The children's interest in watercolor painting continues to be evident in the classroom as we explore these materials several times throughout the weeks. Since January, we have had dozens of paintings that we sorted through to develop an idea of what the children are doing and learning through this process of painting. With this focus group, I chose three paintings from each child and displayed them in order of when they were painted to see the sequence of learning throughout this experience.
The children took the time to discuss each other's paintings and tried to figure out what types of movements the other children used to complete their paintings. They talked about the markings, the colors, and the amount of space they used on the paper.
As we were discussing the paintings, the children drew their own representations of what the paintings looked like or what it reminded them of. We used half sheets of paper and sharpie markers so that the colors were similar to the watercolor paintings.
Some of the children talked to their classmates about their own paintings and how they decided to paint. Reem explained to the others that she connected her colors to work on covering the whole page.
Together in small groups, the children continued to draw and discuss the different techniques of painting. They developed a sense of community and ownership of the class paintings and the process that we have been learning.
As the discussions wrapped up, we agreed on a word that described each set of three paintings. The children sounded out the words and wrote them out together to display with the paintings.
After we finished our discussions and wrote our describing words, we displayed them in the hall to share with the program. Some of the words that the children used describe the paintings included
slow, fast, super fast, colorful, and lines.
Throughout this process of discussing of our paintings, the children were strengthening their communication and description skills, enhancing literacy skills, and developing ideas of movement and spatial awareness.
To continue our explorations of painting with Watercolors, we will explore different ways to use brush strokes to show movement and change. We will also strengthen our process of watercolor painting to develop stronger representational skills.
