It has been a pleasure during the Early Years Art Week to be surrounded by the wonderful art work created by the small hands in early years.  Each child has a piece of their work framed and hanging in the first floor corridor gallery.  The variety of materials and methods is wonderful.  We have been able to walk beneath banners of painted cloth hanging from the ceiling, a group project from every class, and study the table top models made from clay and paper.  We can see how the children learn through their creative projects, as in the work about volcanoes and giraffes, and how they express themselves through their creations.  Some of the creations are from what they see around them, as in the big birds nest.

Special events of the week included the kindergarten visit to Shan Tang Street.  Here the children were able to watch people blowing glass animals, stretching candy dough, carving gourds, paper cutting and opening oysters to reveal the pearls which were given as presents to take home. 

A paper cutter visited the school on Tuesday and showed the nursery children what can be created with a piece of red paper and a pair of scissors – a beautiful butterfly.
The pre-kindergarten children watched an embroiderer making pictures with tiny stitches.  They were given a kit to take home and try it out for themselves.

Two parent information sessions about ‘Creativity in the Early Years’ were conducted by Jeanette Morehouse, with hands-on classes in Visual Arts and Performing Arts taken by
Eva Jiang and Doris Hu.  This was an opportunity for the parents to experience what happens in these classrooms, and find out how creative skills are taught.  From observing these information sessions, it is obvious to see why the children enjoy the time spent with these specialist teachers, and are so enthusiastic about participating.

The art display will be hanging for longer than one week, so if you haven’t already strolled through our wonderland of creativity, please take the opportunity some time soon.

Art Week Committee – Eva Jiang, Susan You, Tracy Lu, Chris Packer,