"What we want to see is the child in pursuit of
knowledge, not knowledge in pursuit of the child."
George Bernard Shaw

The atelier, or art studio, contains a wide range of media and materials for creative projects. The studio is constantly used in our school; children are given the opportunity to join an art project every day. The materials are always available for children to use and respect as they become inspired.

This space provides a place for children to develop skills and learn new techniques. It also provides a way for teachers to observe how each individual child learns. This time is a focal point for documentation of project work. Using voice recorders and cameras teachers capture important information that is later studied by a group of educators with the intension of having a deeper understand of each child’s learning style and to base future explorations.

Our studio is equipped with light tables, easels, various paints, a variety drawing utensils, items for collage and constructive work such as wire and recycled materials, and also natural materials such as clay, nuts, leaves, and feathers.

Here, we provide materials, time, expressive freedom, and technical assistance in abundance for painting, collage, and modeling with clay. Kids practice drawing from their imaginations and from life. They explore construction with paper and useful junk, with wood, with a multiplicity of building sets that connect and respond in different ways, and with wooden unit blocks that have wonderful mathematical properties of symmetry, shape and balance. Children design with natural and recycled materials. At the light table and on the overhead projector, they begin to understand the proprieties of light, shadow, reflections, transparency and color.