Kandinsky inspired art...

Yesterday I prepared the paper for our BIG Kandinsky inspired paiting which will also become a part of our Russian inspired curling game...

As I wrote yesterday when I linked up the first image on my facebook page and group...

"A HUGE Kandinsky inspired painting is on the floor... I have started it off and tomorrow our morning meeting will not be a philosophy session as usual, but a listening session using paints...
we will take it in turns to paint... just as we take it in turns to talk, and the aim is to stay within the line (or thereabouts - nothing too precise) just as we stay on topic in our philosophy sessions... and we will listen - to the instructions of what we are doing, and to each other for our choices of what colour we are using...

THEN when it is dry we are going to use the rings as part of a curling game... Winter Olympics meets Kandinsky!!"

This morning the children took the time to play on the dry art... it really inspired jumping...

 The session started by looking at some of Kandinsky's artwork and talking about him being an artist that come from Russia, the same country as one of our children...

The whole idea of listening and following instructions and talking about their choice of colour did not work EXACTLY as I would have hoped... we needed to scaffold the children's  ability to listen to the instructions and keep withing limits that extending it to explaining colour choice would be just too much... and the sheer size of the painting also meant it took time... this again not being always the best thing when children are waiting... we are still working on the skill of being able to take interest in what others are doing... its a process, its tricky and we need to work on it in a way that encourages the skill and not enforces it...

So the choice of colour part of the session was quickly abandoned... as that took time which the group did not have for each other... and doing it one at a time was also abandoned so that two circles could be painted simultaneously and therefore sustain interest better...

Sometimes you just have to be flexible ...

Some children found it VERY difficult to stay within the lines... the paint brush shooting off in random directions... this was not a normal art session, this was an opportunity to push the children skills a little, to help them learn to focus... not just for their art skills but also for their listening skills. It did NOT feel, though, that we were pushing the children beyond their capabilities - the reminders were gentle and well received, and there were no negative comments that they had done it wrong, just the reminders that we are trying to keep in the lines when the children started to lose their focus...

They took it in turns to do a ring of colour each... so the focus was never too long... and there were plenty of comments about how they enjoyed painting.

We also mixed some colours so that there was an opportunity to see the science of colour in action too...

everyone could paint in their own way... sitting, lying down, crouched... although lying down did make it hard to move around to reach the whole circle

mixing colours. And learning about how far an arm stretches, and when you need to move your body to be able to reach...

painting two at a time... not the aim, but was what we as teachers could hear when we listened to the children's needs in this activity.

the finished Kandinsky inspired floor art. Now it is just for it to dry and then the curling games can begin (and no doubt the children will think of their own play on this floor art)