Process vs. Product

Sooner or later in the Early Childhood world, you’ll become familiar with some of the “buzz words.” Process vs. Product refers to “art” projects, or the lack thereof! What is art? What is the purpose of a craft? Some parents (and teachers) fall into the “trap” of thinking, if they don’t bring something home, they didn’t “do” anything that day!

Nothing could be further from the truth!
When I started my first Early Childhood classes in college in the 70’s, “process vs. product” was emphasized. What is it?
“Process” is exactly that. Children are given materials to explore, and use them in their own way. For example, given a mixture of shaving cream and glue, one child make sculpt a “snowstorm,” while another sees it as suds in a carwash. Another child tells the story of a puppy who got lost in the snow. As they talk, they experience the feel, the smell, observe what happens when they squeeze, flattened, design. Each child uses their own ideas. Adults have to (and should) say, “Tell me about it.
When you have a “product,” adults can usually tell what it is right away. Many times, the teacher has precut shapes, and the child is told where to put them to create something the teacher already has in mind. (“No, those are the ears, they should go HERE.”) Every child says, for example, “I made a rabbit.”

Process encourages and requires exploration, language development, individuality and creativity. A product requires children to follow directions.

I’m not crazy about products. They require lower level thinking skills on a child’s part. They CAN however, have a purpose when used occasionally.

We recently read Yertle the Turtle. Yertle the Turtle King demands a “turtle stack” so that he rule over all that he sees.
In our multiage classroom, I have children at varying abilities. For my Pre-K class, I wanted to reinforce creating and developing a pattern, (math skills) tracing and cutting straight and curved shapes, and following verbal directions in a large group.

Black, black, blue...

Another Pattern

Turtle with a pattern

A Six Turtle Stack!

My younger group need more basic scissor cutting skills. I wanted to focus on short, straight lines, pasting individual pieces and working together following directions in a small group. (It’s much easier to follow directions when it’s one to one, more difficult to focus when there are more people involved!)
Patterns were suggested, but not required.

gluing!

“Turtle, more turtles!”

Seuss inspired products with a purpose!

It was fascinating to see how the different ages approached the project. One child insisted the turtle didn’t need eyes, since it could see out of the squares on its shell! Another put the head directly on the turtle’s back, because “My head is on top, the turtle’s head needs to be on top, too!” So, the heads are topsy turvy, the legs are in many different positions, but we can now look at our turtle stack and retell the story of Yertle the Turtle. AND we’ve had more skill practice!