International Bilingual School - End of Year Gallery Show

"Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up."
Pablo Picasso 

I teach English at a bilingual school for French children. 
 'Art and Craft' is a program I have created ensuring the children will learn through creation, 
enabling them to freely absorb and gain knowledge without strain.  
Truly inspired by the immense imagination of children, their individuality and originality is encouraged,
 expressed and celebrated.  I believe this concept of teaching can be very effective and beneficial for children in many ways.    

For the end of the year project, each class learned about a different artist and created an imitation piece. 
 I chose three well known artists - Pablo Picasso, Jackson Pollock and Andy Warhol.

 The children learned about the artist by reading,
 ( the series ‘Getting To Know The Worlds Greatest Artists Written and Illustrated by Mike Venezia)
discussing and doing several activities in relation to the artist and his artwork. 
 Each student was then to create their own personal an artwork to imitate the artist’s style. 

Jackson Pollock

For Jackson Pollock, a very exciting but messy activity, Marble Painting was assigned to the middle group. 
We had spent a few lessons reading about Pollack and looking at his paintings.  We talked about the colors and how Pollock painted, creating form without form.  We also talked about different colors representing different emotions and after an effective activity to illustrate this, the children were ready to create their own paintings. The children chose the colors for their paintings and using different sized marbles they created their work.  They listed and numbered their selected colors 1 to 4.  Starting with color number one, the children would paint until I announced it was time to move on to color number two and so on.  After the painting was finished, the children were told they needed to choose a title for their painting, something that represented their work.  Some of the students seemed to know right away what their paintings should be called and I helped them spell the words they did not know.  They were also asked why they chose that particular title. 
 I was excited and proud of their creativity in choosing their titles - some of my favorites,
 'House of the Zebra', 'Map of Treasures' and 'Eagle of Fire'.  

Pablo Picasso

I assigned Picasso to the youngest class. The children were taught the words for parts of the face - eyes, nose, mouth, ears and did activites to indentify the parts of the face.  The students colored a self portrait of Picasso and created their own (normal) self portrait.  We then looked and talked about the way Picasso’s faces are not like normal faces.  
We talked about how the parts of the face are arranged differently and include frontal and side views within the same face and also how it is possible to have multiple features, for example, three eyes, two mouths and many different colors.   
The students then created their Picasso face keeping these things in mind.
One on one, I talked to the students about their Picasso creation.   We talked about the colors and asked, How many eyes did their Picasso face have? How many ears? ect.  They then completed a worksheet to accompany their painting which required them to write the new words they learned.  My Picasso Face has …..two eyes, four ears ect.  

Andy Warhol

I chose Warhol for the oldest group hoping some of them would recognize the artist.  
Pop Art is a fun subject and I knew Warhol’s art would be more interesting for their age group. 
We spent a lot of time reading the book aloud in the classroom.  The main focus was reading comprehension, prounouciation and new vocabulary. The students spent time understanding new words and creating sentences about what they learned.
We talked about the idea of a self-portrait and about the overall style, colors and repeatiton in Warhol’s art. I took a photograph of each student and printed four copies of each.  The students were to trace important features in black marker and to color all four portraits exactly the same.  They were to choose bright colors that Andy Warhol would have liked to use.   

All of the children really enjoyed creating their special artwork to hang on the wall.  We talked about whether or not they liked the artists work, touching slightly on the very complex subject of ‘Is it Art’?

I have always loved the art of children and it gave me great pleasure to see my students'
 finished artwork on the walls for the final day of school.
 However, in the end, it is not about the art.  
It is about the children learning in English without strain through their own creativity and thoughts.

The students are discovering new words and gaining a better understanding by following directions in English.  By constantly hearing their teacher speak the language, they are learning without obvious effort.  Children are like sponges, continuously absorbing, they are learning the sense, patterns and pronunciation of the language without having to deliberately study it. 
 With this approach, there is no force, less anxiety and therefore, a different reaction to learning generally resulting in a better outcome as each child simultaneously learns independently and progressively with the group.

Throughout this past year, I have enjoyed witnessing my students discover knowledge through vision and originality.
  It is exciting to teach children a language through a subject matter and method I am passionate about.

Doesn't their artwork look great!?!