In The Studio - Process Art

We have just completed our first week of school and the children are amazing. They were nervous the first day but the second day they walked into the room and were ready to start the day (all 60 minutes of it). These first days are an important time to introduce and practice frameworks which we will use all year. One of the frameworks is table work. On most mornings the children will transition into the classroom from the forest by doing table work. 
This first week I am focusing on the artelier as I know how much the children will love using the materials and tools once they have an understanding of how to care for tools, access materials as well as clean up. 
I prepare the room, before school, with an invitation set up in the studio for the children. The first day I set out beads and pipe cleaners. I really encouraged them to explore the materials and did not give them instructions.  Some made crowns, others made bracelets or necklaces. I did not set any rules but just sat and chatted with them. Through this experience they learned to use the rimmed cookie sheets, where to access beads and pipe cleaners and how to help each other roll the end of the pipe cleaner so that the beads don't roll off.
The second day the children were curious to see what was on the table and were excited to discover sticks, skinny markers and lots & lots of star stickers. Again I did not provide instructions but because they are a small group I just sat and chatted with them as they made observations about the activity. Through this experience the children learned how to make sure that the tricky marker caps were put on tight and how to pick off the tiny stickers successfully. They learned that they got to make choices such as how many, where to stick them and even traded colours with each other.
On Monday the children come for ninety minutes so I set up an art provocation that is a little less simple. I chose an activity from Barbara Rucci's book Art Workshop For Children, using upside down muffin tins, small squares of thick cartridge paper and jars of paint. I can't wait to see their reaction to PAINT!!! Of course we will talk about our expectations with paint such as dipping, tapping and spreading, but still I can't wait!!! Some of the paintings might just have to be put up on one of our empty walls as I am pretty sure that they will make many, many paintings.
Thanks for stopping by,