And in the last week before Christmas it was all about Christmas candies! 
Groups made little sweets with coconut and festive colouring. The kids seemed to love this activity as it gave them a chance to get messy, be creative AND make something lovely to munch on – yum yum!They designed little Christmas gift boxes to house the sweets for giving as presents but who knows how many of those lovely coconut candies really got all the way home!
This activity seemed to be a lovely note to finish on, although it was slightly sad, as it meant we wouldn’t be seeing the full groups for a month from this point on. But still, there were still a few Christmas parties where we would get a chance to fiesta with the Juconi kids from the sectors.
As the children were savouring the Christmas spirit and there was still a whole five weeks until the big event, during the final two weeks of November, we consolidated our Christmas theme by starting to explore the creation of 3D models with the groups.
We made free standing Christmas scenes with 3D trees and snowman. The children enjoyed decorating their scenes and drawing pictures of their families as well as creating mini-presents to put under their tree designs. These sessions went really well and we were pleased that the children had been able to create something to take home and give to their families as it helped to decorate houses where there are often no festive decorations whilst giving us a greater insight into their family lives.
Turbinegeneration Project
cmap is now part of the turbinegeneration community. Visit the site to see our work or why not sign up for the turbinegeneration project yourself.
This exciting scheme brings together schools from across the globe. Taking inspiration from The Unilever Series, (the annual installation in Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall) schools form creative partnerships to explore their cultures and exchange their artwork online. Galleries and artists can promote their programmes and make International connections.
Register now Visit: http://turbinegeneration.tate.org.uk/ The Unilever Series: turbinegeneration is produced by Tate and sponsored by Unilever.
Posted in News
by Lynn on
November 24, 2010 at 4:23 pm
Keeping with the Christmas theme, we decided to make Christmas stockings this week. Many of the children do not have much in their homes at Christmas, and far less receive presents or anything that makes them feel special. So the stockings filled a double function: firstly giving the children a chance to creatively make an object, even sewing wool through the holes to give it an authentic look as well as creating Christmas designs.
And secondly, we decided that we would hold on to their stockings and return them to the kids just before Christmas but this time with a few little extras!
The groups were pleased to find an added surprise comprising little sweets and pens when we returned the stockings and the rulers, in particular, proved popular!
So Christmas started early here in Guayaquil! We got started with Christmas cards way back in late October in order to make sure that they were made in time to be sent to the donors in foreign lands! Whilst initially a bit confused, the children soon got into the Christmas spirit and enjoyed getting messy with glitter and paint and writing heartfelt messages to their donors.
After our first three weeks, this week Helen and I have really started to feel that we were really getting into the swing of things with Club de Arte. We’ve been able to see how much the children enjoy Club de Arte and the opportunity to do creative activities and just how much pride they take in their work. It really makes us feel proud to see their faces on completion of one of the activities.
In one of our Northern sectors, the kids got pretty exuberant with the paint and we can safely say that they did some highly creative things with the paint… not sure how much of it got near the cards though!
Since having tables and chairs in one of our sectors, Balerio Estacio, the sessions have gone like a dream. We couldn’t quite believe our eyes when the children came straight into the building calmly took a chair, sat at a table and looked up at us expectantly wondering what they were in store for today! We went with the flow and went straight into the session without even doing a warm-up game as they were so eager. The intense concentration on their faces as they focused on their task is, for us, a joy to see.
Juconi was recently awarded a Human Rights prize and as a result, we created a video with some of the children from Nueva Prosperina in which they children got to say ‘Gracias´ in their own special way.
Olivia y Helen
