Creative Arts: a collection of pictures and ideas

Creative Arts: a collection of pictures and ideas

Nowadays Creative arts is my ‘wind-down’ hour, which is definitely not what I expected it to be when starting teaching. I will never forget the first Creative Arts lesson where I had no idea how enthusiastic the kids can be! But after a few lessons I finally started to learn and two top-tips will always stay with me: 1. Always prepare the classroom before the kids come in, 2. Spread all materials in equal piles across the classroom. And thinking about it, I should add a third top-tip: keep calm and carry on!  These 3 measures have caused creative arts to be incredibly entertaining and the whole class seems to forget about all worries.

After reading a book about Wangari Maathai, the kids in standard 5 at Precious just could not forget about this incredible woman. Each morning the kids would come to me with new questions: does she have children? Do people in the Netherlands (my home country) know who she is? Did people really call her Mama Miti? So I decided: let’s spend a bit more time talking and thinking about the incredible work of this amazing woman.

Wangari Maathai, an environmental and political activist, was the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace prize in 2004 for her contribution to sustainable development, democracy and peace. So what better way to make a tribute to Mama Miti than by making a collage. After spending an evening cutting out pictures of trees, landscapes, people and materials (all recyclable!), I prepared the classroom to facilitate for 5 groups. The kids stormed in but soon completely emerged in their task: to make the best collage. The winning group’s collage would be presented on the Precious wall of honour as ‘Best Art’ of the month!

Pupils from Standard 5.
Very proud their art work was choosen to be displayed on the Pride Wall 

It was so hard to choose the best one when they were all finished after 3 Creative Arts lessons. So in the end we choose 2 to go up on the ‘Wall of Honour’ and now each day all students can draw inspiration from both the artistic work of standard 5 and the work done by Wangari Maathai!

Madam Attie with Standard 5 PVCC

By Volunteer Attie Feitmsa

Creative Arts: a collection of pictures and ideas