Blog #9 Lindsay Smith

 Field Day 

Me and Riley led the class mural stamping with nature station. One thing I really tried to focus on at my station was letting the kids lead the experience. I didn’t want to overly prompt or direct them. I would just ask things like what their favorite color was or suggest picking one thing to start with. After that, I just gave lots of encouragement and praise and let them explore however they wanted so it was very student/child led. Hands-on art like this is so important because it gives kids the chance to express themselves freely, build fine motor skills, and feel proud of creating something on their own. It was really cool to see how different each child's approach was once they realized there was no “right” way to do it. It was a fun and creative project that let the kids explore nature and art all at once.

Getting Started & Challenges

At first, a lot of the kids were a little hesitant about getting their hands messy. Once they got into it and saw how cool the prints and colors looked, they really started having fun with it. It turned into a very hands-on, sensory experience that they ended up loving. One challenge we ran into was that some of the natural materials we collected were a little dry, because we collected them so ahead of time. This made it harder for them to stamp and some of the leaves and flowers didn’t hold the paint very well. Instead of just stamping, the kids ended up also painting with the materials, which was just as cool, but different from the original plan. I did have some fresh stuff I picked then and those worked way better. If I did it again, I would definitely use fresher materials and maybe thinner paint to help everything stick better.

What Surprised Me

I was surprised by how creative and patient the kids were once they got going. I honestly expected some of them to get bored or distracted quickly, but many of them really took their time picking out materials and thinking about where they wanted to place them. They also took their time mixing colors and seeing what went well together as well as what made the best patterns when stamping. It turned into more than just stamping, they were building their own little sections of the mural and putting a lot of thought behind it.

Takeaways

Field Day reminded me how important it is to be flexible and open to whatever direction kids want to take an activity. Even when things didn’t go exactly to plan, the project still turned out to be a success because the kids made it their own.