For week 5, the kids used a mix of clay and markers to imagine what they would add to printed pictures of their school grounds, drawing on a piece of acetate that enclosed the picture. I assumed, like from my other groups, that the kids would add something to the image, and many of them did! However two of the boys in my group did something a little different. Instead of adding something, they just coloured in the existing photo with the acrylic markers. One of the pictures depicted the school in the colour gold. One of the boys used the picture of the forest near the school and made the entire thing green except the tree branches and trunks. I asked them if they would add anything to the picture, and they said no.

At first I thought that they were disinterested in the activity, but I realized that that was not the case. My understanding of imagining was too narrow. Imagining does not have to mean that physical items are placed, but also applies to physical changes as well. They were imagining their school with more colour, and a forest with brighter leaves. In a way, these two boys were imagining a brighter world. This change in perspective really changed the way I viewed their artwork, and demonstrated that children not only imagine through the presence of objects, but through physical changes in their existing environment. I want to ask them how to make those changes. How do we make the forests more green, more vibrant? How do we turn imagination into creation?