Vuk is making a tree patiently. He has already made a trunk and now he finishes a tree crown. Then he starts to roll on red small balls.
Una: Vuk, you are making a tree!
Vuk: Yes. It is an apple tree. We have apples at my grandma. I have looked how they grow. At the end they are red and big like this.
Una takes the child that she has made and put him so close to the tree that it looks as he hugs it. Vuk looks at her and smiles.
While making art children were often quiet. But then suddenly, in the middle of the process, someone would make a comment and conversation would start. It will go on for a while and then children would become quiet again, totally immersed in making with their hands.
Children engaged into conversations about children and Danko as a grown up in the story, which then became a wider conversation about relations between childen and adults. They talked about connections between two sides of the Planet and also connections between Planet and Universe and about pollution.
Children paid great attention to details while portraiting inhabitans of the Planet - blue sky with nailed sun, dark sky with stars and the moon, rainbow, river, trees, children at both sides of the Planet, Darov - the only grown up, lianas, intertwined branches without leaves, scary spiders, etc. They were making those beings that made impression on them, remembering details from the book, but also adding their own.
For example, the river got new inhabitans - beautiful corals, water snails, stones. Danko was placed on the Dark side of the Planet to see how children live there after he nailed the sun.
The process of art making was full of excitement and different feelings.
While making the Planet and discussing questions children were involved not only with their hands and thoughs, but also with their senses and emotions.
Dunja: Look at this seashell! iI looks like a planet! It even has a dark side!
Kosta: Wow!
Dunja: We can make Blue Planet in a shell!
Dunja gathered several of her friends and asked the teacher to give them plasteline. During the next two weeks children were making the Planet inspired by the story that they read.
This is the child from the Dark side of the Planet, says Timon. He must be scared there. His skin is very pale as there is no sun, it is always dark. I also made some scary bruches, lianas and spiders...
Children engaged in making the Blue Planet with great attention. They worked individually and together. It is fascinating how they collaborated, often without many words, joined within the making process.
Material is important - touching it, feeling it, shaping it, making with it... Children were immersed with(in) plasteline.
Children making art inspired by The Story of the Blue Planet
Researcher and teachers witnessing the process...
One conversation
Kosta: “Danko is really… Hm… He really is not good. He wanted to take butterfly powder. And butterflies would get trapped in the cave. And they would even die there!”. Kosta looks at butterflies that he has made, touching them gently with his finger.
“He cheated on children!”, Una adds with a tone of anger in her voice.
For a while, children kept silent, focused on their work.
Janko: But children wanted to fly… They liked to fly! I think Danko is smart. He knew how to make them fly.
Kosta: But he didn’t tell them about the butterflies!
Una: He cheated!
He made their wish to fly. It was their wish! Janko is pointing out.
Dunja: And when he nailed the Sun… And then he didn’t want to take it back when children asked him because they changed their mind!
Janko: But they wanted to have day only! Janko is insisting. And they liked to fly in the sun!
Vuk agreed with nodding.
The tension was clear.
While children were making the Planet, the contrast between its Blue and Dark side was evident. Children attentatively worked to present this cotrast by using different colors, making different shapes, portraiting inhabitans and atmosfere of the ecosystem at each side of the Planet.
Suddenly, Milica has got an idea. She started to make a new element using a very long stick. Later she has explained: Planet supposed to be connected with the Universe. This is an anthena that Planet uses to send and receive signals.
Holding the Planet
One remarkable moment happened when children made the Planet and connected its two sides. They wanted to move their piece of art and put it in the special place on the shelf. Children were apparently amaized by their work. Then one child took the Planet in her both hands. She holded it with such careness. It was a beautiful moment. Then other children wanted to hold and carry the Planet in their hands, too.
Participation through art-making
Children participate by paying attention, percieving, sensing, remembering, refering to previous experiences, making, thinking, feelings...
Art-making created conditions for children to connect with their senses, to activate embodied mindfulness - to be present, focused on working with materials with their hands, concentrated on senses and at the same time be open to "creative treasures" of existance - experiences, thoughts, impressions, imagination, meanings. They made sofisticated connections and relations that matter.
Children's participation as time-making
Time has been very important for children's participation in this case. Here, I refer to qualitative time as duration (Bergson, 2007), rather then linear time set up in advance to create an outside framework for the event. Children "took time" or rather work with(in) time to activate and develop their process of art-making, working with materials, re-connecting with important questions and themes, expressing themselves.
During the process of children's art making there were many moments when I felt Kama Muta - a feeling of being touched, moved, filled with heart-warmth, with deepened sense of connectedness with children, with the Planet and some kind of universal love. I also felt that children had these feelings, as well, in various moments.
For me, it was remarkable to witness this process. And I keep thinking - how do we create conditions for such processes to happen in education and research practice? How can we support children to engage in meaningful and moving exploration, experimentation and creation.
I am amaized that this was actually children's initiative. We just gave them materials and supported their idea. And time, yes! Time was important. Children had uninterupted time. And they got immersed into their own process... I am still fascinated. This made me think about our role as teachers.
Children were so engaged, so dedicated... And when I see what they made, I am impressed by their aestetics, ability to catch the atmosphere, to be within the story, to build it up it with their own experiences and thoughts....
I also had several insights during the process, that guide my tentative analysis of children's participation in dialogue with theories that I am reading*
Witnessing this process was so important for me. I feel that all of a sudden I realized how preschool children can and do respond so profoundly to big questions. We need to provide conditions for that.
I am thinking how children worked, how the story was a starting point and how they could sense the questions so deeply. They were really taken by the story itself and by their art-making as a response to it.
Children's participation as emerging within ecology of relations
Participation happens within ecology of relations - in-between children, materials, story, children's experiences, life and ecology outside of the preschool.
Being with(in) certain problematics opens up significant questions
Children were touched by the Story of the Blue Planet and by the problematics that it reveals and explores. Children's initiative and dedication to recreate the story, enable them to be with this problematic for some time - to (re)connect with it, to let relevant question emerge, to respond to them, engage in conversations and exploration of perspectives.
When children were holding the Planet I was thinking how though education we try to develop ecological awarness, but how do we do that? We usually speak with children, we try to recycle. These are activities. But now I think that children really felt the Planet, felt all these ecological issues... And as adults we could learn from them...