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joolone.bsky.social
Drawing a line from the Royal College of Art to the heart of Early Learning. It turns out there’s nothing ‘child’s play’ about child’s play.
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A Subitizing Study Box made from: an old broken box, fixed and hinged, 30 painted wooden squares from the hardware store, paint, dots and varnish. Nursery child plays repeatedly with the box & observes: ‘Numbers have got numbers inside - like bones! I can see numbers in my head and in my eyes’

submitted 23 hours ago • 1 comment

Nursery child explores mark making in pen and printmaking with the photocopier. With support she collages her work onto canvas. The results provoke repainting and renewed mark making until a design conclusion is found. She signs her work. Joy! (Paint, pen, collage on canvas)

submitted 2 days ago • 1 comment

“Why did the Hungry Caterpillar make a cocoon?” #EYFS child: “So no one bothers him.” “Sorry?” I ask. EYFS child: “He needs time to THINK himself INTO a butterfly.” “Wow!” I respond. EYFS child: “Well, he didn’t do it by magic.”

submitted 100 days ago • 12 comments

Nursery Child comes in from the garden: “A leaf has fallen off a tree but, that’s all right, we can fix it onto another tree. One without a leaf” Me: “Oh?” Child: “Another tree will look after it & the leaf will grow” Me: “On a new tree!” Child: “That’s how they grow so big…they help each other”

submitted 7 days ago • 2 comments

Nursery child creates a beautifully executed & concise line drawing. He pauses, sits back, and scratches his head. I ask “What are you thinking about?” Child “What it’s like to be a snail with wings” Joy!

submitted 9 days ago • 2 comments

A helicopter hovers overhead, then flies off: “Where’s it gone?” I ask my 2 year old “It’s gone to see its mummy for some milk” I glimpse her minds eye. Note to self: Fully appreciate children’s thinking before bulldozing it with my own.

submitted 15 days ago • 0 comments

The wonderful moment when a Nursery Child’s mark making breaks through into a new world of figuration. Lines enclose spaces and the creative play captures a newly found anatomy of motifs, shape, letters, forms and figures. Visual joy! Paint, Pen, Collage and Paper on Canvas.

submitted 15 days ago • 2 comments

I ask a child: “How could we explore measure?” A moments silence. Child: “We could find out how far we can draw a line with a piece of chalk until it’s too small to hold.” He follows the plan Genius.

submitted 22 days ago • 0 comments

A car hubcap, wooden lines, arrows, crosses, & shapes become an Nursery child’s materials for play. And Citroen’s design inspires an exploration of: rotation, angle, shape, number, & magnitude. Drawing = Maths = Joy

submitted 22 days ago • 1 comment

Nursery child looks up from his model making: “What holds the world together?” “Scientists ask this” I respond “they don’t fully understand” He looks around: “String, tape, glue? But trees would fall over” Looks back at his model: “It has to be really strong or (the world would) fall apart!”

submitted 29 days ago • 1 comment

Nursery child: “This is Mr Crab and he’s reading the newspapers… I’m making them for him and giving them to him” Me “I wonder what he’s reading about” “It’s his birthday & the newspapers say:‘Everyone gets to have cookies.’ ” “Great news” I respond. Child “That’s what he wanted!!!” Joy.

submitted 30 days ago • 1 comment

“The word 'JAZZ' means to me, I DARE you! Let's jump into the unknown!” (Wayne Shorter) PLAY to me, is an invitation, to launch myself in the same direction, and, if I dare, take my TEACHING with me.

submitted 36 days ago • 1 comment

Nursery child: “I’m doing a drawing about the letter M…It’s like a castle and it’s got doorways…and mountains and places where people can go…” “M has such a great shape” I reply Child “It’s a letter that can stand up, you can walk around it!”

submitted 36 days ago • 0 comments

I’m constantly struck by the capacity of minds, whose age can be measured in months, to learn at a speed much greater than mine, which is measured in years.

submitted 37 days ago • 0 comments

‘Learning never exhausts the mind’ (attributed to Leonardo da Vinci) But teaching sure occupies it (known by all teachers!)

submitted 42 days ago • 1 comment