I set out the rainbow arcs, one side for the Primary 3, and the other for the secondary 3. The kids began to put two and two together about how the seconday colours fit between the Primary. It was a quick refresher, and hopefully served to solidify their understanding of colour relationships.
Carson’s comments show that he is very engaged in the quality of the paints.
Carson: I like yellow. I like this yellow because it’s kind of drippy….That’s all purple. Purple as a plum. …Is green going to be drippy?
The next step after painting the arcs, was to glue bits and pieces of materials onto them.
H: I’m more interested in using these things…
H: I have steady hands. Why do you think I have so much beautiful art? Why do you think I never burn myself with hot glue? Steady hands.
H really loves to talk as he works, and M has become “the strong silent type” who occasionally pipes up with a quiet answer to H’s questions, statements of completion, or exclamations about his work.
I encouraged the boys to be adventurous with finding and choosing materials to glue onto their rainbows. Carson opted for lots of variety, trying out different stuff on each colour. By the end, Carson was so inspired with his own creativity, that he went into the feather bin, and swiftly and joyfully found many orange feathers to glue on. And it was beautiful.
Carson: Wow look at that! Look at that! You maybe want to look at this!
In a little review of colour classes, ie Primary, secondary colours, M piped up with this question:
M: What about third-ary colours?
Rachel: You mean tertiary?
H: No, THIRD-ary.
I explained what the (third-ary) tertiary colours were, and showed them how they have already made the tertiary colours on their colour wheels.
H was motivated to be creative with what he glued onto his rainbow. He happily dug through the junk bin, excitedly pulling himself some neat little things to use.
H: Am I creative enough for ya? …I’m going to go after some orange.
H: Oh now I know what I need for more exoticness. Feathers. Glorious feathers…..Rachel, am I exotic enough yet?
Carson: I am steady and slow.
Alyssa: I like the feeling of dust.
Isla: Ooh, pretty buttons. Look, it’s like stairs.
Alyssa: I also stacked buttons, but it didn’t make stairs.
Isla: Rachel look, this one is totally different.
The kids were delighted as their mobiles started coming together. They were individualized in their choice of beads, and what colour patterns to make. I noticed that most of them chose to do a pattern, and not simply add beads randomly. Isla’s colour choices reflected her understanding of the rainbow, and the way her mobile fit together.
Alyssa: I like these beads because I like how they fit together, like there’s always going to be a bump.
Isla: I like these kids of beads because you can see through them. And they’re shiny.
Alyssa: This is confusing because I’m saying, “orange and orange pattern”, and “green and green pattern” How is that a pattern? Because there’s two different.
There’s a lot of energy in the studio on Mondays. 5 chatty little girls is a great start to my week.
Abi: I’m doing it by twos ones, threes fours. This is how many beads I’ve used. I’m going to by threes, then fours. And maybe even if I get there, fives.
Lainey: I’m doing patterns then a rainbow, patterns then a rainbow.
Alyssa: Hey that’s really cool too. Because there’s going to be green on that side, and green on the other, and be completely rainbow.
Alyssa: I’m going to just take handfuls of beads and try to make a pattern.
Alyssa left a space above her beads to make it look like they were floating. She put lots of thought into the patterns she chose, abandoning a few along the way, because she didn’t like the way they looked.
Lainey: I want to make a bunch of mobiles. I want to make a mobile shop.
Alyssa: What’s a mobile?
Lainey: You know those things that hang in babies’ cribs? They’re called mobiles. Some of them turn and make music.
Alyssa: Like is this a mobile?
Lainey: Yah we’re making rainbow mobiles.