On Friday, we had Sara Keller, a freelance display artist, join us at Learning Garden Childcare to lead the children through an exciting art enrichment workshop.  All three classes worked on different parts of a collaborative art installation that is now hanging in our Senior room for all the kids to enjoy!

The Toddlers helped colour in the leaves, giving them more depth and realism. This helped them to develop their physical fine motor skills as they used a palmar grasp to hold crayons and make scribbles.  They also worked on their attention regulation as they focused their attention to the activity, and worked hard at colouring the different leaves! 

The Juniors also helped colour in the leaves, also helped to fold the leaves into realistic leaf shapes!  The Juniors were developing their physical fine motor skills while also developing their emotional domain as they noticed their own abilities.  Several children expressed joy and pride, and pointed out “this is MY leaf!” or held up their leaves proudly and exclaimed “look at what I did!” 

The Seniors helped string the leaves and flowers onto metal wires, further developing their physical fine motor tool use.  They carefully held the wire, and focussed their attention on piercing the delicate leaves and flowers.  The Seniors displayed their social development as they worked together cooperatively, taking turns and interacting positively and respectfully with each other.  They also helped Sara hang up the floral art installation, and took turns in passing the strung wires for Sara to hang up.  The Seniors were extremely proud in helping create this beautiful art piece.

Art is such a great way for children to express themselves while furthering different areas of development.  Children take pride in their art creations, and it is so important for us to foster their creativity.  We thank Sara for all of her enthusiasm and encouragement, and we can’t wait to do it again in the future!

Please see the album in the parent access section for more pictures.

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