Making our Mark
After viewing the Hundred Languages of Children exhibition recently, I’ve been thinking a lot about visual art and mark making. Specifically, I’ve been thinking about the significance of children making their mark, be it through writing their name, drawing something that is important to them, or simply and quite literally “making a mark.” The other morning a parent came into Preschool House and noticed Perry working in the art space. He was painting with dye paints on the upright easel and at the top of the page he had written his name. “Oh, look!” the parent commented; “He’s written his name!” She was right, of course, he had written his name. And this got me thinking. The art space tends to be the place where children first learn to ‘make their mark’. This is the space where educators and adults demonstrate, over and over and over again, the importance of putting your name to something. It may be one of the first places children discover what their name looks like; not just what it sounds like but what the letters look like when written down. This is a powerful lesson. Not only does the naming of a child’s work give them a sense of ownership and value, it also teaches significant literacy concepts. Sounds have a concrete connection to symbols. Many people understand the symbols in the same way. So the educator who puts away the dry paintings at the end of the day may not always recognise the individual artisticRead more