Miya found 3 teeny tiny fuzzy little horses in the studio on the first day of class. They immediately took her attention from the salad spinner and colour mixing we were doing, and when Jaiden saw the little horses she too was equally enamored. And so, the horses became the focus and motivation for their next project. To involve their learning of colour theory, I asked that they try and bring rainbows into the worlds the wanted to create for their horses. We all considered Jaiden’s idea of having a rainbow that you can slide down, and Miya thought a rainbow made of steps would be very cool.
Miya: We can make little houses!
Jaiden: We can pretend this is hay! What do you think the house should actually look like?
Miya: Well it could be a little bigger than the horse. And there could be little pens and it so he could go wherever he wanted like there would be sleeping pen, and a food pen.
Jiaden: It can't be too big though.
Miya: We could make a little tiny barn for each horse.
The first thing the girls wanted to make for their horses were bowls of cereal.
Jaiden: I'm having rainbow cereal.
Miya: Rainbow cereal? I'm having red and yellow cereal.
Jaiden: Red and yellow cereal? I am going to make some more cereal. I'm going to make a lot of cereal. Do you want to make another cereal bowl?
Miya: Okay. One big one, one little one.
Jaiden: And 2 cupcakes.
Miya: There can be one for snack and one for dinner, lunch or breakfast.
Miya: Are you making just plain Cheerios? I have a lot of milk!
Jaiden: Hey I have an idea! Maybe we glue some of this on to here, to make it look like candy. Like candy marshmallows. This can be the marshmallow and we can sprinkle some of that on. And this could be like the marshmallows with candy on it.
Miya: The candy is melting. Mine’s too full. Mine’s way too full!
I watched and listened to the little ideas floating and popping in the air, as the girls set about on their discovery of possible materials.
Jaiden: Hey, this can be a tree! A big pinecone tree! Miya, if you want one, they are right down there.
It was really fun to see the girls hunt around the studio for things they could use in their horse lands. They made decisions together, both agreeing on same elements, choosing felt for grass, and shiny blue material for water. Jaiden and Miya discussed and shared their ideas openly. Their experience was just as much about them bonding and having fun as friends, as it was about developing their creativity.
Creative Play
This project was a good example of the extremely close relationship between creating and playing. The girls wanted to create a world for their imaginations to be set free. Each of the girls periodically stopped to feed their horses, make little horse noises, and arrange the treasures for them.
Jaiden: This can be a rock collection that the horse collected!
The girls also found a box of little Easter chicks, and I let them use them in their lands. Watching them pick and choose was pretty cute – both girls were very conscious of making sure the distribution was fair.
Miya: We can each have six.
Jaiden: Here chickie, yellow on yellow, orange on orange and pink on pink!
I gave each girl a strip of cardboard for them to bend into any shape they wanted for their barn walls. Miya saw the potential in making her barn have great big swinging doors.
Miya: Hey these can be the doors! The can swing like that. I want my barn to be red.
Miya added walls to her barn, so she could have the interior rooms she had envisioned.
Miya: Can I paint them red? The same red as this? Because they are going to be part of the barn.
He has a little bedroom.
Rachel: What are the other rooms?
Miya: I don’t know. One of them is going to be a play room. This will be a little kitchen. ….He has little jewels in the corner.
Jaiden: I want to make a little birdie that could go on the little tree. I need pompoms. I need the biggest pom pom for the head, and then another big pom pom for the body, a bigger one, and then I need one of these little guys for the feet, and then I need something for the beak. Oh, one of these for the beak. And then…that’s it!
Miya: I’m going to make one too!
Jaiden found a piece of jewelry, and thought it might work.
Jaiden: I’m going to see if this works in the house. Oh! It looks like a picture! Ohh? Yah, it does look like a picture. Now I have a picture on the wall.
Miya: Oh I found a camel!
Jaiden: You found a camel? (giggles) Oh, I found a feather.
Miya: I found another camel!
Miya brought her camels and other animals to the table.
Miya: I’m going to have these as friends.
Jaiden: Oh, and then I’ll need some wings. This feather can be the wings.
Jaiden then flew her little wings through the air, with ever so soft sounds effects.
Jaiden: Then I need to cut some of this…. sparkly feet? Or nice and soft feet. Hmm. I think I want sparkly feet, sparkly red feet.