Week 1 was focused on the sense of touch and how we perceive the world through feeling. The children were tasked with creating stamps by collecting the impressions of objects in a piece of clay. During week 1, there was a bit of a split in attention between my exercise and the sandbox they had for the kids. I was able to combine the two by inspiring the kids to make stamps out of their favourite toys and things that they enjoy playing with in the pit. This resulted in a quite interesting moment where the things that they gravitated towards created a fun new game when combined with our exercise.

Week 5 was all about imagining changes to the environment around us. The children were given a photo from the area and were instructed to use air dry clay to add things to the image that they would like to see. This week I had one child set up next to me, pretending to be my partner in delivering the program. Together we mixed new colours from the clay and made images. With him present, we were able to attract other children who had before been too shy to interact with the program before this point. Sometimes a guiding hand from a peer can be the right touch needed to help a child along.

It showed me just how much the artistic process and the activities resonated with the children, even the ones that were too shy to participate before. Children think, perceive and internalize information differently to how us adults do, and working with the children at this site helped me further understand the importance of listening to the way they do and cultivating an environment where they have the confidence to express themselves artistically.