Each year the students attending Portage Ukrainian Nursery School Inc create a variety of artworks, from watercolour self portraits to the parent project and more.

Watercolour Self Portraits

It is interesting to see the changes to a young child’s ‘people’ drawings as they grow. From scribbles and dots through to distinct faces, bodies, limbs and detailed hair and clothing. Our children were given mirrors, plain paper, small clipboards and permanent markers and tasked with drawing pictures of themselves. These drawings were cut out by grown-ups and set aside. Water colours, paint brushes and quality paper make for vivid artwork. This activity is a favourite with the children as they enjoy watching the colours blend as they run into each other. Once the paintings dried, the children’s drawings were adhered to them making for a beautiful, personal piece of art.

The Crayon Project

This year, one of our morning kids really loves to peel the paper off crayons. The other kids quickly jumped on board and ‘The Crayon Project’ was born. Present and past nursery families donated boxes and boxes of crayons for the project. Crayons were snapped, grated, and melted with a hair dryer to create several unique pieces of art for our art auction.

Sticks, Paint and Markers

When Mr Bond has extra wood scraps, he kindly drops them off at nursery school for us to use at the art table. The last box came with many rectangular pieces and the children used liquid water colours (as we so often do) and permanent markers (again, as we so often do) to create colourful and interesting art pieces. Some signed their work. Some took it home that day but most were worked on by multiple children and returned to the big basket on the floor. We are using them as a back drop for our art show family photos this year

Fabric Art

Watercolours are a favourite medium for the children and this year we gave them large pieces of sheer material to work on. Having a large soft surface to paint on was a new and very different experience. The children used liquid watercolours, paint brushes, pipettes and permanent markers to create their group art in this project. Brushes allowed for controlled lines. Pipettes allowed spurts of paint to be sprayed. Markers added detail. Colours were layered, making for new hues. Hands were painted and prints made on the fabric. When pools of paint seeped through the cloth to paper below, the children pulled it out and pressed it on top of the cloth, making interesting relief art. Each piece is unique as different techniques were experimented with.

The Parent Painting Project

Families in our nursery school are required to help as volunteers throughout the year. Parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles take time from their busy schedules to spend time reading books, building block towers, visiting the playhouse and preparing snack. We work to keep our nursery art projects openended and creative. For this project, we chose larger canvases and the children used painter’s tape to divide it, making spaces for themselves and their volunteer adults. Children and adults were given specific instructions not to influence the choices of their co-artist and had to mix primary colours to make what they needed. Most of the children quickly put brush to canvas and enjoyed stirring the vivid paints to make more choices. Adults seemed to take a little bit longer to get comfortable… We love the fearless approach children have to art and we hope adults nurture it so it is not lost as children grow older. “The creative adult is the child who survived.”

Kids Behind the Camera

At our nursery school, children are taught how to use digital cameras. They have free access to three cameras to document their days with friends. Our goals for the children during this experience are: -the children express themselves as they learn to make intentional choices when taking their pictures -they learn how to use the digital cameras, -they develop an awareness of photo composition and the vocabulary that goes with it -the children gain an awareness of themselves, and others, as they take photos -social skills are developed as the children acted as photographers in the nursery school room.