After the musical mayhem of Colonial Vacacional, we got re-established with our regular Art Club routine. We were really keen to start integrating some theatre into our sessions as we believed that not only would the groups find this great fun, but it would increase their confidence and improve their communication skills as well as giving them new coping mechanisms to deal with the challenges of their lives.

So for the first few sessions back we used lots of warm up games and ice-breakers in which we could gently integrate some more theatrical activities. We had some great dressing up games including Grandmother’s Footsteps which promoted movement skills, spatial awareness and concentration. The Chocolate Game went down particularly well as it was very fun and messy with kids stuffing as much chocolate as possible into their mouths and rarely using the knife and fork designed for the purpose – we also had some lovely characters created in the dressing up clothes.

Other theatre games included emotional pictures where the groups represented emotional states using sounds, movements and facial expressions. Letting the kids use their instruments from Colonial Vacacional such as maracas and tambourines really gave the kids a sense of power when demonstrating emotions through noise! The game Ten Second Objects saw groups of children recreating everyday objects such as the sea, a bus, a dog etc.

Getting the kids used to theatre games helped to stimulate their creativity and imagination and gave them a chance to express their creativity through movement and sound in addition to visual art. Last but by no means least, many of these games as well as eliminating inhibitions, help to increase the concentration and listening skills of the kids; something that some of our groups find rather challenging!

As well as using instruments to make the sounds of emotions, we had a session in which the children drew pictures of particular emotions such as happiness, sadness and anger….and wow, what interesting pictures they produced.

At the beginning of Colonial Vacacional, which is the equivalent of a summer activity scheme, we launched our next theme: The Music of Ecuador. As part of this we had a quiz in which we discussed the huge range of musical styles that exist in Ecuador: Pasillo, Marimba, Sanjuanito, Pasacalle and Yarabí to name a few. We played ´name that song´ in which the children had to guess the singer and the name of a song by a famous Ecuadorian Pasillo singer and were hugely impressed by how well the groups did. Our group in Fertisa did us particularly proud with one of the groups getting a full 12 out of 12 points – well done Fertisa!

Marvellous Maracas!

For each of the subsequent sessions, we gave the groups new instruments to make which included: Maracas made out of old plastic bottles, pasta and scrap paper; Drums made out of plastic lunch containers, masking tape and material; and Tambourines made out of polystyrene plates with dried beans, secured with staples or sewn shut with wool. There were some beautiful creations in all of the groups and we even managed to create a few bands after doing some very fun and even noisier beat workshops with them! The children loved the chance to make a racket and it was fabulous to see them investing so much time and attention into the process of making these brilliant instruments.

In two of our three Colonial groups, the sessions culminated in a crescendo in which we had the kids using their feet to create art. Again, this was all about breaking down the perception that art has to be perfect and feet art is definitely messy creativity at its best! So we had groups dancing on material to the tunes that we played. They dipped their feet into the paint and danced whilst the other group members accompanied the songs with their instruments. Fantastic footwork we say and a fun finale to Colonial Vacacional!