Creating creatures in creative arts

New for this year in Mkwiro Primary School are creative arts classes with Standards 1 and 2. The school wanted to give the younger children the opportunity to express themselves as they were not yet competent enough in English to assert their individuality. This week we got more creative than last week and made salt dough (or homemade play dough) for the kids to play with and to create anything they wanted. First up was Standard 1. We gave each of the children a ball of dough and said make anything you want but don’t eat it! Silence fell as the majority of the class got to work, and soon one of the boys at the back had made a zebra head that was instantly recognisable.  The girls weren’t as creative as the boys, constantly demanding, “make me goat” or “make me cow”. I was surprised with this as I thought it would have been the other way around! They found the easiest to make was a cat, although one of the boys tried to pass it off as a goat.

Is it a goat or a cat? Mike helps standard 2 get creative with salt dough

The following day it was Standard 2’s go. This went well with lots of snakes and dolphins being made, the kids had a blast and it was something fun for the volunteers to do instead of teaching English. The class was a bit riotous but with the threat of us leaving they soon settled down to make some good models. We’ll have to get our thinking caps on for something new for next week.

Sarah Cryer

Mkwiro Community Field Staff

Creating creatures in creative arts