Exploring writing outdoors

By:Kelly Norton


Today Sam and Alana began using the paint brush and water to write their names..

Alana you explore how with the water and brush the sounds of your name emerge…

Sam decides to work with at the carpentry bench, and I notice that you continue to explore this medium, spontaneously painting the rocks that form the koru line form on the ground…

Further exploration of writing continues with your friend Amelie, as you use the chalk to draw and write on the concrete.  You tell me how soft the dust from the chalk makes your hands.

What learning do I think is happening here?

Exploring the sounds we make and how we can represent them in written form, as well as opportunities to develop collaborative skills, first with Sam, and later with Amelie.  Discovering different media that we can use to express ourselves through art and writing. Maria Montessori observed that children in the outdoors have a natural instinctive desire to follow lines, as they perfect their balance and mobility.  This exercise of painting the koru around in its line allows exploration and manipulation of the environment and is believed to offer “calmness” as it is executed.

Opportunities and possibilities?

I wonder what other media we can use to ‘write’ and draw with in the outdoors? Can we find any other ‘lines’ in our environment?

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