“A man who works with his hands is a laborer; a man who works with his hands and his brain is a craftsman; but a man who works with his hands and his brain and his heart is an artist.”
Found materials are a true treasure to young children’s hands. There is no specific way to work with the material and it can be restructured, repurposed with the imagination of the children to create a new story. Here’s what the children did with this beautiful broken basket. This unweaving time together allowed for lots of gross and fine motor movement.
Here are some conversations from our experience. There were lots of creative ideas that came from the children.
“It so long, I can pull it!”
“We can go up high”
“The rope is in my puzzle”
Many friends became frustrated when they realized they could not break the rope with their strong hands. After a demonstration of how to use their gentle fingers to untwist the rope they began collecting small pieces of the untwisted rope and shouting. “I did it!”
They then began a game of their own by pulling the rope and going under it while holding it high in the air.
The children were excited to move from the table to the open rug. We began making circles out of the rope and jumping in and out of the shapes.
We ended our time all sharing the rope as we took a walk to the trampoline.
Looking forward to the new stories this basket will bring!
