" ArtHaus is a small unique non profit organization dedicated to enhancing Visual Arts education in Volusia County. It is a creative outlet that helps artists of all ages learn and grow. It affirms the value of the Visual Arts' ability to improve the quality of life through art forms that speak to us at every level, every day." ( x )
This week, I am working alongside the instructor, Ms. Nathan, and another volunteer, Autumn. The focus for the week is "Trees, Leaves, and Me." Ms. Nathan is responsible for the topic of study, and seems like a pretty nice lady.
When I got there this morning, I helped her with the set up, while we talked over the lesson plan for the day. Her approach is pretty broad, with a general idea of what we're going to do, and then just let the chips fall where they may. I more or less like this approach, especially with children and art.
The first group was the young group, which children ranging from maybe 6 - 8. Once the kids were all in their seats, she passed around a few items, while talking about how when an artist wakes up, they're immediately looking at the world around them, looking for new and exciting things; wonderful things. She passed around a turkey feather, a toy zebra, and this glass object she found at a yard sale. We then made name tags out of Magnolia leaves, which was kind of nifty. Then they all sat down to draw some "amazing things" that they themselves had seen that morning. Up to this point, the room had been oddly silent, so I started to step in and small talk with a few of the kids as they drew, using this opportunity to get to know their names better (match it with the child) while talking to them about their drawings. This was fun for me as I started to see the kids personalities a little more here, once they were engaged in conversation.
After a little while, we took the kids outside to get our texture on. They took a big sheet of paper, some crayons, and went to town on the tree stump outside, rubbing through the sheet with the crayon in order to bring out the texture on the page. They mixed colors, standing around the trunk, but thats when one of the girls spotted a hornet and apparently this was calls for abandoning ship. We went back inside where the kids all used the back of the Magnolia leaves instead.
A snack time was worked into this as well, everyone washing their hands and then heading to another room with tables and chairs to dine on a well balanced diet of goldfish and water. Talked to more of the kids here, just about random things, crazy things.
After that, some painting of leaves and some more drawing and pretty soon, parents were arriving to pick them up!
I ran home for lunch since I forgot to pack anything (ahur) but it wasn't a huge deal since I live less than 10 minutes away.
1 pm, and its time for the older group. Its funny how much of a difference one year can make in a childs abilities to sit calmly, but this group was much more relaxed and laid back than the first group. Also a little bit smaller. I think there were 8 in the first group, and 6 in the second. This group ranged from 10 year olds to 12.
Much of this group went the same way: amazing things in the morning, name tags, and you draw some amazing things you have seen. After that, we head outside, where the kids got a little more creative with their texture resources, using the wall, various trees, the concrete, etc.
This group used paint to bring out images in the texture drawings however, and I started talking to them about various artist who used a lot of texture in their paintings, randomly quizzing them on famous painters and their paint styles/techniques.
Snack time, then we came back and made collages of trees. One girl went all mosaic style with hers, which was pretty interesting to see, although I couldn't imagine going at that with a glue stick as my resource personally, so bravo to her.
I ended up doodling Lil Red on the paper spread across the table, along with a big blue wolf. Also a little bit of Game of Thrones doodling, but I halted that pretty quickly. I forgot to take a picture so i'll have to snap one tomorrow.
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| Lil Red Riding Hood |
Over all today was really fun. Are there some things I would do differently if I was the one in charge? Certainly. However I am not calling the shots, I am here to assist and help the children be creative~ Which I certainly plan on doing!
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