Club de Arte 8: Semana Santa Huevos Rodantes!

SPECIAL ONE-OFF THEME FOR WEEK 8: Easter-egg rolling!

IDEA AND AIMS:  To celebrate Easter with the children and give them an opportunity to create something which is for themselves - two hard-boiled eggs, one to compete in the Art Club egg-rolling competition and both to eat or take home afterwards, as they like. 

Egg-rollling instructions and examples

PROCESS:

1. Facilitators pre-prepare 2 x hard-boiled eggs per child and cut up an egg box so that the kids have somewhere to balance their eggs while painting.

2.  Kids decorate the eggs with any patterns and designs that they like, using paint and glitter.

3. Everybody: set up a ramp in an outside space and one-by-one roll one egg down the ramp.  The egg that goes the furthest wins a prize of extra refrigerio biscuits ('refrigerio' = break snack).

4. Everyone can eat their eggs, or take them home as they like.

MATERIALS: 2 x hard boiled eggs per child, sections of egg boxes, paint, paintbrushes, palettes, bowls, glitter, ramp.

MEET THE EGGS!:

Socio Vivienda on Monday afternoon (above 2 photos): The kids rolled their eggs down the playground slide :-)

Sergio Toral on Wednesday afternoon(above 2 photos): We set the egg-rolling ramp up against a school desk in the playground. :-)

Nueva Prosperina on Thursday afternoon (above 2 photos): We set the egg-rolling ramp up against a trestle in the playground. 

Happy Easter everyone! 

:-)

Club de Arte 7: "Mi Escalera, Nuestro Parque"

Nueva Prosperina: individual gardens, complete with person, animal, plants and step-ladders, ready to join together into the community park.

ONGOING THEME: Our Art Club Community

WEEK 7: My Step-Ladder, Our Park

IDEA AND AIMS:  As the finale to our ongoing community park project, each child made a little step-ladder (or two) to add to their gardens along with their people and animal puppets, the idea being to join all the gardens together, with the step-ladders forming links between the neighbouring gardens, creating a group park.  The original idea was to make bridges, but because of space limitations we decided on step-ladders that the puppets can use to climb up to cross over into their neighbours gardens.

We asked the children to decorate the rungs of their ladders with values that are important for them in their community of Art Club, using the following list of suggested words as a prompt:

Jonny and my example step-ladders (left), decorated with the values that are important to us within the Art Club community, chosen from the list of suggested values (right): 

Jonny: family, friends, friendship, peace

Kim: Friendship, generosity, respect

PROCESS OF MAKING THE STEP-LADDERS:

1. Take 2 lollypop sticks to be the two upright sides of the step-ladder and paint them.

2. Take 2 other lollypop sticks and break them in half.  Use them to create the rungs of the ladder by attaching them evenly spaced to the first two sticks with silicone.

3. Choose the values that are important to you within your community and paint these onto your ladder's rungs - use the list of suggestions if you'd like inspiration.

4. Add any extra decorations you would like with Fomex and paint (e.g. leaves, hearts etc)

MATERIALS: lollypop sticks, silicone, Fomex, scissors, paint, paintbrushes, palettes, bowls,  list of suggested words, gardens and people and animal puppets from previous sessions

TO COMPLETE THE COMMUNITY'S PEACE GARDEN:

Instructions for 'Our Park' (l) and Jonny and my examples (r)

1. Take your puppet...

2. …and their animal friend...

3. …and add them both to your garden.


4. Place your step-ladder in the garden to allow them to visit your friends puppets in neighbouring gardens.

5. Make sure everything is stuck down in place as you'd like it….

6. …and finally add your completed garden to those of your friends to create... 

...OUR GROUP PARK!

:-)

International Day for Street Children, 12th April 2014

"If a society values its children it must appreciate their parents."

Street intervention with our workmates at Fundación Junto Con Los Niños - JUCONI on Friday 11th April, the International Day for Street Children, the following day Saturday 12th April.  We took banners, placards and whistles onto the streets to raise awareness about street-working children in Guayaquil.  There are so many children working in the streets here that is a completely 'normal' sight, and these events are to remind locals of the child's right to education and a playful childhood.  

The best part of the morning was painting faces with some of the JUCONI kids that turned up - and having attracted the attention of some older street vendors, being gifted grapes ad soya milk in exchange for the face-painting that the girls and I did in return for them!

Street solidarity!

:-)

Club de Arte 6: "Mi Jardín"

SOCIO VIVIENDA'S GARDENS: Flowers, trees, clouds, sky, grass, football pitches

ONGOING THEME: Our Art Club Community

WEEK 6: My Garden

IDEA AND AIMS:  For each of the children to create a garden for their person and animal puppets, where they will feel safe and happy.  To think about what their puppets might need in their garden, like water, sun, fruit, a house etc.

PROCESS: 

1.  BACKGROUND: Take the bottom half of a shoe box and paint its inner sides and base with the colours of the ground and the surroundings desired.



2.  FOREGROUND: Use collage materials including scraps of material, Fomex and tissue paper to add details to the garden (e.g. river/ pond / house / fruit / fishes etc)



3. 3D OBJECTS: Make a tree or plant or goal posts using lolly-pop sticks joined together with silicone and a cardboard base. (For the tree use more lollypop sticks, broken in half, and decorate it with fruits and leaves of Fomex.)

MATERIALS:  cardboard boxes (ideally shoeboxes)/  lollypop sticks/  material scraps /  pipecleaners/  silicone/ Fomez/ school glue/ paint and brushes/ paper/ pencils / scissors

TAKE A LOOK AT THE KID'S FINAL GARDENS:

NUEVA PROSPERINA: Rivers, lakes, grass, houses, fishes, flowers

SERGIO TORAL: Rivers, fish, football pitches, benches, grass, clouds, sun, see-saws

                                Another part of Club de Arte are the warm-up welcome games:

…like this one here, 

racing in pairs in a wheel-barrow race.

Club de Arte 5: "Mi Animalito"

The animal friends made by the children in Nueva Prosperina: a whole army of bright pink pigs, a few sheep, a couple of snakes,a couple of iguanas, two cats, a dog and a horse!

ONGOING THEME: Our Art Club Community

WEEK 4: My Little Animal Friend

IDEA: For each child to create a small 3D animal puppet as a friend for their person puppet, and to draw the animal a profile detailing their name and their positive qualities.

AIMS: For the children to continue settling into the community of Club de Arte and to reflect on what positive qualities are important to them.

"My Animal" instruction sheet and animal prompt sheet with suggestions for positive qualities the children might like to choose from: free, independent, noble, observant, athletic, vigilant, protective, kind, adventurous,playful, defender, creative, determined,intelligent, peaceful, talkative, curious, persevering, flexible, wise, helpful, independent, generous, hard-working, tolerant, patient, survivor, gentle 

PROCESS:

1. BODY:  toilet roll tube



2. LEGS: Cut the desired number of legs (most animals produced in the sessions were 4-legged animals) out of cardboard and attach them to the toilet roll by using an awl to pierce through the double layer of cardboard and pushing butterfly clips through to hinge the legs in place allowing for movement.
2. HEADS: use a flat piece of cardboard or Fomex cut-to-shape and place onto the front of the toilet-roll tube OR roll up a ball of newspaper, cover it in masking tape and tape it onto the front of the toilet roll.
3. TAILS: (e.g. snakes, iguanas, dolphins) Roll newspaper diagonally into long tubes, cover in masking tape to hold the shape and tape into place on the toilet roll body.



4. SKIN/ FUR:  Use paint and collage material to decorate the whole of the animal (e.g. cotton wool for the sheep's coat / wool for a horses's mane / painted stripes for an iguana's tail/ pipe-cleaners for iguana's spikes)

MATERIALS: toilet rolls, Fomex, glue, silicone, scissors, cardboard, paint, paintbrushes, palettes, bowls, marker pens, awl, butterfly clips, newspaper, masking tape, cotton wool, wool, pipe-cleaners

MEET THE FINAL ANIMALS:

A selection of Nueva Prosperina's animals and their profiles:

* My animal is a snake, he is called Yonny.  I like him because he is flexible, observant, brave and free. (top row 2nd from left) / My animal is an iguana, he is called Bryan.  I like him because he is brave, flexible and talkative. (top row 2nd from right) / My animal is a pig, he is called Ricardo.  I like him because he is lovely, beautiful, kind and gentle. (bottom row 1st from left) / My animal is a pig. He is called Jésus. I like him because he is hardworking and persevering.

ANIMAL PROFILES FROM NUEVA PROSPERINA: My animal is a sheep. He is called Kevin. I like him because he is free, adventurous, wise, calm and persevering. (left) / My animal is a pig..! And he is called Charley.  I like him because he is friendly, intelligent, gentle and kind.(right)

 

Animals from the Sergio Toral group: a couple of sheep, a couple of pigs, a dolphin and a tortoise!

Animals from the Socio Vivienda group: here the iguanas were hugely popular, and the group produced their own park-ful of the animals, plus a couple of snakes and a dolphin!

Some of the joyful moments in these animal-making Club de Arte sessions:

…playing with the giant parachute as a warm-up game...

…playing with the animals we've made…

…laughter between friends!

Happy days! 

:-)

Club de Arte 4: "Mi Muñeco"

The puppet community made by the children in Nueva Prosperina.

ONGOING THEME: Our Art Club Community

WEEK 4: My Puppet

IDEA: For each child to create a 3D puppet representing themselves. 

AIM: To continue with introductions and settling into the community of Art Club in the three neighbourhoods here in Guayaquil.

PROCESS: Jonny and I made two slightly different examples, so the children had two options to choose from to create their character:

OPTION 1: LOLLYPOP STICKS

1. BASE/ FEET: Fill a plastic bottle cap with clay and push a lollypop stick down into it.  Wrap clay around the outside of the cap too, to give more weight.  Option to paint clay once dried.
2. HEAD: Roll a ball of clay and push this onto the top of the lollypop stick. Decorate with short pieces of pipe-cleaners for hair, pushing them down into the clay or using silicone.  Option to paint the clay once it has dried.
3. FACE: sculpt lips and eyes with clay.  Once dried paint as desired.
4. ARMS: break a second lollypop stick in two and attach to the 'body' stick with silicone.  Option to stick on Fomex hands.
5. CLOTHES:  Cut flat clothes shapes from Fomex and material and stick onto the puppet's boy using silicone. Draw on any desired 'logos' or designs with marker pen.

 Puppet-making process with the kids from Sergio Toral

OPTION 2:  PLASTIC SPOONS
1. BASE/ FEET: Fill a plastic bottle cap with clay and push a spoon handle-down into it.  Wrap clay around the outside of the cap too, to give more weight, and sculpt feet or shoes as desired.  Option to paint clay once dried.
2. HEAD: Cover the scoop of the spoon with clay, making sure to join the clay along the sides so that as it dries and contracts the head doesn't fall off).  Option to paint the clay once it has dried.
3; HAIR: Decorate with colourful wool for hair, pushing the strands down into the clay or using silicone.
4. ARMS: twist a pipe cleaner around the centre of the spoon to create arms and fold in the ends to create hands.
5. FACE: sculpt lips and eyes with clay.  Once dried paint as desired.
6. CLOTHES:  Cut a long rectangle shape from cloth, with a second rectangle cut out from the centre.  Pull this over the head of the puppet and glue sides together or use wool for a belt.

MATERIALS: plastic spoons, plastic bottle caps, lolly-pop sticks, scraps of cloth, Fomex, glue, silicone, scissors, cardboard, paint, paintbrushes, palettes, bowls, marker pens, wool, pipe-cleaners

MEET THE PUPPETS:

The puppets created by the children in Nueva Prosperina.

The puppets created by the children in Sergio Toral.

     The puppets created by the children in Socio Vivienda.

This turned out to be the most fun activity so far, with every single member of Art Club getting absorbed in making their puppets, including the orienteers Ronald and Fabio and our lovely assistant and photographer Blanquita - so we can definitely say that it achieved our aim of relaxing the kids and staff more into Art Club!

Kids that finished quickly were invited to 

design their puppets a brief profile, 

(above)I'm called Mercy, I'm 12 years old, 

I live in Guayaquil

:-)