Over the past month, the Preschool 1 class have been engaged in activity that has been helping them to learn how to draw a person. A song called “Mat Man” was introduced at group time, which introduces the concept of how to draw a person’s body and which parts go where (the song is available on YouTube if you want to listen at home). While stating the various parts of the body, the lyrics also mention the function of each one. When this concept was first introduced, the song was played and listened to once as a group. As it was played for a second time, Erin drew a person while singing along with the song. The third time the song was played, Erin pointed to the body parts she had drawn, as the children drew their own people.
This was practiced once a week as a group for three weeks and on the fourth week, the children took a turn to sit individually with Erin and draw their people. As Erin sang the song, everyone was able to follow along and draw all of the body parts being sung. Some of the children who sat with Erin individually, didn't even want her to sing the song, as they knew what they were doing and successfully drew their person on their own. During this one on one time, it was noted that while at group time the song was played on the iPad and some of the children had a little bit of trouble keeping up with the pace of the song. However, as they sat down with Erin, she sang it at a slower pace keeping up with the child's drawing.
This one on one time with Erin was so valuable for the children and the children were able to produce a drawing that very much resembled a person. This supports the research outcomes demonstrating that everyone learns and takes in information at a different pace and in various ways. As each child finished their drawings, the smiles on their faces were priceless and you could see them beaming with pride.
This activity is an interesting journey because, during the first drawings you could see the children trying to focus on the words of the song and which parts to draw, however the body parts weren’t typically in the correct spot or individually placed all over the page. Over the weeks of practice, you can see the progress that children have made as the whole process came together.
