Floor Painting

In college, my minor was in child development. In one course, our professor gave us the assignment to create a project for children and observe the outcome. During college, I worked in a community-based school-age program that also offered a preschool program. At the beginning of the assignment, I was unsure of which group I wanted to create an invitation. Since I was more comfortable working with school-age children, I did a project for the preschool class.

To begin the assignment, I talked with the lead teacher in the preschool program. As I spoke with the lead teacher, I was unsure what activity I wanted to offer the children. During our conversation, I learned the children in preschool recently painted with kitchen utensils. The lead teacher said they enjoyed the experience. Hearing this information, I decided to take a familiar concept and offer it on a larger scale. For my project, I would invite the preschool children to paint with utensils on a large surface.

I shared my idea with the lead preschool teacher. She expressed concern that the invitation might be too messy. She said some parents might be unhappy if their child gets covered in paint. I wrote a letter to the preschool parents explaining the project and asked them to permit their children to participate. I instructed parents to send their children in old clothing for one day. With permission in hand, I started to prepare for the painting project.

I collected a roll of butcher paper, tempera paint, plastic bowls, and all the kitchen utensils I could find. Next, I rolled out the butcher paper and taped many large sections to the floor. In the end, butcher paper covered most of the floor in the preschool room. After attaching paper to the floor, I filled plastic bowls with different colors of tempera paint. Next, I set the utensils on the perimeter of the paper canvas. Now it was time to invite the children into the space.

The children came into the space and sat down. I invited the children to use the utensils to paint on the paper's surface. The children worked at a slow pace as they figured out the possibilities of the experience. As the children painted with utensils on paper, a shift happened. One child started painting on their skin. As other children observed this action, they started painting their skin too. Soon all the children were applying paint to their arms and legs. I observed this action with concern and confusion. I was new to working with children, and I was not sure what to do. I fought the urge to interfere and kept watching.

The children kept working. After a few minutes, the children covered most of their skin with paint. Next, the children resumed painting the paper canvas on the floor. As I watched, one child started to experiment by scooting across the paper surface. The child was now painting with their body. The other children observed this but did not follow along. As the children worked, I talked to them about the experience. The children shared how the paint felt and why they liked or disliked the experience.

Some children exited the invitation soon after it started. The messy nature of the process offered too much stimulation for them. After an hour, the children covered the paper canvas in paint. We cleaned up and moved on to other work. We left the paper on the floor to dry. The next day I lifted the paper off the floor. Part of the paper canvas was still damp, so I hung the creation in the preschool space to dry. A few days later, I trimmed the large canvas and attached it to a large wall to display.

What did I learn from this experience?

Be open to new experiences. The outcome we imagine before a project is often different from the experience. Every project will feature twists and turns as the children explore and interpret how to use tools and the medium.

Sharing an experience with others opens the lines of communication and contributes to a successful outcome. Collaborating with the lead preschool teacher and parents made the project fun. Our collaboration allowed the project to follow a natural course without worry.

Invite parents and other educators to collaborate with your work. Ask questions and clarify the intention of a project with others. Discussion invites our learning partners to share their concerns, brainstorm ideas, and encourage us to share the children's learning journey with others.

Revisit and explore the experience with the children after the project ends. I met with the children a few days after the paper canvas experience and invited them to share their feelings about the project. When children share their play stories, teachers learn new information about an experience that helps us connect our observations to the experience.

The openness of the children to explore the materials created new possibilities for our future work. As a result of this project, I moved away from pre-planned activities and offered more open-ended projects in our school-age program.