Slowing down and noticing the ordinary extraordinariness

Vea Vecchi, one of the first pioneering atelieristas in Reggio Emilia, is a believer that all children are powerful thinkers and that the environments of schools should inspire our children, challenges educators to preserve the "culture of childhood".  

Vecchi writes, "We were struck by the visual culture and sensibility children demonstrated in capturing original and non-conformist images of the world."

What do eyes that see for the first time SEE?

This is what the children saw as they sketched the 'line up tree".

Tanner brought bark and leaves from home and shared during Project Circle.

Noah: Real leaves should feel like paper.

Acadia:Leaves have different textures.

Ella: The stem feel softer than the leaf. 

Tannin: One side of the leaf is bumpy and one side is  softer. 

Jesse: The leaf looks like a parachute.

Jericho: I bet it could float.

Caleb used clay to represent our observations of a Tanner's leaf in the big studio.

The bark from the tree triggered more thinking.

Tannin: The bark has different textures.

Lydia: One side is grayish and the other side is brown.

Acadia: The bark on the tree if very breakable.

Dante: The bark on the tree has different shapes off the tree.

Roman observes the bark and then recreates the bark on the trunk of the tree. He includes the concrete bricks or door on the tree.