The Infants have been engaging in a variety of painting experiences over the last month. They have panted with ice, squeegees, and stamps and on tin foil. The educators observed that the infants seemed to enjoy experimenting with different ways to use the materials, as well as the sensory experience of having paint all over their hands and arms.
To expand on this, educators planned a paint extravaganza day, where the infants could have full range to paint on or with anything they wanted in the classroom. The children assisted the educators in rolling up all of the carpets, putting away all of the toys and turning the toys shelf around. There was some excited laughing as the educators rolled out paper all over the classroom floor. There were lots of gasps and “woooow” noises when educator Lorie brought out a large plexiglass easel. Educators placed paint in cups and bowls around the classroom.
Lorie began by making some marks on the easel. Brayden and Allie giggled and started to do the same. They smiled at each other through the plexigalss. Fiya decided to sit on the paper and paint. She dipped her brush into the paint and strategically moved it around the paper. As she worked, Fiya got some paint on her toes. She tapped educator Kiva on the shoulder and pointed at her foot. “Did you get paint on your toes?” Kiva asked. “How does that feel? I like the feeling of slippery paint.” Kiva said as she painted on her own foot. Everett noticed this and came over with his brush and began gently painting Kiva’s arm. “That tickles,” she said. Everett focused on painting Kiva’s entire arms and hand. Allie and Lorie decided to paint the bottoms of their feet. “How does it feel when you walk?” Lorie asked. Allie smiled as she slowly walked, leaving one footprint behind. Allie then started to purposefully walk through puddles of paint. She giggled as she squished her toes in the wet paint.
On the other side of the room, Walter and Noah were finding different canvases to paint on. Noah found that the plexiglass frames on the classroom walls made a great place to create with paint. Walter made marks on the back of the toy shelves and all of the mirrors on the wall. He even painted on the balance bar! He looked at educator Sarah to see what she thought. “Does the paint show up on the balance bar Walter?” she asked. “I like how you brushed it all the way down over the entire bar. That’s a creative spot to paint.”
Braydon watched Lorie squirt paint from a bottle. He laughed then signed for “help” to ask for a turn. Brayden practiced his hand eye coordination as he squeezed the bottle and watched paint fly out and into a bowl. Kiva and Walter worked together to spray paint onto the easel. The infants all stopped to watch this work. There were lots of giggles every time the paint sprayed out of the bottle. After an hour the infants indicated that they were all done by sitting on the ground and signing “all done.” Some children used cloths to wipe the paint off of them, while others sat in the bathroom sink and cleaned the paint off. Then it was time for lunch!
We wonder where we can take this work next? Can we do another messy party with a different sensory material? Would it be as much fun if we had a foam extravaganza? Or maybe a mud extravaganza? Could we do this same work outside on our playground? What other materials could we work with that would spray paint? We might explore all of these questions over the next month.
