Close your eyes and with a pencil draw a scribble on a sheet of paper.

Pass your scribble on to your partner who will look at the scribble from all angles and find a curve, a vague shape, a connection of lines to which she will add lines and colors to create a "found" image.

and a dog with a bowling pin

This exercise is a great way to introduce children to drawing. Even those who "can't draw" can scribble, and it turns out it isn't all that difficult to find something in a scribble that can be made into a recognizable image either on your own or with a little help.

A next-step drawing project is the wall mural.

Children draw pictures and other children add to them or contribute a new image of their own – the process repeating itself until the paper is covered with ever more elaborated pictures. This can also be done with a group of children around a table.

Here each workshop participant has started a picture--realistic or abstract: a mountain shape, a heart, a blue streak that could be a river. Each image is passed on to the next person, with the papers going around the table gathering details added within a limited time frame (in this instance only 60 seconds) until the paper arrives back to the originating artist.

With children working on a wall mural one does have to be alert for and ready to respond to the child who happily draws bombs falling onto all the images.  

Workshop participants hurrying to add their two-bits
to each picture that comes their way. 

And then there is clay!

Children love to work with clay. Clay is messy. Clay needs to be kept moist. Clay can be frustrating. The manipulation of clay can be as much or more fun as creating a finished object that can be dried and painted. Clay objects break easily. And then there is – clean up! But children love to play/work with clay.

Rings off. Water ready. Dig in!

 
Working the slab and starting a coil.

For some it's the plain


and for others the fancy.

We leave the cleaning up to your imagination, but we proved the maxim that
many hands do make for fast work.

What the participants said about the workshops:

• "I feel more empowered/inspired to facilitate more 'directive' projects rather than just let kids do whatever they want."
• "This gave me ideas for projects. It also taught me how to approach art for children and how to reinforce good behavior – let them call the shots."
• "This will help with the process of getting children involved. I'll use it to get more emotions/feelings involved with the art."
• "I previously didn't consider myself an artistic person and I was always hesitant to try things. You really got me excited about art! Not only do I want to do stuff with the kids. I want to buy stuff for myself!"

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