awesome to read as it is really beneficial to you as a teacher to evaluate what you learnt and how you can now fully implement it in your practice. Good work Rebecca.
Kim
Hi Rebeeca
ReplyDeleteI can clearly see you have taken on the feedback that was given to you on your first reflection. In this reflection I can clearly see how your own personal learning has developed and also how the children have developed through this activity. I really liked the way you included the child’s voice as it gave us an insight into this experience and what the child was thinking about and thought while doing this activity. I also found it interesting how you observed, combined and further developed an interest that the children already had within the centre. It showed me that you were taking a real interest in what the children were doing. Are there any things you feel you could have done different? If you do this activity again will you provide different resources for the children to use? Overall all it was a great non digital reflection.