Shapes to Animals Art

Earlier this week, I had a chance to visit my 6 year old daughter E’s class for an art session. I always look forward to a chance to see her during the school day and this time, I don’t think she was aware I was showing up. The art schedule was off this month due to being rescheduled from earlier in the month since there was a power outage at school.

I wasn’t quite sure we were having it this week since there wasn’t a confirmation email sent out and we were having the April session the following week. I still decided to show up just in case and luckily there was an art session. This time, it was about using different shapes and putting them together to make animals. No other parents could make the session today and I think E thought it was only going to be the teachers and the art volunteer (who I guess technically is a parent too!), but when E turned around and saw me, she was so happy she wanted to jump out of her chair! I told her to stay in her seat though and gave her a big hug and a kiss.

When the art sessions started, I helped to pass out the shapes to all the tables and off they went creating their animals. Some were really creative and even put in a background. E ended up making both a squirrel and a bunny. She was getting so into making her animals and I had to remind her to start glueing them on the paper before the time ran out.

There was also another boy in class that had a blank paper for the whole session. I noticed it and walked over there to encourage him. He said he wanted to make a dog and I gave him some ideas. After a few minutes, I noticed his paper was still empty and ended up giving more ideas on how to make the dog. He wanted to make a gate first and I grabbed some strips of paper and had him start glueing them down right away. No time to arrange it first! He ended up quickly making the gate and dog so at least something was on his paper. The teacher also tried to use a translator app to make sure the boy understood he needed to move faster. Thank goodness he finished just in time with some nudging.

I’m glad I got to see E in class to also get a preview of her artwork and how she ends up creating it. She always looks so happy when she gets to be creative. I’m also glad that I was able to help that boy in class because without a strong couple of nudges, I’m not sure he would have much on the paper (or anything at all!). Being a parent means showing up in big ways and small ways and I’m glad I could help out the class today in all kinds of ways. It’s always fun to see the kids and especially to see E.