The toddlers engaged in a creative experience which consisted of the painting with flowers. This experience allowed for them to participate in process art while giving them a chance to experience and manipulate some natural materials using most of their senses. The educators first introduced the variety of flowers that were brought from home. “Take a look friends at all the different coloured flowers we have today” said the educator. “We brought them from home so that we could share them with all of you. What fun things do you think we could do with them she asked. “I see lots of flowers! I see red ones and purple ones too!” said Reid excitedly. “I like the orange one!” said Lainey. “We do have lots of different coloured flowers and they all have different names. For example, these purple flowers are called carnations, these are white, red and yellow tulips, we also have orange lilies and these purple flowers are called mums” the toddlers eagerly picked flowers to explore with, using their hands to manipulate the different parts of the flowers, as the educators labelled the different parts by their names. “A flower consists of a stem, leaves and petals. She said pointing at each individual part. “Flowers are very delicate so when we are touching and holding them we should be very gentle so that they do not fall apart”. “Uh oh my flower fell down” said Eva pointing at the petal that had fallen from her flower onto the table. “That’s alright you can still paint and touch the flower. Petals will fall off of a flower because the flowers are drying up. They need water and sunlight to grow and when they start to wilt, just like this it means that they are needing water to stay strong, demonstrated the educator. “But they are still beautiful and we can use them lots of different ways. Today, why don’t we use them to paint with?” suggested the educators. “Yes, I want to paint!” said Lainey smiling. The toddlers were then provided with some white paint, to which they were encouraged to dip their flowers into. They then used their fine motor skills and eye hand coordination to transfer their flowers onto construction paper. They also continued to explore with the paint covered flowers, by using their fingers to pull off the petals and leaves. Some friends chose to place the flower’s parts onto their paint while other friends just chose simply to use them as paintbrushes. Process art like this one, fits in with how children learn as it allows them to freely make choices without worrying about the end result. Children make their own decisions and just create! This activity occupied our toddlers for quite some time while other friends decided that they were all done once their flowers had fallen apart from all the painting. The petals, stems and leaves had too become a part of their painting and they all looked beautifully unique.
