Rea Posted February 15, 2006 Posted February 15, 2006 Last week a child (age 4y 5m) in nursery drew a picture of a lion. The lion was face on looking out of the paper and with an adult telling him the letters he wrote 'lion'. What excited me was the fact he had drawn the lions tail on the back of the paper. I thought it was fantastic but cant find anything to read that might give a meaning or indication of his development. I guess it's a rather advanced skill. Where can he go with this?
Guest Posted February 16, 2006 Posted February 16, 2006 To the zoo? Seriously aren't they fantastic children - always being able to see things in a very sensible light. Where to go with this - I suppose I would have lots of 3D constructional work but exactly what this means someone else will be a better person than me to answer this but I will look forard to seeing the reply. Nikki
Guest Posted February 16, 2006 Posted February 16, 2006 He appears to have a strategic overview of the lions anatomy I would have discussed it with him, in a non threatening way, "That looks really interesting/clever, the way you have you drawn his tail on the back of the paper. Why do you think it goes there?" because.............. (I wonder what he would have said) Yes children - never underestimate them, that's what I learn every day. Thanks for sharing Rea. Peggy
Guest Posted February 16, 2006 Posted February 16, 2006 We had a girl, about the same age, a few years back. She did the most amazing picture using chalks of a house and princesses, birds, trees etc. One of the princesses was much smaller than the other and when I asked her to tell me all about what she had drawn she told me that the smaller princess was far away and that was why she was small. So, she already had the idea of perspective, even at about 4 years of age. They are truly amazing at times and I don't know what the answer is for taking them further other than talking with them and encouraging them to continue with what they are doing. Linda
Guest Posted February 16, 2006 Posted February 16, 2006 On a different point - taking them further - I purchased some lovely and very expensive watercolour pencils and I thought it would be great to do small group activities with these - the younger children made some fantastic pictures as they were happy to "scribble" away using all the colours in a random fashion and got loads from it - my more able children really couldn't get their head around using a pencil to "scribble" and kept on being very particular with their outlines which of course didn't show up so well when water was applied - they had real problems gettin their head around the randomness of it all. It was like they had lost their freedom to just draw for drawing and colours sake. Have I done something wrong? Nikki
Rea Posted February 16, 2006 Author Posted February 16, 2006 I doubt you've done anything wrong Nicola. Children pick up this kind of thing from so many other sources that our attempts to keep a balance dont always work. Best example I can think of was my youngest son, he was about 4 years old and had slipped over and ended up in casulty with a cut to his thigh. The doctor took a look and went away at which point I made a remark about the doctor being nice. Son said 'Thats not a doctor thats a lady. Its a nurse' I was horrified that my son could think this way. When it was the turn of the nurse to come and stitch his leg I asked for it to be a male. Society in general, the media, parents and other children still think differently to you and I. We like to draw outside the box, while everyone else is locked inside it. Keep the faith Nicola, you're doing a grand job
Alison Posted March 24, 2006 Posted March 24, 2006 what a lovely idea the child had to draw the tail on the back of the page there's clearly some logical reason in that childs head. It makes sence for the child to start to create in a more 3 dimentional way even on a flat piece of paper I remember last year we had a lecture all about Reggio and we looked at how part of the teaching/learning environment is to encourage the children to look at things from all sides, they used a special peice of equipment with three mirrors that form a triangle so that children can see all sides at once (I cannt think what its called but its a rather expencive piece of equipment from the educational catalogues). mirrors are a good way to expand the childs perceptions of objects.
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