Government Primary School

Government Primary School, Paradsinga, India

I express my sincere gratitude to Lalit Vikamshi, Director - Alag Angle Studio, Nagpur, India, Shweta Bhattad, an acclaimed artist and philanthropist, initiator of I Have A Dream Project and Gram Art Project, and last but not the least Aditi Bhattad, art educator and artist, to allow and assist me in conducting art therapy workshop with Grade 3-5 students at Government Primary School, Paradsinga, India.

Day 1 | Government Primary School

The introductory session focused on breaking the boundary between the teacher student relationships. We distributed white sheets of paper and asked the students to draw what they felt at that moment in time. Every child indulged him/herself within the rawness of the paper, making several representative drawings of themselves, their families, household, and area where they lived or their Idol Gods.

It was interesting to see these young spirits demonstrating their understanding of the present moment while they brought in past imagery into it. This kind of an exercise puts the limelight on the Gestalt Theory of Humanistic Counselling where the person brings in the then and there to the here and now and owns the feeling associated with it.

After reflecting back to the work, we ended the session by doing the imitation exercise where the group had to follow leader's actions.

Day 2 | Government Primary School

The students swiped the floor, spread the sheets and sat for the class. It was adorable to see them taking charge of their own actions.

We started off by making small groups of 3-4 students each, distributed colorful sheets of paper and tape then asked them to work collectively by making a landscape specifically made out of shapes.

It was fascinating to witness the work of all the groups. They initiated by making small cutouts of various colorful shapes and as a puzzle is put together, they started to place them on the wall. They did not realize or had any pre-conceived idea of what they were making but eventually after all the pieces were pasted on the wall it showed many different sorts of scenarios. For example, one of the groups could recognize a temple from afar while the other pictured a boat in the vast ocean of water.

It was a wonderful day and all the students immensely enjoyed the session.

The aim of the second session was to comprehend students' understanding of shapes and its various usage so that it could help them in the next session.

Day 3 | Government Primary School

The third session focused on introducing the art of puppetry. By then, students had a better know-how of using shapes to illustrate various objects and feelings. In the third session, we handed out colorful sheets of paper and scissors to the students and asked them to make puppets by using various shapes. We also asked the students to bring needle and thread to be used in making the figures. Why needle and thread? It is known that all the village habitats employ the use of stitching in some parts of their lives. Many of the mothers are associated with it and hence using that medium was to let the students own the process of puppet making and allow the personal feelings to become part of it.

All the students greatly enjoyed making the stitched puppets. We then put them up on the string and made it part of the classroom by hanging it across the wall, so that the students felt dignified and honored for their achievements.

By the end we all talked about each of our puppets and indicated whom we had shaped in as stitched figures in our lives.

What fascinated me was to notice that every student made the most close person to them, for example, one of the girls had made herself and her mother stitched close to each other demonstrating her love for her parent.

Day 4 | Government Primary School

The fourth day we focused on working on advanced paper puppets. Students were asked to make different representations of puppets and think out of the box.

Each student created highly modified puppets than before. All the nervousness from the last session disappeared and some very large and oversized puppets with tiny little details of facial features, figures or shoes were constructed.

In the end we put a stick on them and all the children held it in front of them, owning the art pieces like never before.

The teachers also participated and it was amazing to witness their creations. Many of them made more than two puppets. More so, there was also an external faculty who came and became part of our class during the process.

We ended our workshop by taking group photographs!

HAMIDA KHATRI

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