Talented nearly 4 year old...!

Today I encouraged groups of children to draw a portrait of themselves and write their name. We do it every year to see where they are in their development and to give us an indication of their progression by the time they leave us at the end of the year. I got the usual range -  a child scribbling, a series of unconnected lines and dots, a face with arms and legs coming off it and much inbetween….until this one child presented me with a picture that blew me away. In my 9 years of teaching, I have never seen such attention to detail. The child is 4 in a few weeks yet the three figures she drew had different facial expressions, one was facing sidewards and they all had fingers, hair, clothes, etc!!! WOW! She then proceeded to write 4 sentences underneath…..

Has anyone else seen this in a child so young? I am also left wondering how best to meet her needs. Our play-based classroom will definitely offer challenges in many areas and activities are usually open ended which will ensure they are naturally appropriate for her. I want to stimulate her reading and writing but am not sure if I should 'teach' her the way we would for our older children when they learn to read or whether I can alter our environment to help her naturally progress through her self-chosen play....any suggestions/ideas welcomed!

Working with wire…

My class had been playing with shadows for some time, exploring using the overhead projector (OHP), torches in darker corners, playing in the courtyard chasing their own shadows in the sun, etc. Then one child, fascinated by silhouettes, asked me to take a photo of them in front of the OHP to see what they looked like…and a mini project had begun!

We took pictures of shadows, of both the children and their parents, then printed them out for the children to have a look at. I then introduced thin wire (of different thicknesses) and showed the children how to manipulate it. Over the course of several days, the children chose a picture and had a go at creating the silhouette out of wire. This was trickier than it seemed and took lots of perseverance but everyone got there in the end, trying out different ways to bend the wire and helping each other out if needed. Some children wanted to add the features to their wiring, so they chose materials from the invention centre to add to their work. Lovely results and lots of fun and learning in the process!!!

Self portraits

Most children love to paint and draw and they begin to draw themselves and each other from an early age. By putting out mirrors, photos and using transparent painting frames, the children become more aware of form, position and composition in a natural way, exploring for themselves what people look like and how to get particular effects. It never ceases to amaze me what beautiful portraits and pictures our children are able to produce when given time, space and resources to have a go without any pressure of having to achieve.