It had been a couple of weeks since we have played with paint, so Fatima asked the children, “what should we paint with?”
Keira mentioned she holds her scrubbers in between her toes during bath time.
Ellie said, "sponges."
Walter, Gavin and Eric said, "brushes."
So, Fatima wondered what the children would do if we challenged them to paint using their toes!
The children helped Fatima set up the large brown paper on the floor and were asked what colour paints they wanted to use. They jumped up and down and asked for all the colours we have, red, blue, and yellow. The preschoolers started to take their socks and shoes off and get started. It was interesting to see as the children guided other children and modelled for each other when some weren’t sure what to do next.
Theo and Gavin both held the brush with their hand instead and quickly noticed others and switched to feet. Annie and Penny painted their foot as well, while Eric drew the outline of his foot. Benjamin painted all over the page with both his foot and hand. Also, Ellie and Keira paid very close attention as they focused on using just their toes even to pick the brush up with their toes and dip it into the paint.
Observing the children play, made me wonder If they thought this easy, or possibly hard to use their toes Instead of the hands? Is that why some of the children decided to switch to using their hands, or Is that their preferred method no matter what? I wonder what else we can use to paint with other parts of our body.
