Winter Light

Family exploration with color and light.

In January 2013, Find & Seek offered a "Winter Light" workshop for a group of families in the Upper Room at Visitation Church in Red Hook, Brooklyn. For two hours in the afternoon, children ages 1-5 and their parents explored materials, built structures, made and played with shadow puppets, and shared stories in a cozy tent lit by a glowball. 

Children build with blocks and play with shadow puppets, in a space enhanced by a video projection on the wall.

The Find & Seek team fabricated our own lightboxes out of translucent plastic boxes, mylar, Christmas lights and other small lights, and tape. 

Common Senses at MoMA.

Moveable white blocks of all sizes and a video projection at Common Senses: heaven for young children!

The Common Senses exhibition at MoMA was a major inspiration for our Winter Light workshop. This exhibition was curated by MoMA's education department in collaboration with a team of Italian educators from the Reggio Emilia preschools. The exhibition featured an installation of moveable materials, many of which were painted white, juxtaposed on the floor in the area between a projector and the wall. Children moved and changed the objects, from blocks and mirrors to plastic animals, such that the exhibition was constantly reinvented. This set up proved to be engaging for children (and adults) of all ages.
 

One notable thing about the Common Senses exhibition which we also foster at Find & Seek is the combination of open-ended materials with more specific animal or human-looking dolls/toys. MoMA had an array of plastic animals juxtaposed with the very basic painted-white shapes of the blocks. At our Winter Light event, we introduced 2D shadow puppets--cut-out cardboard shapes on sticks--into the mix of blocks that we set out near our projection. The children responded by play-acting with their puppets against the backdrop of the moving landscape of the projection. It was beautiful.

Story play with dolls and props takes on a new dimension when carried out against a backdrop of light. 

We are committed to providing experiences for young children that invoke in them a sense of wonder and awe at the beautiful world we live in. Explorations of LIGHT are crucial in our ongoing research and practice. Looking at light in new ways simply . . . turns the lightbulbs on . . . for our kids!  The wonder spews forth in beautiful original comments and super creative stories!  The eyes go bright!  The adventures and ideas multiply!  The shadows morph . . . into animals, monsters, robots, trees, anything we could imagine, and more. The simple materials of light and dark, aided by electrical technology (ie: an overhead projector, a video projector, a flashlight, a table light, a slide projector) become a door through which children can enter mysterious and captivating imaginative worlds. The folks in Reggio Emilia know this (see their Ray of Light Atelier), as do folks like Allie Pasquier of Play Lab/Bakers & Astronauts in WA State, Turtlewings in Brussels, Beginnings Nursery School in NYC, and many others . . . 

Magnolia and her Tatty prepare for Winter Light. Find & Seek is developing a program which will facilitate young children collaborating with elders on materials exploration and storytelling.

So often it's hard to trace the tracks of our multitude of influences. They run together like streams of water into the river of our experience, research and investigations. At times (like this, when writing), it's helpful to take account of the many incredible kindred spirits the world over who are as we speak, both in 1's and 0's to other professional educators, and to parents, and in real-life conversations with 3 and 4-year-olds, facilitating meaningful play and making.  We need their inspiration, to validate our work and to spur us on to Believe.  Of all of these many influences, neither of us can discount the wonderful foundations given us by our own parents (see Kristin's in this image above, with her granddaughter). Because Mom and Dad (now Tatty and Papa to my two girls) provided a loving, beautiful childhood for me, I am able to claim that dream not only for my own children, but for the many children we will serve through our Find & Seek programs in Red Hook, Brooklyn. 

We love these wooden dolls made by Anna and Juan Donado of Goose Grease Undone. We often purchase them unpainted and either paint them (or perhaps add an acorn cap) or leave them unpainted (so children's imagination can run loose) and add them to our selection of props. For Winter Light, we provided a doll and a set of wings to each child to bridge the Find & Seek/home play experience.

Our Winter Light event was just a 2 hour glimmer of the hope that lives in our plans for our program. We are so excited to see our steadily growing flame grow and burn bright, bringing beauty, color, light to a neighborhood that has struggled through the decades and that needs more innovative and free arts programming for very young children.

“A small curtain of mirrors in a classroom window creates daily and ever-changing reverberations which, like light fairies, bring to life the children’s pleasure in discovery. Light is weightless ‘material’, almost liquid, capable of expanding and contracting, of being welcomed and studied, and—just for an illusory moment—stilled. The children dance and give voice to light, create empathetic relations with the light.”

— Reggio Children, The Wonder of Learning: The Hundred Languages of Children

Enchanted Forest

On September 10, 2012, Find & Seek hosted a session at ArtsCetera on Smith St. in Brooklyn, where children and their caregivers explored an indoor environment inspired by the wondrous woods. Children were invited to bring a nature object or treasure of their own, such as a leaf, flower, pod, stick, stone or feather, and our team provided a vast and eclectic array of organic materials for the children to explore. These materials included:

• string, yarn, cotton and wool
• baskets, wooden bowls and blocks
• moss and nests
• multicolored scarves
• rocks, sea glass beads, shells, dried seeds, flowers and pods.

We also set out little furry, forest dwelling stuffed-animals to encourage young explorers to build a home or plan an adventure for the lovable little creatures. During the hour, the shared world of hidden treasures began to be transformed as children collected their favorites, fitting objects into vessels, draping fabric over structures to create interior spaces, transporting little animals with their “foods” in a child-sized wooden cart, wrapping strings and hanging items from branches, hiding animal creatures inside baskets, planning and building wooden landscapes, building tiny nest beds for imaginary birds and their eggs, convening in small groups to pretend a picnic, collecting items in baskets for personal safekeeping and even climbing into baskets (of course!). While these activities were taking place, our team observed and documented. One of our aims is to provide children opportunities to freely investigate texture, form, color and scale through imaginative construction and story play, using the most open-ended of materials. On this day, the room became transformed by the children into a woodland dreamworld.

A Day to Explore and Rearrange: What We Noticed

We keep coming back to ask: what can children make with repurposed objects? We keep wondering: why is this so important to their healthy development? We are interested in the quality of every material and concern ourselves with listening to which materials speak to children and in what ways. Some of the things we noticed in this workshop are indicative of truths we hold about childhood:

• Children appreciate touching, feeling, handling natural objects. They like to feel smooth wood, scratchy surfaces, the bumpy parts, the wiggly areas.

• Children, especially urban children, approach these objects with a Sense of Wonder. They are often engaged by novel objects, ie: never-before-seen. For many children growing up in the city, elements such as moss or a real bird’s nest are indeed rare to see.

 • Children like to hide things, and to be hidden themselves. They are completely engaged when hiding within, or when in the process of hiding an object, within the Secret Spaces of Childhood. This may look like a secret box, a hidden fort in the woods, a cardboard box (see our post on Cardboard!), a space under the stairs, a tree house, a space under the table, or in the corner of a room. These spaces multiply exponentially when they can be explored in the natural world.

• Children give human and animal characteristics to inanimate objects. As playworkers like Marc Armitage define it, play is “what children do,” simply because they know no other way of being.  Part of the play that comes so naturally to most children is this element of personification. Given the simplest materials, children will build a world, complete with a host of personalities. Something, someone, from nothing.

• Young children are inspired by older children. Older children take younger children under their wing. This is why we love mixed-age learning environments.

Through this series of workshops, we hoped to encourage a new generation of thoughtful players to take some risks, explore, share and transform spaces with materials we curate. Just as these friends did in September, we can’t wait to see how future groups of children rise to the challenge of creating a new world out of the most unassuming materials.

 

Cardboard!

Why CARDBOARD?

Materials in space rest and curve.

Well, first of all, what child doesn’t eventually prefer to climb into the box surrounding the shiny new toy it just delivered? Cardboard is lightweight, child friendly, recyclable, comes in great variety, and can easily be used to create paper sculpture. You can cut it, glue it, stack it, crush it, paint it and even wear it!  Isn’t cardboard really every art teacher’s dream? Children will be coming into contact with this material their whole lives. So let’s use it!! Over the years we have been collecting pieces of cardboard in a variety of sizes, shapes, and interesting textures. Our collection includes odd-shaped packing forms, paper towel tubes, huge carpet dowels, small and large boxes, egg cartons and a very long roll of corrugated paper. We purposely select pieces in non-dyed colors to preserve the natural feel and to draw attention to form and texture. These treasured items have been stored away and awaiting children’s curious explorations. We know the children will appreciate the possibilities as much as we do!

Find & Seek #2 at ArtsCetera 

High, low, up and down: Cardboard World!

On August 28th, 2012, a small group of children (9 to be exact), ages 18 months to eight-years, collaborated in a room filled with these amorphous and strange cardboard forms (along with a little string and some gold duct tape). The first day with a new material, as with any art-making material, whether it be paint, clay, wire, musical instruments, or whatever else we can conjure, we feel it is best to allow as much free time as possible to explore and examine, to share and inquire. So without much provocation, children were invited to just play…

What themes and imaginings occurred? In the short hour and a half that we spent together, and for some it was less, cardboard was put to use in a myriad of ways. It became pirate costumes, telescope-like instruments to gaze through, places to sit, hide and relax, little places with doors, windows, and ceilings, nests for treasures, bowls for nesting objects and serving pretend food, logs to balance upon, various components of a range of different buildings, and it was even used to engineer a tiny working elevator! The experience required sharing a large space and for some, materials negotiations with peers.  It was discovered that pieces could not only be combined in a variety of ways, but that they could also be propelled, either by throwing or dragging. The younger children were not so different from the older ones in their willingness to create, however, the older children naturally were able to adapt the string and tape as it was more suited to their developmental abilities. What did these children not do? Nobody shredded a cardboard tube or smashed a carton to bits, although that would not be surprising as we’ve seen it done before! The children seemed happy to use the materials primarily as they were in their natural forms.

The Intricacies of our Observations

A box space awaits. It doesn’t take long for a child to discover the possibilities here. Many children discover the joy of climbing into boxes. A box makes a brilliant hideaway space, a place to remain hidden for a while. A box big enough to sit inside will most definitely become a seat.  Some pieces inspire pretend kitchen play. Corks and an egg container work to play kitchen. Lunch is served! The corks represent each a tasty morsel of something good to eat, carefully placed where they nestle perfectly in the cups.“Look what I can do!” An eight-year-old girl beckons to us, just before meditatively balancing on a cardboard tube.  

An abandoned roll of cardboard resting upon a tube is such a beautiful form full of interesting shapes and shadows. We couldn't help but document through the camera lens. What do the children see here?

Looking through the telescope.

Observing a pile of cardboard, a sculpture in two dimension.

Taking a mass for a walk.

Here Ye! Is that a knight in shining armor?

Inside, Underneath and Above

A boy appears looking through a telescope, peering through the rounded openings of cylinders. Attaching them together has further purpose. The openings provide different views and serve different functions. The boy tries looking through and upward, checking out the view from a variety of angles. Will looking through to the ground while peering through the tiny opening reveal a new perspective or a hidden secret?

We photograph a kind of Artscape of Materials. We think of materials as seen through the eyes of a camera lens. Were a picture of this kind to be presented to our child participants, what might they see there?

Materials are amassed, rolled out, spread out, spilling over into the space. The room continually transforms. Getting up close provides an interesting perspective of this transient world.

Moving the mass is a delightful discovery! A five-year-old boy can engineer a way to take the mass of cardboard forms for a walk. The forms appear to move as a single unit as the rope clings on to pieces in a triangular configuration.

Some cardboard is wearable! Suiting up, two boys figure out that this garble of rolled paper is actually wearable. This is exciting and inspires one to spin and laugh freely. Cardboard feels and looks a bit like armor. The boys continue suiting up for battle, perhaps as a king, a knight or a pirate. Dressing up is a common expression of young children as it leads them further on a journey through make-believe adventure.

What is happening for us as facilitators

As we engage with children in these open-ended play workshops, most importantly we are beginning to find  that interesting themes emerge and that stories develop.  We try our best to listen and watch closely to what children do and say. We record and ask questions. Every interaction becomes a valuable new piece of information, bringing us closer to understanding the imaginary worlds of young children.

What does this all mean for children, all this unstructured manipulation of stuff? Where can it lead? Many places! We hope a conversation may develop around a story or play. Perhaps children will be compelled to build a city or world as a collective group. Perhaps children will consider the addition of other materials as we slowly present them, such as chalk, paint, glue, buttons, fabric. The direction it goes depends on the children and what they are trying to say. We look forward to deepening the process with future groups! We thank all the young participants and their willing caregivers for expressing interest in imaginative play. And thanks again to Howard Weiss and the staff at ArtsCetera for hosting us!

Box panel hideout.

Magnets Ribbons Spools Tops & Tubes

Here are some videos of our first Play Lab at ArtsCetera! We explored magnets (“Magformers” specifically):

Children explore magnets in our Play Lab at ArtsCetera. Thanks to Linda White for facilitating! The children loved these Magformer magnets! blog.playlabbrooklyn.org

Children explore ribbons in our Play Lab at ArtsCetera. Facilitators: Linda White and Kristin Eno (of Little Creatures Films) http://blog.playlabbrooklyn.org

Children explore spools in our Play Lab at ArtsCetera. Thanks to Linda White for facilitating! The children loved this splendid array of recycled shapes and forms. blog.playlabbrooklyn.org

Children explore tubes in our Play Lab at ArtsCetera. Thanks to Linda White for facilitating! The children loved this splendid array of recycled shapes and forms. blog.playlabbrooklyn.org

Children explore tops in our Play Lab at ArtsCetera. Thanks to Linda White for facilitating! The children loved this splendid array of recycled shapes and forms. blog.playlabbrooklyn.org

Why We Document

Much as the Reggio preschools have done with their creation of the role of teacher-researcher and dissemination of the explorations that take place in their schools through the traveling exhibition “The Wonder of Learning” (formerly “The Hundred Languages of Children”), Find & Seek functions as a venue for research about the way children play, create and learn. Kristin B. Eno, co-founder, is also the director of Little Creatures Films, where she produces films based on children’s imaginative play in the natural world, featuring children’s original voiceover narration. The original premise behind Little Creatures dovetails that of FInd & Seek: Children’s voices as they explore and investigate their world are fascinating, brilliant and poetic and need to be captured. We are designing Find & Seek to function as a more public home for the video production and editing that Little Creatures has been doing with and for children and teachers since 2001. These two entities will have a symbiotic relationship so that ultimately, Little Creatures can share with the world the wonderful explorations and stories that children develop during their time at FInd & Seek.

Drop-In Play Lab at Artscetera (1)

Tuesday, August 21, 2012 from 3:30-5pm, Linda White and Kristin Eno hosted the first "Play Lab Brooklyn" (now called Find & Seek)–at ArtsCetera, a space for children in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn. Around 50 children, babies, mommies and nannies showed up--what a pleasant surprise. We had advertised that our target age group was a whopping range of “0-7,” but the average age of the children was 18 mo-2 years. Still, the few older kids who came had fun too!  A 10-year-old investigated some tubing before I handed him the Flip cam so that he could capture some footage.

The materials we brought into the space and introduced to the children for exploration included:

• Plastic/rubber tubing (small and large, short and long, rigid and flexible)

• Magformers magnets

• Plastic bottle caps

• Ribbons

• Large plastic spools

• Cardboard spools and cones

The day was a success! Even after the event we were attracting the public, when across the street at a restaurant Linda stuck many vibrant colored Magformers to the doors, and we watched as children of all ages became captivated. “If you put out Magformers, they will come”: what a simple marketing plan! And what a testimony to the power of materials, to spark the imagination of children of all ages.

Our Story and Our Stories

Once upon a time there were two artist/teachers, who came all the way from CA and NC to the Big City to learn all about the teaching of Art to children. Elisha Georgiou and Kristin B. Eno met in the M.Ed. program of the Art Education department at Columbia Teachers College, where they each finished up their theses around 2004. Kristin started to make films about the things children do and say in their imaginative play, and continued to teach art and video; Elisha also taught art.  Then they each became mommies. Elisha's daughter became a part of Kristin's Spirit Ship film, a Little Creatures production shot in 2008 that culminated in a 17-minute film and a very special companion book illustrated by that very creative daughter, and co-written by Elisha and Kristin. Over coffee with the wise and wonderful Richard Lewis in the Winter of 2011, the seed of Find & Seek was planted. As Richard asked, why not start something, and put our dreams and education to good use?  Just as he had done many years ago . . .

Elisha: 

Elisha Georgiou

Elisha Georgiou is an educator and artist living in Brooklyn. Originally from Napa, California, she began her career teaching elementary school in the San Francisco Bay Area before coming to New York City where she eventually switched her focus to arts education. Elisha discovered her love for teaching art while working with several NYC non-profit arts organizations as an artist-in-residence.  There she designed curriculum and facilitated instruction for after-school programs and also helped to bring arts into the school day in collaboration with elementary school teachers all over New York City. In order to broaden her own scope and study, Elisha then attended Teachers College Columbia University (M.Ed.) where she researched methods for providing interdisciplinary arts learning to children. There she became especially intrigued by the preschools of Reggio Emilia and also the works of many interdisciplinary arts educators and expressive arts therapists. Elisha believes strongly that children’s voices need to be heard and intently listened to, and that there is no better way to do that than through expressive art and play. She knows that children have the capacity to invent, create, navigate and teach in ways that may astound and exceed our wildest expectations if given space to do so. Elisha’s dream for her children’s collaborative art and play space in Brooklyn is that the children will create community, express their inner worlds, share their ideas, expand their imaginary play horizons and grow in body, mind and spirit. Elisha lives with her husband and their two young children in Park Slope.

Kristin: 

Kristin grew up in NC and went to Dartmouth College to study Studio Art (painting) and Elementary Education. She moved to NYC in 1999 to pursue a painting career; meanwhile she taught art and first grade.  In 2001, inspired by the fantastical stories of her students in Bedford-Stuyvesant, and the skills and insight of her future husband Sean Eno, Kristin began exploring the potential of using video to support and enhance children’s original stories. Her research (M.Ed., Columbia Teachers College, 2004) and practice (Digital Story Workshop, 2004-2008) led her to see that video making for and by young children was an untapped tool for use in early childhood education, and that children even as young as four were ready to participate in the making of their own media. After ten years of providing video making opportunities to pre-K through third grade students in NYC public schools, Kristin established Little Creatures film company to raise the quality of the work and to distribute it widely. She shot her short film Spirit Ship in her neighborhood of Red Hook while pregnant with her first daughter, who is now 4. Her latest little creature, a second daughter, is 1. In 2011-12 Kristin taught art at the Red Hook Playgroup, bringing to that setting inspiration from the beautiful work done by children and teachers in the ateliers of the Reggio Emilia preschools. Kristin is an advocate of children’s free play, especially as seen through the lens of play-facilitators such as educators and playworkers, as evidenced in her studies of and collaboration with Vivian Gussin Paley, and her work collaborating with colleagues such as UK Playworker Penny Wilson and Pop-Up Adventure Play. Kristin is happy to be building Find & Seek as a home for the many little creatures of Brooklyn to play and explore, and she is committed to providing documentation of early learning for the benefit of children, parents and teachers all over NYC and the world.