Creativity is everything, and children have it expressed so much. Anytime I give them a topic, they pour out all of their imagination into their artworks that I am always blown away by the enthusiasm they have, which makes it even better.
October is the month of Halloween, so I challenged students to do different laboratories. From the building of coffins, where characters of any kind come out, to little monster sculptures. From giant paintings to illustrating scary stories in groups. From big, architectural studies of haunted houses to their realizations in clay. They worked a lot to craft all these laboratories.
This is what it means to be creative. The process of making a coffin involves measuring, drawing, illustrating, painting, and a lot of patience since the students must come up with a way in which the monster/character comes out. They had fun doing it, and they challenged themselves also on the painting part: with small brushes, they did the details very well. Some even told me they were not good at painting, yet they took the challenge and did great.
Other students once painted on huge papers some pumpkins since it’s the season. They let their reality or fantasy, alone or in couple, go free into those papers, and the results are stunning. We also followed step-by-step research on how to draw a polar bear: it was not easy, but the satisfaction at the end was great. They learned a new way of drawing: using geometrical shapes to create animal bodies. The transformation let them realize that drawing real things could be difficult but not impossible.
Sixth graders experimented, alone or in a group, on how to build a haunted house with clay. They studied the best way to make it solid and ensure that the roof does not crush the entire house. It is a good activity to understand certain passages and have a good structure that does not fall. Also, it was good working in groups to have a different point of view and suggestions on how to make the best house.
First graders looked at a video about Mexicans who celebrate Halloween differently. It is good to know and appreciate different cultures and different habits. It’s a good method for inspiring art and generates an open mind in the child. On that trail, students used clay to form one skull and another sculpture of their choice. In Mexico, the skull face paint represents the ancestors who passed on. We also did face painting with this class to celebrate the Mexican way of celebrating Halloween, but they were free to paint something different.
Throughout the month, I made my students use the colored baking clay to create monsters or cute animals as a fun activity but also it is a good way to understand some helpful tips in sculpting, which is important for future artworks: how to attach parts together, how to create details, how to combine colors even if it’s clay. They used their hands to create. Since we are in a very technology-centered society, I believe that we are losing the skills of using our hands to build things, and it is so important for me that they still consider using clay as part of a relaxing practice. I hope they do not lose their ability to create art using their hands. Additionally, it gives them another perspective of things in a three-dimensional reality.
