ABSTRACT
This chapter rearticulates understandings of materials - charcoal - to formulate what happens when we think with materials and apply them to early childhood development and classrooms. It considers moments of encounter where finger meets charcoal, charcoal meets skin, blackness meets mirror, and something unexpected and generative takes place. Charcoal is intensely hospitable to encounters with others. It marks, spreads, covers, envelops, draws in. As it does this, it announces its presence and compels a response. It is difficult to remain neutral to charcoal and unaffected by it. Such hospitality is imbued with the act of listening. Being hospitable comes with the hope of being disoriented, of not being able to make sense. It is rupture: moments of problem posing. Meandering, inquisitive lines go far, while short strokes pressed hard into the paper leave black crumbs. As the children draw, the charcoal travels, spreading over the paper and covering fingers and hands.
