The lesson aka the context
This is a lesson that I put together for last year’s Shapes in October series. This year I decided to recycle it during our Autumn Camp and the Yellow Day. The basic version of it is super simple and it involves making a collage of the van Gogh Starry Night background and stickers or drawings. You can read about it here. However, my colleague, miss Victoria, decided to upgrade the lesson and instead of the ready-made background, she asked her preschoolers to paint the the background first and then decorate it with stickers and drawings.
I went to their classroom during the break to check how the pictures have turned out and to take photos and I was amazed. Especially with this one. It did stand out because it used mixed media but not the stickers and the sky was like none other.
A little bit later in the day, one of the younger students wandered into my classroom to chat. She saw the collage my group made and shouted: ‘We made those, too!’ I showed her the photos I took and we finally identified hers. I was surprised and I was not surprised at all!
The student aka the artist
Sasha is seven and she is in year 1 of primary. She attended my Art Explorers last year regularly and she comes every week this year, too. She is one of my really creative students. On some days, she is reluctant to get started, on some others she takes her time but then takes off and on some other days, she just dives in at the deep end and creates as crazy. She is also the student who, most frequently, snatches her work as soon as we say ‘Good-bye’ and I am lucky to take a photo. I love it.
Whenever she starts to create, however, it is always of the highest standard, with a fresh look and a new angle.
The work and the creative process
Because it was miss Victoria’s lesson (according to my lesson plan), I did not have a chance to see the artist in action but because it was the autumn camp, we had more time and me and Miss Artist had a very interesting conversation discussing her painting.
First of all, I was surprised with the technique that Sasha decided to use and the results that she arrived at because it was so absolutely different from what all the other children created. This is when Sasha explained that ‘I did what you taught us last year’, namely painting water on water (a technique that we experimented with last October and somehow she remember, mind blown!). This is how she got the beautiful background, the sky and the stars that blend into each other.
Sasha also explained that, looking at what her classmates were doing, she decided to add the drawings, the houses and the umbrellas, all that instead of using the stickers, showing that she has a lot of potential to become an independent artist capable of making her own creative decisions.
The teacher in awe
I guess every teacher is at the risk of getting emotional and touch whenever we can see that our work bears fruit and that our students learn and remember something that we are trying to teach them. I know I do.
That is why this day and this conversation were so important, because, in a way, this painting is the outcome of the time in the classroom. Sasha demonstrated that she remembered how to use a specific technique she learnt from me and she also showed that she picked up on the values that I am trying to promote in class such as keeping your eyes open, allowing yourself to be inspired by your teacher or peers, the curiosity and the open-mindedness that leads to experimentation and new outcomes…
I was a very happy teacher that day.
Happy teaching!