Leaf Man

Today's Bean Patch time was all about representation.

First, we read this great book from the library:

One of the children pointed out that it feels like a sad book, and in a way it can be. It's about the Leaf Man, who blows away with the wind and goes where the wind blows.  It takes the reader through a journey whose destination is unknown.  It has beautiful pictures of leaf collages that represent different animals, sceneries, and the leaf man.

Last week, we went on a leaf hunt and pressed our findings in a phone book. We had beautifully pressed leaves to work with for this activity.  We placed the leaves on a canvas, but our art was as transient as the Leaf Man and we deconstructed the art after photographing it.

"Aiken Drum" by Bl 

"A Flower" by Za 

"Aken Drum" by Sahil 

"A Tree with a Seed of Love (To Help It Grow)" by Ta 

"A Tree with Lightening" by Be 

"A Monster" by Br

Ha made Abiyoyo and I can't believe we forgot to photograph it! And Gi got through the planning phase on what he wanted to make (Aiken Drum), but didn't quite get to the "making" phase.  That's okay, though, because this activity was all about the process of thinking, planning, representing on paper, and translating it to art.  This symbolic reasoning is all about pre-literacy but most importantly, it gave is a chance to work in small groups to connect and be noticed.  And for the younger children,  the latter is all that this activity was about.

Pattern Activity

Bean Patch time at Beansprouts often consists of any of what I consider "pre-academic" skills.  Pattern recognition and repeating plays an important role in the development of literacy and math.  Without the ability to identify and recognize patterns, the ability to recognize letters and literacy symbols will not emerge.  Also, the spatial reasoning skills practiced during pattern games is also critical in both math and reading.  

On a more philosophical side, patterns can lead to extensions in thinking.  It brings singularity into multiple. It reflects and repeats and is consistent. What would have been inside the box, now extends beyond the box.

This day during Bean Patch, we were making patterns with wooden sticks and the patterns began to remind me of a book we got from the library.  The author places Chinese characters into the picture of the story as well as a translation on the bottom of the page.  We used these characters as models for our stick patterning. It was fun to bring the book to that level of interaction!