July - Contour Art

Krafteebug IS BACK, and Contour Art is the lesson of the day!

After a long hiatus, Contour Art was chosen to ease students back into exercising their eye-hand-mental coordination for creative output. Students were shown a sample of what is to be done and how...with precision and patience. They were then encouraged to make their choice of subject matter, be it flora, fauna, insect or the abstract ....carefully coming up first with the body and then working on the contours and clever use of colours to bring the subject to life.

Learning Outcome: precision, patience, clarity and clever use of colours

May - Mother's Day

Mother’s Day is around the corner! The class started with a discussion on “why my mom is the best!”. Fascinatingly the Bugs gave wonderful answers! To name a few - “because my mom gave birth to me", "mom bought me Lego", "cooks the best nasi goreng” and many more!

But what was interesting about today’s activity was how the Bugs 'took over' the class. Initially, the task was to create a Mother’s Day card but somehow, in the spirit of ‘freedom in creativity’, the Bugs were allowed to creatively come up with their own concept of a Mother’s Day gift. A few came up with abstract handprints - messy but with swell outcome especially in fostering curiosity and experimentation, stimulating imagination and created understanding of the senses.

The main objective is to instil in our Bugs the spirit of giving, encourage showing of appreciation towards loved ones and the idea of making gifts instead of buying.

Learning outcome: Express creativity, encourage self-made, crafted gifts instead of acquiring commercial ones.

April - Facial Proportions

We all love to draw, copy, doodle and scribble. Who cares if our representations of what we fancy does not meet that of the actual and real world?

But portraiture is another game altogether, and today the Bugs are taken into the adventure of facial proportions! There are many ways to create a proportionate portraiture but today, our Bugs were guided through the simplest and easiest way of creating one - by only using pencils, erasers and simple measurement using the thumb and index finger.

This activity exercises a more realistic approach to facial drawing and introducing the concept of proportion through using it in the drawing of the human figure.

Learning outcome: Introduction and simple technique in creating proportionate portraiture, creative enhancement and experimenting and developing different styles of human figure drawing.

April - Layers of the Earth Popup Book

How to make Science interesting? Popups!! Today our Bugs were introduced to the layers of the earth! The class started with a round table discussion on what is on and above the ground. Next, with the help of visual aids, our Bugs learnt the different layers and characteristics of the earth; from ‘crust, mantle, outer core to the inner core’. To make things more interesting, they were asked to create a popup book based on today’s lesson.

Learning outcome: Knowledge of the Layers of the Earth, the art of making popup book, and loads of fun

April - Positive and Negative Space

Today, our students were exposed to another visual component of art - ‘Space’. Space is an element of art by which positive and negative areas are defined or a sense of depth achieved in an art work.

Using coloured construction papers, our Bugs explored the relationship between positive and negative space by creating their own original visual images.

Learning Outcome: promote an awareness of shape and space, learn about negative and positive shapes, contrast, and develop cutting and gluing skills.

April - Paper Roll Emotion Doll

Researchers find kids learn more through play. David Whitebread, a psychologist at Cambridge University says playing is essential to their development as they will learn to persevere, able to control attention and control their emotions. Based on that research, the theme chosen for today was ‘learning through play’; and the subject that we focused on was ‘emotions’.

As children grow and are exposed to different situations, their emotional lives also become more complex. Developing skills for managing a range of emotions is therefore very important for their emotional well-being.

Doll is a fun and simple tool for teaching kids about a variety of subjects, especially emotions. Today our Bugs were tasked to create their own doll from recycled material (tissue paper roll) that enabled the change of emotions.

Learning outcome: Emotion management, enhance imaginative skills, promotes toy-making and promotes recycling.

March - Batik

Today, we emphasised on the four areas of creative development; `sensory, imagination, material and technique’. The class started with a brief introduction of our traditional art - ‘Batik’, and a video on Batik painting was shown to the class (Sensory). Next, a demonstration of the technique was shown and the class was asked to come up with their own Batik subject matter/theme (Imagination). The students then explored the combination of crayon (alternative to wax) and watercolour (material). This activity applied the technique of wax-resist and watercolour wash which emphasized on creating smooth changes of colour (technique) 

 Learning outcome: Introduction to Batik (wax-resist), creativity and watercolour wash technique.