October – Kolam!

Deepavali is around the corner and what is Deepavali without Kolam/ Rangoli?- a colourful artform originating from India that symbolizes happiness and prosperity and commonly features geometric patterns, floras and faunas.

Colourful Kolams take centre stage at this time of the year in shopping malls, office complexes and lobbies of key buildings in the country and as welcome "mats" in homes ushering in Deepavali festivities for our friends celebrating the occasion. Using rich colours of blue, red, white, yellow, green and purple coloured rice, our students were on the floor, creating their Kolam; a testament to their own artistic flair and personal choice of subject matter.

This activity aims to improve hand to eye coordination, sensory skills and developing fine motor skills. Significantly this helps enhance and expose our students to another culture from the rich and diverse multicultural society of Malaysia.

Learning outcome: Sensory and fine motor skills with appreciation of the riot of colours engaged in Kolam making

October – 'Toy Story!'

Toys are an inseparable part of a child’s life as they play an important role in growth and development throughout the early phase of his/her life, and sometimes even into adulthood.

At today’s activity, we took a step further using familiar toys as subject matter to help increase our student’s awareness and skills in design composition- the skill of ‘placing’ parts of a visual (object and colours) and tracing them in an aesthetically pleasing arrangement
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Today’s activity also aims to improve hand to eye coordination and more importantly, exercise patience.

Learning outcome: Knowledge of Principles of Design; Balance and Composition, Improving Hand to Eye coordination, Patience in art.

October – Mask!

Mask making is part of pretend play. Children engaging in this activity will benefit from social, emotional skills and language. It can also help nurture imagination - a vital component in sharpening one’s creative problem solving skills.

Today, without providing templates, our students were given the freedom to design and explore mask making from scratch; from design planning, face measurement, mask design and painting.

Learning outcome: Developing coordination and fine motor skills, self-expression and nurturing imagination.

p.s. Selamat Hari Sukan Negara!