Painting thoughts…

This picture pretty much resumes the last 2 weeks where we have been doing quite a lot of drawing and painting with and around the mobile school. Beyond the usual footy sessions and team games where kids learn to better know and trust each other through play, we have indeed been looking at the right to express ourselves freely through art and feel comfortable with it.

This week we actually chose to strip down the mobile school of its external laminas to provide the kids with large board spaces for them to do just that: express yourself! Miguel, a local artist who was with us last November (Freedom at the tip of a finger) and whose finger technique enables kids, of all ages, realize they each have the potential to be creative, was back with us for a little refresher.

This time, with the mobile school as additional support, he showed the kids a few new tips with and without the finger and later invited them to think about what it was they really wanted, what would make them feel good at that precise moment in time. He invited the kids to start out their brainstorm on the school but also offered small cartulinas to those who felt like testing out the finger technique first.

Thanks to a selection of chalks, all sorts emerged out of the escuelita´s boards, some opted for pretty landscapes with smiling flowers and welcoming houses, imagined tasty banana splits, depicted colourful skies with delicate butterflies whilst others preferred ¨sensing¨ what was around them and, and as you can see, inspired themselves for example in the Convento which majestically overlooks the Plaza.

Through these activities this week, the rapport with the escuelita was entirely different, it was no longer a place to look for challenging and competitive games but actually became a place where the kids could intimately share their visions of the moment…actually, a great space for us to read. A couple of us, along with Miguel, went around and invited the kids to share what it was they had painted and what it meant to them. Once the kids were comfortable with their creations, Miguel was waiting for them with a large fabric for them to express their artistic selves, with each having a little dedicated space to unravel their thoughts…

Beyond these activities, we have had over the past 2 weeks the more serious kids who prefer carrying on with their math exercises and testing one another through more literacy- based games…they return at each session, asking for more of the same, each time awaiting a new colour (remember, green being the easiest and red the hardest!) to challenging themselves further. As you know, we have been a little shy with our sessions lately, last week we have had to cancel again as it poured and another ¨grippe¨ stranded a few of us to bed. The expectations for us to show up have consequently built up a little recently, and the kids have been incredibly keen and excited to see the school and biblioteca ambulante, with more demands on what we have to offer be it games, books, activities and mobile school laminas: all a step closer to Cuentamelo Todo being, as it should be, led by our children…

Next week, as we kick off the sunny season (por fin!), we will be looking again at how we can express ourselves through theatre…Henry and Santi along with the other Cefistas will be challenging them in the co-creation of a little play desde la escuelita: beyond encouraging the kids to resort to and trust the imaginative spaces within them, the idea is also for them, through this recreational activity, to build something of their own together and have fun in doing so.