“These could be something.” ALEX

In Studio Red, we research materials for a great length of time.  Since the beginning of the school year, we have been exploring cardboard and there is no end in sight!

 

We have invited the children to explore this material through different provocations.  We have invited them to explore different ways of attaching, different shapes, and a variety of thicknesses.  Through this play they have been learning the affordances and limitations of cardboard.  Through experimentation, they deepen their understandings and begin to see potential for a material to express their thinking.

We have also invited the children to explore cardboard in combination with other materials.  Paint, tape, wire, string, wood, natural objects and paper have extended their ideas in myriad ways!  Along with individual research, these materials have also been used in conjunction with our group thinking around Sheila Pepe, boats and color mixing.  

This week, we invited the children to extend their thinking further with cardboard tubes and paper scraps. 

"I'm trying to make a zipline."
"I crossed the wires to stay in a circle. The stickers keep it attached."
"Oh, I know, a fishing rod."
Marky threads a cardboard tube through our fiber installation and loops the knitted line over other strings to make it stay. Then, he is off to get a marker to add color!
"Me and Ruby did the same. We both put stripes!"
"I'm trying to make it the same as Avia."
"The foam stickers is all I used to make it stay."
"i just found this scrap. I put it around!"
"It can make the tree stand up!"
"I want the acorn cap here and I don't want the tape to show. I am making it fancy."

Play is the highest form of research.

Albert Einstein