Discover Hiba Academy Nantong – Art Zone in Early Years Two

When cognition is combined with art, it may become a work, when emotion is combined with art, it may become a way of expression; when language is combined with art, it may become a scripted story. When all kinds of art resources meet with children's ideas, a unique and exclusive "language" belonging to children will be created. Today, with the guidance of Judy Zhu, let us take a look at the EY2 Pupils' colourful artistic creations.

In the previous event, we explored the "hard and soft" aspects of life. Each of these objects has a purpose, and when we go outside the conventional thinking, these objects can become "open resources". Straws can be building materials; The twine used for binding can be an artistic material, and by exploring the touch of objects, we introduce children to open resources and how they can be used in artistic activities.

While watching the animated version of 'Starry Night', the flowing brush lines and intertwined rich colours caused endless wonder and lively discussion among the pupils. The teachers used a variety of questions to guide the children to relate the painting to what they had just learnt about 'soft and hard' and the various materials, to look for similarities between them:

After having the draft design in their minds, the pupils used all the open materials in the classroom to put their own ’Starry Night' on the canvas. Meanwhile, they shared their creative experience with their teachers:

Some of the pupils started from feelings, some from colours and some from forms. The different directions of thinking led the children to the different styles of creation, which in turn resulted in unique pieces of work. 

And this is not the end of our search. The purpose of the "Review of Work" is not merely to increase the kids' self-esteem and sense of accomplishment. By critiquing their work, we help them to consider their own, giving them more motivation to enhance or recreate it.

Children presented their projects to their partners using the interactive whiteboard. The youngsters were eager to share their work with others, as evidenced by the delight on their cheeks. Children would contrast their work with the original painting of The Starry Night during the presentation. They were able to find components that weren't in their own work as a result. This gave rise to the possibility of "refinement" and "secondary creation." We encouraged children to consider what further they would like to add to their work and which materials would be more appropriate before choosing some brand-new materials and some items that had not been picked for the day's work the day before. 

Milo says, "I need paint because the sky is blue and yellow". Rachel chooses white foam paper, because she had never used it before and was curious about it.

At the same time of "secondary creation", children also have a deeper exploration of open materials. The way of creation is not solely pasting materials but trying to mix pigments with open materials and observe the changes and effects. After mixing the effect, the children like it very much, and some even laugh excitedly!

Children are given more opportunities to develop their imagination, creativity, independent thinking, and knowledge of the world around them through these exploratory activities than they are given by the artwork itself. Children also become more independent, proud, and confident as a result of their explorations.

At Hiba Academy Nantong, we hope that through daily learning, each pupil can create with confidence, freedom, and independence, give full play to their imagination and creativity, learn to find the beauty around them, and grow in esteem.