The Language of Lines
Young Children, July 1998
Cheryl Breig-Allen, Janet Hill, Lori Geismar-Ryan
and Louise Boyd Cadwell
We have learned from the early childhood programs of Reggio Emilia, Italy, that openness to children’s ideas, careful observation, use of multiple languages, and strong collaboration among adults and children all create many possibilities for in-depth investigation. Adults who closely observe and carefully listen to children can better understand what they wonder about, care about, and think about. Building on these observations in an organized and thoughtful way, as well as wondering together about the world, often results in amazing experiences for children, expressed in 100 languages or more.
As educators of very young children in the Clayton Schools’ Family Center, we work with colleagues at The College School and St. Michael School. With the support of Amelia Gambetti—Reggio’s liaison to schools in the United States—the three St. Louis schools have made significant progress adapting principles and practices inspired by Reggio Emilia. Together we are learning to follow children’s discoveries and to build on them.
Two- and three-year-old children are keen observers of their surroundings. Early in the school year, observations of the children in our class gave us an idea. When Daniel noticed the tracks he left as he drove through the water on the playground and called them “lines,” we invited other children to notice lines in their world. Little did we know that this would lead us into a deep investigation of lines in the environment. Since lines are everywhere in a child’s world, we felt confident that all children could become involved and experience an essential element of life and learning. Perceiving this as valuable curriculum for young children, we were optimistic that line experiences would support learning and development. We expected that as children engaged in play with lines, they would develop the dispositions and abilities to invest deeply, observe carefully, and collaborate with others.
To provoke extended thinking about lines, we invited the children to make lines with as many materials as possible. As the experience unfolded, the children painted, drew, constructed, and continued to observe lines in their natural environment.
Making tracks
Daniel noticed that when he drove his pedal car through the water, he left tracks on the dry pavement. He seemed intrigued and rode through the puddle many times. He switched to the red bike and checked to see if it, too, would make tracks. It did. Daniel was fascinated; he wasn’t sure what made the tracks.
After watching this for some time, Daniel’s teacher, Cheryl, asked him what he was doing. He told her he was making “lines.”
Daniel was joined by Jennifer and Steven on the big bikes and Tommy on the big wheels. Soon there were tracks all over the playground. Some of the other children, watching, seemed keenly interested in what was going on.
Back in the classroom, Daniel drew our attention to the tracks he was making with some dirt caught in the wheels of a cement truck. We realized we could offer other inside opportunities to make tracks.
Painting tracks
We decided to revisit the outside track-making by inviting the children to play with small, wheeled toys and paint on paper. We waited to see what would happen:
Stellie went back and forth on the same tracks, trying different cars.
Patricia went back and forth, over and over, in all directions covering the paper with paint.
Jennifer experimented both with and without paint on the wheels of her vehicle.
Daniel was very precise as he slowly and carefully used different vehicles to make lines with the paint. Then, with a little paint on his finger, he explained, “I’m painting lines.”
Drawing lines
To offer other possibilities for line-making, we introduced thick black markers, charcoal pencils, black crayons, and a large sheet of white paper. We watched to see what the children would do:
Daniel: “I’m going to do some drawing.” (He made curvy lines and long straight lines.)
Michael: “Cheryl, look, tiny little lines.”
Alexander: “Big ones.”
Daniel: “I’ll make thunder and some rain.” (To Margaret, pushing a little bit of the charcoal that had broken off) “You can push this.”
Margaret: (Noticing that charcoal pencils make thin lines and smudge easily)
“You can push harder with your hand. Look, my picture turned black.”
Chelsea worked by herself for a long time. She made squiggly lines and told a story to go with her drawing. “These look like Mommy and Daddy mountains.”
Seeing cloud lines
One morning when we went outside Patricia noticed that the sky was filled with lines (contrails). She shouted, “Look, lines!”
It was incredible that Patricia should make such a major connection considering that the first time the children discovered lines outside, the tracks were on the ground. Now these lines were high in the sky.
Cheryl wanted to get the children’s hypotheses concerning the origin of the lines. She asked, “How do you think those lines got up in the sky?”
Daniel: “Maybe a big thing did it”
Tommy: “They’re big ones. I think they came by themselves.”
Steven: “Wow! Maybe the sun made them.”
Emily: “Maybe the trees made it with their leaves.”
As the lines began to dissipate, Cheryl followed up with the question, “What’s happening to the lines?”
Tommy: “They’re gone way, away.”
Jennifer: “Because it rained in the night.”
Margaret: “What happened—what happened to those lines?”
Emily: “Cheryl, what could have happened to those lines?”
Michael: “I can’t find them.”
Stellie: “They went sleepy.”
Clearly, children have rich ideas. But to express them, they need to know that we are interested. Though it has been difficult, we have learned over time to trust the process of asking open-ended questions and to listen seriously to and value young children’s theories.
Playing lines
In the block area of the classroom, the children were playing with wooden rods on the platform. To extend the idea of building long lines from short pieces, we set out yarn and Cuisenaire rods on the floor. The children eagerly began to play with the new materials.
Jennifer: (Lining up rods lengthwise, next to each other) “I’m making a sidewalk and a street.”
Chelsea joined in. She added a few pieces to the sidewalk, then held up two blocks and made them “dance” along the walk.
Patricia, Tommy, and Jennifer hung long pieces of yarn over the landing of the loft. Cheryl went over hoping to capture some dialogue concerning their dramatic play. She expected to hear about fishing so was surprised when Tommy reported that they were just “playing lines.”
Like “cloud lines,” playing lines struck us as significant. During the entire line investigation we made an active choice not to overuse the word line because we wanted to see if the children would make connections themselves. Because the children observed lines in their environment and named lines themselves, we began to see their rich potential as researchers who understood the qualities, properties, and possibilities of line.
Connecting lines
For another related experience, we shredded paper into thin strips and filled the sensory table with them. After several weeks of cleaning up the shredded paper mess and seeing no more line connections, we were ready to discontinue this activity.
One morning during cleanup time, just as Cheryl was putting the lid on the sensory table, Alexander picked up a strip of shredded paper from the floor. He showed it to Cheryl.
Cheryl: “What should we do with it?”
Alexander: “I’ll just put the line up there.” He walked to the wall and tried to get it to stick.
Sean: (Watching) “We need tape.”
Picking up a wooden rod, Sean added it to the line that Alexander taped. Together they added more paper strips and rods.
To extend this new idea of making lines on the wall, we provided poster-board backing and other new materials (straws, pipe cleaners, pegs, toothpicks, Popsicle sticks, metallic shredded paper).
Daniel began to work with the rods, adding many to the one previously taped up. He was very precise in lining them up end to end, adjusting them ever so slightly when they were out of alignment.
Daniel: (Stepping back) “It’s like the arch.” Taking a handful of yellow straws from the table, he put the straws together very carefully with pieces of tape. “A big yellow line.”
Stellie and Tommy started extending the line with pipe cleaners.
Stellie: “They’re kind of wiggly.”
Tommy: (Adding a green pipe cleaner to the wiggly line) “It’s my favorite.”
Patricia: (Interested in how the pipe cleaners and paper could be bent and adding an orange pipe cleaner) “Lots of loops.”
Tommy: (Adding a purple pipe cleaner) “Look. We can make it long, long, long.” (Stepping back to watch his friends add to the lines) “We’re making them bigger and bigger.”
The children continued to add bits and pieces to the poster board and finally articulated a meaningful collaborative piece, now known as the Line Board. They truly had made the connection that little lines can make bigger lines and that there are all kinds of things with which to make lines.
Conclusion
This story of the line project communicates how very young children’s initial observations and ongoing discoveries can inspire experiences of the other people in their lives. Following the children’s lead, we immersed ourselves in as many possibilities related to line as we could. We put structures in place for the children to build upon. They continually made connections among lines on the playground, lines in the classroom, and lines in the sky. We all learned that lines are a big part of our lives.
Like researchers and explorers, we—children and teachers—developed new powers of observation and uncovered emerging understandings, not only about lines but also about learning. Together, we discovered the extraordinary in our everyday experience.
For further reading
Cadwell, L.B. 1997. Bringing Reggio Emilia home: An innovative approach to early childhood education. New York: Teachers College Press.
Edwards, C.,L. Gandini, & G. Forman, eds. 1993. The hundred languages of children: The Reggio Emilia approach to early childhood education. Norwood, NJ: Ablex
Edwards, C.,L. Gandini, & G. Forman, eds. 1998. The hundred languages of children: The Reggio Emilia approach—Advanced reflections. Greenwich, CT: Ablex.
Gandini, L. 1993. Fundamentals of the Reggio Emilia approach to early childhood education. Young Children 49 (1): 4-8.
Reggio children. 1995. The fountains. Reggio Emilia, Italy.
Reggio children. 1995. A journey into the rights of children. Reggio Emilia, Italy.
Reggio children. 1995. Tenderness. Reggio Emilia, Italy.
Reggio children. 1996. The little ones of silent movies. Reggio Emilia, Italy.