Paint!

Students returned from the Thanksgiving holiday with a LOT of energy, and wasted no time at all channeling that energy into artistic expression. Greeted by white paper tablecloths covering every surface, cups of primary colors and plenty of paintbrushes, students dove right in, painting a wide variety of stories directly on the table. Mr. Matthew gave a quick lesson in mixing colors: red and blue make purple, etc., and the students were off to the races. The only condition was that they be able to tell a story about their painting. The results were, as always, fantastic, funny, frightening or fabulous.

The corner of one table told the story of an alien with huge yellow muscles who had flown his spaceship from Mars to Earth in one hour! Asked if he would share his super-speed technology with us earthlings, the alien replied that information about such technology was highly classified.

Right next to the yellow-muscled alien was a very colorful princess whose parents were on vacation at the beach. With no supervision at home, the princess ran into the forest where she met a huge green monster. She quickly ran back into her castle and anxiously awaited the return of the vacationing king and queen.

A couple of tables away there appeared a large picture book. Somehow, a girl had managed to walk directly into the book. On the pages of the book lived a giant whose house was built inside a rainbow. The girl in the book decided to pick some flowers to give to the giant in the rainbow, because the giant in the rainbow was lonely. This act of floral generosity protected a lot of people from being eaten by the now-friendly giant.

Following the free painting session, students headed outside for a very spirited game of “Use or Be.” Gradually, students realized they could team up, with one person “using” the item and the other person “being” the item. As a result one student used a blender and the other student was the blender; one student was a puppet and the other student used a puppet; and one student was a nail while the other student hammered the nail. This emerging ability to act dramatically is very exciting indeed!