Update on our mark making project work.  This morning was a big step forward in our class mark making project. We found some hard cardboard tubes in the recycling box and added them to the mark making table.  I like to include this table as a zone in my classroom to provide playful invitations for children to do mark making.  Today's set up included the hard cardboard tube, a 2oz. bottle of acrylic paint and a small bowl. The standard materials at the centre now include water colour papers including thick paper and tissue paper as well as water colour paints and brushes.  As children spend more time in this zone we will continue to add materials that have been introduced and practiced in the atelier such as charcoal, oil pastels and chunky crayons such as Stockmar or Ooly beeswax product and Stabilo woody crayons. Our sensory zone also has mark making tools such as a wooden box with fine grain play sand along with dry brushes and cardboard scrapers. L. stopped at the......

I have been collecting traces of moments with children at the centre that I have been visiting and noticing an interest in mark making and lines using drawing, painting, sand play and loose parts. I wondered if this is connected to their interest in balance and movement that I am seeing in the yard lining up stumps to jump off or lining up mini pumpkins along the skirt edging the garden tree or the top of a bench. I decided to bounce back this interest through afternoon play set ups with materials in the emerging atelier using sticky note paper and drawing tools. This is a big attraction for M. and after using a stack of post it notes she decides to make a book for her story to share with family. The next day I offered children a familiar paint invitation but replaced the paint brush to nature using leaves. It was fascinating to observe the children as they ventured into the atelier, a young child rubbed the leaf in the wet paint, then squeezed the paint between his fingers letting it ......