These children are in their first week of preschool and today they explored painting on aluminum foil.

Many of the children began their painting with one finger dipped in paint. It was interesting watching the children slowly make little fingerprints on their foil canvas. They were meticulously going back and forth from paint to canvas, painting one dot at a time.

But it wasn’t long before they would realize it was fun to also draw lines with their fingers. The paint glided easily over the smooth texture of the foil.

And before long, they progressed to making full circles and designs.

In the classroom next door, the children crumbled up their foil a bit first then smoothed it back out. The texture of their foil was not smooth, it had lines and creases. These children used paint brushes rather than their hands.

As I compared the two approaches, I realized that it might have been nice to combine both of them so the children felt the smooth and the sharp texture with their hands first then jumped into painting.

I always enjoy observing the various approaches to a similar activity and I learn something new every time!

My message today, like many days, is to take ideas that are on the web or in a book and then just like these teachers do, modify or apply the ideas in such a way that your students will enjoy the experience.