The Art of STEAM - Rainbows

"The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science." -  Albert Einstein

Art is the expression of your imagination and the ability to then create a visual representation. Art also has many different facets like painting, drawing, dancing, sculpting, music, etc. These can be interpreted in many different ways, from who created it, to how and why it was created. When it comes to children engaging in artistic exploration, I believe this talent comes naturally. They express what they think and interpret it in the way they see fit onto paper or with whatever can be used at their disposal. Children are out of the box thinkers, which means they do not limit themselves and will utilize materials in ways that sometimes adults may not understand.


Time in the S.T.E.A.M isn't always science, building, or experimenting. There are moments when children just want to create art and be expressive. During these art/creative moments, I make sure to give the children the freedom to create what is on their mind, uninterrupted. It gives the children the chance to explore and understand the material they are using in the way they want to use it--uninfluenced. 


These children featured in these pictures came ready to create rainbows and rainbows are what they created. How they were going to do this was unknown by me. Their familiarity with the STEAM room from the previous year allowed them to gather the materials they wanted on their own. They each chose cardboard as a heavy backing, and also paper. They looked to the shelves and pointed out the materials they wanted, along with me suggesting other materials they could potentially use. 

Free to express and create these children created their own interpretation of a rainbow. They utilized the colors from the rainbow or colors they liked from a rainbow to put that idea on paper or cardboard as a collage. It wasn't just one visit of them coming into the STEAM room to complete these rainbows pieces, but multiple visits. Their choices were purposeful when creating these pieces, carefully coloring tiles a solid color or multicolored. Cutting pieces of construction paper and using them as small mosaic pieces. Stringing yarn around or recycled caps from markers or bottles. Materials that all had a purpose for their implementation. 

By their 3rd visit of creating more of their rainbow collage I brought out a crystal prism that refracts light when light shines through. It created small little rainbows scattered on the ceiling. We looked at one of the displays on the ceiling, observed what colors we could see, and named them off. One child was so inspired that they created their own little square of color just like what they had observed on the ceiling. 


From here we will see where this rainbow exploration will take the group next!