The Trees Around Us

After making notes and drawings about the trees that surrounds the garden, all individual drawings were then transferred to a canvas and were painted in black as part of our study about shadows. Then, red and gold trimmings were added to add life to the art piece. 15 trees from 15 budding artists!

Sea Inspired

Simple yet unbelievably creative. As we spoke about things we do at the beach, the children enumerated a number of ideas and then put those ideas by painting them on a plastic sheet. We hang the end product by the window so as when light passes through, the beauty of the sea shines upon us each day. Now I am beach dreaming... zzzzzzzz

Let Them Be

 I had this vision of perfect squares lined up in different sizes and I wanted the children to see what was inside my mind. I started with one really neat square and then asked the children to visit the table as part of choice time. When I came back to see what had transpired with my ten minutes absence. I saw the children started drawing different sizes of squares and filling them up with different colours.

I thought that the art piece will be a disaster but later turned out to be one of the most beautiful piece ever produced in my class of fours and fives. I was so proud of the children and this art piece served as a reminder that I am a mere facilitator in class, and that I am always willing to learn.

Rocks and Roll

Our project on the environment brought us to a walk around the school and one of the students took great interest in looking at the pebbles used as garden decor. He went back to class and started to make circles one beside each other until he finished half of the paper with an intricate design of round pebbles. I used then the representation to create an art piece that showcased lines, shapes and colours and a reminder of one's child wonderful walk, his dialogue with nature.

Book Inspired

Chika-Chika Boom Boom is a favourite among children preschool aged. When one of our dear students was to leave school to go back to his home country, we decided to create an art work that will make him remember his school days at our school, thus the book inspired piece.

The inspiration for creating art comes in many forms and in this case, a book written by Bill Martin Jr.,John Archambault, and Lois Ehlert. 

Dinosaur Prints

When we discussed about time periods, old and present, the subject of dinosaurs popped up and we decided to create an art using print as our main technique. We talked about scales, perspective and overall arrangement of different items so as to create a focal point and balance. Viola!, another great art piece for that year.

Warm and Cool Colours

Warm Colours

Cool Colours

A study where two colours were contrasted with each other showing red as fierce, brave, fiery, aggressive, mad, energetic, and alive while blue being calm, peaceful, soothing, patient, and a symbol of growth. The two pieces were lovingly put together by glue using paper and home made putty as focal points. 

The Pond (A Project Example)

When the children decided to make a pond in the school's garden, an art piece that showed their different ideas was conceived before transplanting them into a real pond. Though the pond didn't materialize for safety reasons, the installation served as a reminder of their year long study about living things in the water.

(This art piece fetched five thousand baht during our annual art auction.)

What a Wonderful World (A Project Example)

Another example of how music creates art is by studying the words of a song and giving it life. The children chose the materials to be used and gave their ideas on how to represent the verses using an image, or a certain colour, or the elements of feelings and moods. 

[ Lyrics from: http://www.lyricsfreak.com/l/louis+armstrong/what+a+wonderful+world_20085347.html ]

I see trees of green........ red roses too 

I see em bloom..... for me and for you 

And I think to myself.... what a wonderful world. 

I see skies of blue..... clouds of white 

Bright blessed days....dark sacred nights 

And I think to myself .....what a wonderful world. 

The colors of a rainbow.....so pretty ..in the sky 

Are also on the faces.....of people ..going by 

I see friends shaking hands.....sayin.. how do you do 

They're really sayin......I love you. 

I hear babies cry...... I watch them grow 

They'll learn much more.....than I'll never know 

And I think to myself .....what a wonderful world.

Fantabulous!

My School (A Project Example)

One successful lesson of representing children's experiences came in full circle when we talked about themselves, their family and their immediate surroundings. When the class decided to create an environment where they could all be together in one community with the school as the main entity, a structural representation of that community became the end product of a long process of thoughts, ideas, and suggestions. 

Our school, surrounded by the different houses of the children.

A bird's eye view of the school

One of the four corners of the school's walls

The playground and the grass area inside the school

Some of the houses with their gardens and cars

Another bird's eye of the school

Children took part in building their own homes and then participated eagerly in making the school house complete with trees and garden that surrounds it. It was an exciting project, elaborate but fun!

Project Work

This month of September, I will be posting entries all related to project work and what I have done, along with my assistants and students, through the years. A short description on how project works -

" ... successful projects are those that generate a sufficient amount of interest and uncertainty to provoke children's creative thinking and problem-solving and are open to different avenues of exploration."  (Wikipedia)