DIGITAL MEDIA, PLAY, AESTHETIC PROCESSES

Region: South
Municipality: Vejle
By: Vinding
Year: 2020
Artists: Anna Hansen and Jacob Knudsen
Day care: Valhalla

At Valhalla we had two programmes: one in the nursery and one in the kindergarten.

On an overall level, our "wonder" in the project was:

- How can adults use art and aesthetic processes to engage with and support children's play?

- How can art open up the imagination so that adults can inspire creativity and experimental play?

- How can adults be more involved in children's play and follow children's tracks?

On a more concrete level, this meant that our wonder in the nursery was aimed at finding new ways to work with the topic of "Farm animals". For example, by taking inspiration from what the digital and sensory could add to the topic of "Farm Animals".

This included experiments with teddy bears, shadow play, farm animals, classical music and new versions of old games. For example, a hole game, as we usually play. Here we hide in a small tent and sing a special Christmas song. As part of our programme, this game was mixed with hide and seek, where the children, after coming out of the cave, had to find a stuffed animal hidden in the room.

In the kindergarten, the concrete question was how to bring the theme "Cars" into interaction with play and curriculum themes in a way that we are good at following the children's tracks and can experiment together with them.

In practice, this meant a series of tests of what can be done with games, recycled materials and apps.

How has it gone in relation to the overall wonder in the nursery?
In general, research into new ways of working with farm animals with children has gone well. Although not all the ideas that were tested worked as planned, we now have a wide range of new ideas to draw on.

And for the children, trying out lots of different ways to play with farm animals made a lot of sense. Cohesion was created by the fact that, whatever game was tried, animals were always talked about as well as played with. The fact that it was done over a longer period of time and that it was all about animals also provided context, recognisability and lots of good talk.

In general, it was easy for the children to join in games and talk when it was something recognisable, for example playing the animals we had drawn and talked about earlier in the day. The interaction between new and familiar gave them good new challenges in a safe environment, e.g. new projector, new games, new adult, but in a familiar environment, the hall.

What's next? What are we still curious about?
How it will turn out now, the future will tell. We must continue to develop ideas and our way of working, including continuing to be good at following children's tracks. And, not least, to explore how our ideas can be transferred to other educational areas.

How has it gone in relation to the overall wonder of the nursery?
In relation to our wonder, we have come a good step further. Being able to go into depth on a subject, to focus on details and different angles, has given us a number of new tools we can use in our daily work. Including a good look at how to be more informal and playful in our approach to curriculum themes.

And in relation to being able to work experimentally and follow the children's tracks, it has been good to be involved so much about both the subject and the ideas before and during the course.

What's next? What are we still curious about?
The project has provided a new insight into working with recycled materials. For example, the children were very interested in working with ReMida materials. This is something we will probably continue to work on.

The project has also provided new insights into how to work with digital. For example, the combination with an App "Wheels on the bus" was very good and it will be used in the future. Another idea we would also like to work with is "Photo Safari", where we take pictures together with the children.

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