Children at the creative best with Sonali

Sunday, January 27, 2008

I am really happy to tell you that the collage activity with the Round Table School at Madiwala went very well. The children are extremely enthusiastic, the staff is supportive and the volunteers achieved the balance of being helpful and encouraging without overwhelming the children with ideas.

We started the activity early, at ten thirty a.m., as we had reached and the children were eagerly waiting.

I explained the activity in English, how they would have to make a story and arrange the pictures as a collage. The children worked in pairs. They discussed for about an hour, making their stories and putting their ideas together. They then asked for extra sheets as required and stuck the pictures as a collage. They were given sketch pens, crayons and cloth to decorate with. We cleaned up and collected back extra pictures, crayons and other materials. After that they presented their stories. They have some creative ideas – they spoke of cricket, of actors and actresses, of themes like family life, pollution and afforestation. Most of the children agreed to come and present quickly, a few hesitant ones stepped up after some encouragement. What I noted was that most of them had written down more than they read out.

As the activity went well, I left extra materials with this group (of fifty three seventh standard students). They now have to teach the Std. VI children how to do collage work. This is the first time I am leaving pictures with one group of children to carry forward an activity with another group, I hope they do a good job of it. The principal says they can give the two classes, Std. VI and VII, an hour and a half together on a Friday, for this activity.

The Dream A Dream volunteers asked for suggestions for future activities and the children suggested painting, drawing, embroidery and writing.

The volunteers distributed the snack. We wound up at 12.40 PM or so. I was glad we had started early as we could have the margin to let the children be creative and to get the hesitant ones to speak up. Even though we took only ten minutes extra finally, having half and hour extra made it a relaxed, more enriching activity.

Thanks for the great opportunity.

Sonali Bhatia
Facilitator, Collage Activity