At art class today, the children were asked to make bugs out of a variety of construction paper shapes. They did pretty well with it, and the resulting mural is just lovely. I hope the art teacher puts it up in the hall near our classroom so we can enjoy it.
Monkey struggled with it, without ever knowing he was struggling. He found a circle for his “ladybug,” then started trying to figure out how to put legs on it. He wasn’t really sure what to do with the glue stick, so I showed him how to put a stripe of glue along one side, and then put the little legs on top of that, sticking off the body. Then I went to help other children.
While I was gone, Monkey got some legs stuck to his fingers, instead of to the bug. When he tried to get the legs off his hand and onto the paper, he got more glue stick goo on his fingers. He added more glue to the body of the bug. Finally he gave up on the legs and just smeared glue on his hands.
By the time I got back, the bug was covered in glue stick goo, had two legs, and Monkey was crowing, “Look! Sticky!” and holding up his hands for my inspection.
I sent Monkey to the sink to wash hands. Then we worked on the legs together.
“How many legs do you have so far?” I asked.
Monkey looked blank.
“Let’s count,” I said. “One….”
Monkey didn’t respond with “two.” He just grinned at me happily.
“What number comes after one? One, …..”
Nope. No “two.” Monkey cannot count to two.
But he sure had fun with the glue.
Elbows, knees, dreams 