When using the HighScope curriculum, we focus on providing children open ended materials and a variety of choices! Teachers encourage children to explore materials in different ways and use ALL of their senses. Through open ended exploration of a simple material, such as textured paper, we see a child’s learning through:
- A child’s approach to learning – their initiative as they explore their world and the new material they were given or their ability to problem solve as they try to color in all the “dots” on a textured piece of paper.
- A child’s physical development – the way they use their fine motor skills to hold a paintbrush as they color in an object, or their gross motor skills as they crawl over top of the paper and explore the feel of a new texture.
- A child’s creative arts – the way they express or represent what they’re creating, but also the choice they make in what they’re going to do with a simple materials. We saw children paint, use chalk, use the paper as a stamp, blow colored bubbles on their paper, and just explore a new texture.
“We made a sensory experience. You can feel the textured paper… The children crawled over it and touched it with their hands and feet! You could feel the texture as well as hear it!”
-Ms. Charlene
“I loved this activity because I loved watching the children
explore how the water color spread and mixed as they painted the
extured absorbent paper”
-Ms. Lara
