Arty provocations and a little bit of culture.

Plus a few other key skills for young learners.

I have a very arty 3 year old who pretty much goes at 100mph from waking until bed. During lockdown I have been challenging myself to think beyond the normal blob paintings and glitter. Provocations in early years are basically things that interest and engage a child to explore, investigate, experience and generally be curious about. So here are some of the provocations I have used with R recently.

Abstract Aboriginal Art

Before babies my partner and I lived in Australia for many years. My job was working with Aboriginal communities around the New South Wales area. As a result I learned a lot about the very interesting culture. R loves to hear our stories of times before she was around. Instead of using our stories or showing photographs of our travels I decided to share some Aboriginal artwork and see what her reaction was. I had also set up some paint on a plate with cotton buds in each colour and some different coloured paper, glue stick and scissors.

We first looked at the pictures, talking about what they were of, how have they made them – emphasising the dots and wiggly lines. R at this point was more interested in matching the colours of paint to the colours in the artwork but we decided to try and make our own with dots and lines. I am not a great artist, I studied at high school but this was out of interest in art most certainly not talent. I am also not the kind of person who expects children to follow specific instructions, I am more about setting up the materials, providing a little provocation and then allowing children to interpret as they wish with the materials in front of them. Here is what we created – can you guess which pictures we were using as our inspiration?

1 – After her first attempt at loving the paint, R’s interest and concentration became more focused. She started to create her own picture using mix media. There’s a fire, a turtle and some clouds.

2 – This is the first picture R created, I basically just gave her free rein over the materials to see where she went. It might not look like much but R can describe each part in detail, eyes, feathers, toes etc. (Dad the made crown at R’s request).

3 – This is the one we did together. R was sitting on my lap, it is combination of R independently adding, hand over hand together and me adding some bits.

There are a number of skills developed in activities like this not just being arty. Cognitive development in asking questions, increasing attention spans, language development asking questions, talking through their play, developing emergent skills for writing, physical development in fine motor skills, social skills in a curiosity for the world. This list is not prescribed or fixed, each child and each adult will gain in their own unique way from activities.

I hope this gives you some ideas and not to feel like everything has to be perfect. I used something that was from a personal experience. We all have experiences, it doesn’t need to be fancy and perfect, just personal. Children love to hear our stories and about our experiences – even better when they can do something related to it.

Henri Matisse and Shape

This next activity was actually a Dad and daughter activity. He is not a teacher but he took my method and applied to something else to keep R busy. He is methodical one between us and a bit of a math wizard given that Grannie A was a math teacher. So he used this and his love of all things French to bring a little culture and math to mix.

The steps were the same – he had the pictures, scissors, paper, glue sticks and a variety of paper. They began talking about the colours and the shapes in the pictures. Trying to decide what they might be if anything. They then set about making their own versions.

Cutting out the shapes was the first part. R had a go but mainly just wanted to order Dad to cut out different shapes to her specifications including colour and size. They then started to glue on the different shapes to their paper. Here is what they made.

4 – There had to be some glitter in there too at R’s request.

An idea for a provocation can literally come from anywhere. A favourite artist, place, memory, person anything at all. Have a go at creating some of your own and see where the journey takes you and your child. Above all else remember that you are not there to dictate what must happen or be done. Just take part and follow your child.

Thank you for reading!

Laura.