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What's important to kindergarten children in Natick, Massachusetts?
In 2008, I painted murals with 4-5 year old children in two classes in a Montessori preschool. I met with each class once a week for an hour, for 5 weeks. These are the finished collaborative murals:
Left: Painting by Miss Lynn's class: Emma, Eliana, Ella, Thomas, Dylan, Will, Aaron, Bryce, and Mia.
Right: Painting by Miss Jen's class: Bernie, Ben L., Alex, Skylar, Ben C., Julia, Ambrey, Arjun, and Jonah.
Read about the process of making these murals below...
What happened on Day 1?
-We discussed what "collaboration" means.
-The children shared what's important to them...
"family" was mentioned the most. When one child said "toys,"
another student shared her opinion that "family is more important than money or toys."
-The children worked on sketching their ideas while I worked with a few at a time painting base colors on plywood.
One class voted to use light purple, the other voted on light green.
What's important to these children (from their brainstorm):
-family, mommy, brother, sister, daddy
-grandma's painting
-computer games, toys
-hotdogs
-friends, girlfriend
-the whole world, the Universe, the Earth, sun, moon, planets
-flowers, butterflies, birds
-skeletons, guts, blood
-kitten, horse, fish, dog
What happened on Day 2?
-We reviewed what they said they wanted in the mural last week.
-The children shared their sketches and described what they drew.
-We discussed ideas of how to use all of their ideas together.
-They drew outlines of their images on the plywood with vine charcoal that allowed for easy editing.
What are the images they decided to put in their murals?
Class One: |  |
Class Two: |
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What happened on Day 3?
-Line drawings were finished.
-They saw a demonstration of how to use the brushes and acrylic paint.
-The students started painting...doing outlines with dark colors.
What happened on Day 4?
-The students finished painting outlines.
-They starting filling in with color!
Can you tell they are having fun?
What happened on Day 5?
The students started by looking at their mural so far. They discussed what needed to be done to finish it...
what is missing?...what will you do? Then they got to work filling in more color. Some students chose to
mix a matte medium with their acylic colors to make transluscent layers.
In the process of getting ready, a fun practice is to get in a "button line"
to help eachother button their smocks.
One more day coming up to make the finishing touches...
What happened on Day 6 (the last day)?
The students again started by looking at their mural. They discussed what needed to be done to finish it.
For example, "What areas need to be filled in or improved?" Then they got to work making their finishing touches and signing
their names.
These two young ladies worked for a long time, and with great focus, to make sure their mural was finished
to their satisfaction.
Proud artists with their finished murals!
I went back one more time to put a clear coat of gloss medium on the dry murals and to
help one class sign their names. The murals found their home in the school and were hung for their families and friends to see!
Your feedback is welcome.
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contents property of Debra A. Griffin ©1981-2009 |