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It's raining lightly in the infant yard, and the babies are outside examining the wet grass and splashing in puddles. Aziz (17 months) picks up a ball and tosses it into a muddy puddle. He squeals in delight, bends down, and lifts the ball back up. He touches the mud, watching as it oozes onto his finger. He then drops the ball back into the puddle. Next, he walks over to a nearby shelf and grasps another ball, walks back, then drops that one into the puddle as well.
Fascinated by his messy discovery, Aziz continues to drop balls and other toys into the muddy water until it is time to go inside. Meanwhile, several other infants wobble over and imitate the game. Having observed the infants' interest, the next day the staff place a tub of water and balls in the indoor art/sensory area to extend the children's investigation.
Visitors to our classrooms who observe scenarios like the one described above often make surprised comments, such as, "You let them get that messy?" But these projects are commonplace in our infant and toddler classrooms. As infant/toddler teachers we take a child-centered, emergent approach, meaning that we observe the children at play, ask ourselves what they are interested in learning, and design developmentally appropriate curricula to meet and extend those interests. This curriculum development technique leads to "possibilities for the child to develop deeper understandings" of how the world works (Curtis & Carter 1996, 52).
The activities in our classroom interest areas and our play yards change weekly though the content in the areas remain in the same locations. When children arrive in the morning, they tend to beeline to their favorite areas to see what has changed. One of the preferred areas inside and outside is the art/ sensory area.
We believe that art and sensory projects are integral to the curriculum, and that children develop key skills through these types of activities. This belief is supported by the Arts Education Partnership (Goldhawk 1998) and by the Infant/Toddler Environment Rating Scale - Revised (Harms, Cryer, & Clifford 2007). We provide art and sensory activities every day and give children ample time to explore them. Why? "Children must explore to know. A direct connection...