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Kindergarten

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Amazing artists and educators

Froebel’s Gifts and Isamu Noguchi’s Playgrounds

Noguchi's Playground Moerenuma Park in Sapporo, Japan.

The folks at 99% Invisible have created some fab new podcasts and articles on the relationship between children, play and the material world. And because I am a massive nerd, I have created summaries of them to share with you! I highly recommend listening to the podcasts (links are included below) as they are entertaining, well-researched and only around 25-minutes long. Isamu Noguchi (design) and Shoji Sadao (architect). Moerenuma Park, Sapporo Japan. 1988-2004. ©The Isamu Noguchi Foundation and Garden Museum, New York / ARS Play Mountain: A podcast on the work of playground designer Isamu Noguchi Isamu Noguchi (1904-1988) was a Japanese-American sculptor, designer and landscape architect. After working for numerous years as a sculptor in New York, he came up with the idea to construct a ‘playground’ that had no rules or obvious way to play in it. Instead of having swings and slides, Noguchi wanted to the playground to…

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Learning

How to support children’s creativity at home

Tips for supporting children's creativity

I talk a lot about the importance of creativity and materials in children’s learning on this website. Most of the posts I have previously written have been aimed at teachers and creative professionals working with children. However, parents also play an important role in supporting children’s learning. To be honest, nearly every parent I have met has been incredibly interested in hearing about what they can do to help to support their child’s creativity. So, I have decided to start writing some posts especially for parents. Kicking off with this one. I have put together five hot tips for supporting children’s creativity with materials. These ideas build on a podcast I recently did for ‘Rial Talk .In the podcast I talk about the importance of art and children’s play with materials in education. More specifically, I argue that both art and materials play a critical role in encouraging creativity as they…

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Amazing artists and educators

Eamon O’Kane’s Fröbel-inspired installations

Eamon OKane's Frobel inspired art

Frederich Fröbel’s founded the first kindergarten in 1700s Germany. Since this time, his work on education has influenced many people including a myriad of teachers, artists and architects. In this blog post, Eamon O’Kane – an Irish-born, Norway-based visual artist and Professor at Bergen University – talks about how different early childhood educators, including Fröbel, have inspired his art practice.  Eamon O’Kane’s installation ‘Frobel’s Studio.’ Image credit: Eamon O’Kane “We don’t stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.” George Bernard Shaw “In every real man, a child is hidden that wants to play.” Friedrich Nietzsche Can you talk a little bit about your background as an artist, an educator and now academic? I have been working as an artist for over 20 years. For the past 19 years, I have also worked full-time in universities in Ireland, England and more recently in Bergen, Norway.…

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Materials

The importance of woodwork in the early years

This post features a review of Peter Moorhouse’s book ‘Learning Through Woodwork’ – a wonderful publication for practitioners that outlines the importance of woodwork in the early years. Image credit: Peter Moorhouse Back when I was attending kindergarten, in early 1990’s regional Australia, the only cross-cuts saws and drills in use were imaginary ones that I would get out to cut off the boys’ arms. A lot has changed since those days and woodwork – as a creative activity for children to learn – has witnessed an exciting resurgence in preschools around the world. Peter Moorhouse’s recent book‘Learning Through Woodwork: Introducing Creative Woodwork in the Early Years’is a fantastic practical guide for teachers and practitioners working in early years’ settings. Peter is a real-life, professional sculptor who also has 25 years’ experience working as an art educator in schools and kindergartens. In this book, he shares his expert knowledge and tips…

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Learning

Where to get children’s budget art materials from

Finding materials for children’s art activities can be tricky. Whether you are trying to do this at home, in the classroom or in a community space, it can also be expensive. This post shares 3 hot tips for sourcing children’s art materials on a budget! Ideally, it would be fab if all art activities had infinite budgets. However, the reality is that often parents, teachers and artists need to be very imaginative and thrifty in finding materials. Having a limited or no budget is not necessarily the end of the world. Sometimes it can actually encourage adults to use their creativity to invent something cool from the limited resources they have. It creates a kind of ‘creative parameter’ to produce new ideas from. It is also be inspiring to note that many professional artists use inexpensive materials – what makes their work special is how they experiment with them. For this approach to…

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Children's creative spaces

The University of Cambridge Museums’ (UK) nursery-in-residence project

Children partake in the museum nursery in residence project www.louisapenfold.com

This post looks at the University of Cambridge Museums’ (UK) nursery in residence project which was run in October 2017 as part of a partnership between a Cambridge City Nursery, the Fitzwilliam Museum and Cambridge University Botanic Garden. As part of the project, children from the nursery spent five consecutive mornings ‘in residence’ at the museums. This post features an interview with Nicky Wallis, Museum Educator at the Fitzwilliam Museum, who shares some of the key ideas and results from the project. Louisa Penfold: Can you tell us a little bit about how the partnership come about between the Fitzwilliam Museum, the Cambridge University Botanic Garden and the Cambridge City Nursery? Nicky Wallis: Educators at the Fitzwilliam Museum have worked with groups from ACE Nursery in the past, and also with the Learning Team at the Botanic Garden on a number of projects, including Early Years activities. These had generally been one-off…

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