turkeys

Today I cut out turkey shapes and gave the children multicolored feathers and glue so they could decorate them!  They look very cute!  I’m gonna hang them from the ceiling on Thursday and I think they will give a nice splash of color to the room!  Feathers is a medium we don’t work with a whole lot – so the children were very excited!  They played with the feathers as they did their art – so it took a little longer than normal and we’ll have to finish them up on Thursday!  🙂

I’m a big believer in not telling children how to do art.  I usually set out the supplies and let them do whatever they want.  Of course I have an idea of what I’d like them to do – but I don’t force anything on them.  If I want a certain shape I usually just cut the paper into that shape before hand.  If I only want certain colors, I only put those paints (or markers or crayons, etc) out to choose from – but I never tell a child how or where to put something on their paper.  They write their name on the back (unless they want it on the front – which is rare).

I walked into another class this evening before I left and they too had made turkeys this week.  They too had used multicolored feathers.  The difference?  The teacher did the art for the children.  How could I tell?  This was a class of 3 year olds, and all the turkeys only had 6 feathers each on them nicely outlining the tail of the turkey.  I know, having worked with this age group, that if they were allowed to do this project on their own, feathers would have been plastered all over those turkeys!  My class is a year older and that’s what most of my kids did!  I thought it was sad how this experience had been taken away from the children because the teacher was more concerned about the end product instead of the creative process. My only consolation is that next year these kids will be in my class and they will finally be able to have the freedom to express themselves!  🙂