Teaching Kids to Love Art: Watercolor and Construction Paper!

Monday. The first day with the children is always hardest. You never know what to expect and neither do they. When we walked into the school I didn't know what room in which we should set up or to whom to talk...or how to communicate in Spanish to the director the reason we were there. Nevertheless Hollie (a missionary in Honduras, for Providence World Ministries) showed up and explained to the director, Luz, what was going on. We soon met Katherine, the first grade English teacher, who showed us the room where we found 15 students ready to have fun! We had no time to set up, so we introduced ourselves while we filled cups of water, passed out paper and brushes and learned their names.

I choose to do a project I did with the children in Nashville a few months ago. The idea is a sunset painted with watercolor and a tree silhouetted in the foreground. The children first painted the sunset and, while it dried, cut out a tree from black construction paper to glue on their sunset. They made beautiful trees of all shapes and sizes!

This is Steve and Brooke (my helpers) with Michele, Jonathan, José, and Karla. One of the blessings God gave us is that these children ate lunch at the same time and place we did so I sat with them Monday through Wednesday. There was always a free seat beside Michele (far left) and we soon became good friends. (although we had just met at the time I took this photo and she didn't want her photo taken....and I don't think she knew her work of art was upsidedown!)

While this was a bilingual school the children were all shy about using their English. They all understood the instructions we gave in English but if we asked them more than a yes or no question (which they would only nod or shake their head in response) they would only give you a blank stare. Therefore, I was able to use the Spanish I learned earlier in high school in order to get a reply.

This is me and Nelly a sweet 5 year old that I met two years ago, the last time I was in Honduras. I had played Pato, Pato, Ganso (Duck, Duck, Goose) and taken pictures with her for about an hour but never learned her name. I recognized her immediately (though she didn't recognize me) and enjoyed the reunion.

This is Tori and Genesis, painting the sunset. Tori also helped on Wednesday and worked with Genesis. Genesis so loved Tori that she gave her a wallet that her mom had made as a present, thanking Tori for helping her with art!