Gems from five and six year old's

Sometimes I wonder if it would be enough to show up places with some paper, a couple of pencils, glue sticks and glitter. You know do a version of gorilla art but it would be gorilla glitterarty. Adults, children no matter the age they all gravitate towards it. So much so that normally when I produce glitter I set up a glitter station to try and contain it and conserve some of the waste. But I did n't on Thursday in the seventh of eight after schools art class in Gorey Educate Together National School. The children were so into the freedom of using it I did n't want to cramp their style. I only introduced the glitter last week.
The theme this week was decorating their names, how to make typefaces (try explaining what a typeface is to a five year old!) bubble writing was as far as we got. Love showing the two pencils & an elastic band trick plus three ways to draw different size name with a crayon. We explored small tiny lettering and letters to fill A3 pages. The large one I decorated it with patterns plus took the opportunity to cut it out introducing positive and negative shapes to the artists - I just did n't use that terminology with them.

Happy 'H' and decorated names + fairies, artist, aged 5. 

How confident these letters are now, artist aged 5.

Fabulous 'F', artist aged 5. 

If children in arts education environments rely so much on particular materials what happens when you remove them? or what happens when you offer an interesting array of diverse and different materials?

Curiously uniform in layout, artist aged 6.

Trying it all, artist aged 6.

Some of the class were not seduced by glitter or the variety of art materials on display. But look at the different colour background and the fact that the letters are cut out, fantastic.

So what this is my way, artist aged 5.

Next week is the last class I've promised to put on a little exhibition for the artists and their parents. Should be a nice way to finish off the term.
This week I've had several enquiries about art classes so I'm thinking of running them from the studio again. Easter holidays are coming along I'm considering offering a couple of sessions like Fantastic Choco-tastic. Might be fun to have a dedicated studio day to teaching again. Adults in the morning, children and youths in the afternoons. I've some consultancy work to schedule in and then I'll figure that out. Let me know if you or your children are interested.
Note: I do not publish photographs of children's faces in my classes, workshops or events. This is part of Ballygarrett Art Studio and Creative Dynamix Child Protection Policy which is available on request.