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Note: I do not publish photographs of children's faces in my classes, workshops or events.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.

After school art program: primary colours

The second of eight classes for Gorey Educate Together After Schools Art Program looks at how to mix colours. Children between the ages of five and six years don't want a formal approach they want something to prompt learning and curiosity. A colour wheel would just be the wrong approach.
Starting the class with a scribble session with two different coloured crayons and letting the children loosen up with a good scribble also introduced the idea of when colours layer over each other they change.
For the main part of the lesson I wanted them to explore primary colours, red, blue, yellow and how mixing them produced secondary colours, green, orange and purple.
So the three main colour were put out into clear plastic drinking cups and a brush placed in it. The children naturally gravitated towards their own age groups and shared paints. I cut white cartridge paper into A6 size (A4 cut evenly into four). Each of the children were given three sheets of A6 and one sheet of A3 white paper.
The instructions were take one small sheet and paint it completely with the first primary colour , then print the small sheet on to the big sheet. Take another small sheet and paint the next primary colour and the third primary colour until the children had painted three sheets and printed the three primary colours in layers.
An A3 sheet was used as both backing paper to paint on the left side and printing paper to print on the right side.
There are some very good examples I'll get some more photos of them. Of course being in the thick of the excitement I was focused on the children rather then documenting the work.

Love the texture on this painted, printed A6 sheet, artist 6 years.

It was great to see them explore colours through print making. The printing also hight lighted great textures.
I love that when you give children an idea or a task and once they grasp it if there is space for them they will take the idea and make it their own.
When I work with children I try to ensure that space is there for them to flourish, experiment, play, engage, test, watch others, learn, introduce the learning, test it further, admire the results.I think we all deserve space like that.
This proved to be an excellent way to get young children to explore mixing colours and I thought it useful to share. The first half of the lesson they learned the process and really looked at what they were doing, observing asking questions and exploring. Instead of the colours all ending up a mucky brown mix which can happen very quickly with this age group when mixing colours the layers kept vibrant and introduced variations of shades both on the prints and the printing page.
Look at these amazing rainbows painted first then the print taken off.