Toddlers exploring markers, but not in the way you might think. Take the lid off, lay it aside, reach for another marker and take the lid off, lay that one aside, then try the next one. You get the idea. I spent some wonderful moments taking a marker lid off, deliberately snapping it onto the top of the marker, then removing it, and replacing it on the tip end, with a special focus on the "click" you hear when the top is well situated. That was, using Montessori's terminology, the "point of interest" for the toddlers.
One of the girls discovered that marker lids fit on fingers - "one, two, three, four, five", she said.
The did actually make a few marks on the canvas, but very few. Mostly our Friday afternoon was spent happily exploring marker lids and getting a bit more used to leaving their classroom to venture into the studio. A lovely and slow-paced way to spend an afternoon! I was reminded of Loris Malaguzzi's description of one of the reasons to document, or record, children's actions is to learn how children learn. I observed that toddlers love to open and close things, mostly to open - small muscle coordination activity? I observed that, in spite of the very little activity at my table in the studio, with only three or four children participating, the drawing we did seemed to stimulate more drawing within the safety of their own classroom - are the helped by the daily repetition of the same environment? Do the toddlers prefer to choose work independently? I continue to observe.
