collaborative painting

During the last 6 weeks we have been reading the Rainbow Fairy books during snack time... the idea is that the children sit and eat their snack while I read the story aloud... with NO PICTURES... this was a real challenge for the children at first... they asked constantly for pictures... and I encouraged them to use their imagination instead... they tried hard to look at the book cover, which interfered with their ability to listen - so I ended up wrapping the first three books in some other paper.. so that the children could relax and listen... the last four books they have got the hang of being able to listen without the need for visual input... I would love to be able to see the images the children create for themselves in their heads...

Two weeks ago some of the children made black and white mushrooms to represent Fairyland from the books... devoid of colour, since the rainbow fairies were in need of being rescued...

Now as we read the last story, and the colours will return to Fairyland, as the last rainbow fairy has finallt been rescued... we have started to paint rainbows over the mushrooms...

One child painting with one colour, and collaborating to create many rainbows... not exactly free creativity... but an exercise of working out which rainbow needs my colour next, an exercise of realising that together we can create something - a collaboration.

I like to use art in many ways... not just a free expression of their creativity, but also to challenge their thinking, to bring them together as a group, and to introduce new techniques which they then can apply in their own creativity...