By Vita Forest.
A detail from a starry sky
Today at school we did a “best thing ever!” It’s a nice way to spend an afternoon.
My gang of six and seven year olds were preparing the background for an artwork that will be used for fundraising for the school. I decided we would use their favourite background. This involves getting a thick white crayon and drawing stars all over a piece of white paper. “I can’t see what I’m doing!” and “I’m going to do it under the table so I can see!” and “You can feel it with your fingers!” are some of the comments you hear around the classroom. Some of the stars are snowflakes – eight-pronged, made of straight lines shooting off in all directions, others are celestial beings of the scribbly spiral variety. Some artists arranged theirs in neat grids, while others have stars cascading over their page in a more haphazard fashion.
We first did this artwork earlier in the year when we were making book covers for all the exercise books they would use. There’s a green one for Spelling, a yellow one for Maths and this blue one for Handwriting practise. At that time, Master Billy exclaimed on putting brush to paper, that it was “the best thing ever!” I was glad to hear he still feels this way six months later.
With Bach wafting around the classroom, the children came up to the art table clad in oversized t-shirts and stood before a glimmering pot of turquoise dye. Brandishing brushes like magic wands, they streaked blue over the paper’s surface and there, right in front of their eyes, the stars burst forth. Magic indeed!
One of the class Mums came to chat after school and oohed in delight too.
“The simple pleasures!” she exclaimed.
What more does anyone need?
Jotterizing 