Artistic Adventures with Elemental Kids!

Puppets, sailboats and storybooks –  highlights from the weekly Elemental Kids art classes with Gary Frier and Nadia Woodward during the first term!

January is always an interesting time of the year when life shifts gear from a holiday mode to the world of work and school. I have always found it interesting that this shift takes place even if I have not been on holiday myself! There have been many times that I worked right through the “holiday period” but somehow I still experience this shift. I am sure that many people have the same experience too…

Adults in this picture: Eric Judd (coordinator), Mana Judd (Eric’s wife and active supporter of ONA), Nadia woodward (facilitator)

Adults in this picture: Eric Judd (ccordinator), Gary Frier (facilitator)

This year as January came to a close, the weekly ONA art classes with Elemental Kids started up again, marking this collective shift from being on holiday to being back at school. It marked the second year of activity for us and it was wonderful to see how many children returned, eager and ready to get involved in the activities. The facilitation team was ready with an exciting programme for the coming weeks – making puppets and having puppet shows, building sailboats from recycled material and creating story books.

Making the paper mache mixture

Building puppet heads

All lined up and ready to dry

Creating the outfits

All dressed up!

The clown…

A bird…

Bringing the puppets to life…

Enjoying the show!

The children absolutely loved making the puppets – it was something entirely new for them. They worked on them for several weeks, making the paper mache mixture, building the puppets heads, painting and dressing them and then bringing them to life. The puppet shows were lots of fun for everyone!

Next came making sail boats from recycled materials, another enjoyable experience! The best part though was taking the boats down to the Liesbeeck river on a sunny afternoon to sail them on the water. The restoration and clean up efforts of volunteers in the area have transformed the river and its banks into a beautiful recreational area that we are grateful to have access too!

The term came to a close with poster making inspired by Water week and they also created their own handmade story books. It was a fantastic way to bring another magical term to a close. Thank you very much to everyone that participated in the activities and all the individuals that have contributed to make this class such a success each week 🙂