We Are Great Arters!

I eat my words of the previous post in which I proclaim teachers will be painting the children's set for the  graduation show...Today, the provocation I prepared in the late hours of yesterday afternoon really ignited the class.

Using their photographs they took at a trip to a botanic garden, I set up the tables with paint pallettes and special fabric paints.

I cleared a wall by shifting furniture (here in Hong Kong we have little space), and pinned a long piece of unbleached cotton fabric to the wall.

Above is an image of colours I helped the children prepare. Mixing colours to match a 'real' object has never been attempted by children in my class before. I assisted them a little by showing them how to paint a small brush stroke on the photograph to compare.

Above us a flower drawn by a child who always inteprets things differently!

The class was divided for about an hour and a half. The boys were on one side finishing a construction from the previous day (the truck made from milk cartons!) and building with blocks. The girls (bar one or two engaged in role play) were painting the fabric.

 Above is an example of a child who worked very hard to match the flowers to the actual colours.

I began to outline some of the faint flowers with black 'puff paint'. A child took the opportunity to begin sticking beads to the very sticky paint. The idea caught on fast and the art work quickly became a vibrant mixed media piece!