Body Painting

Brian tells us about his experience doing art with Italian children...

"On Tuesday of Week 1 I did an art class, which was great fun. We did “body painting”. In this class, the learners draw outlines of their bodies on very big sheets of paper, cut them out and paint them."

"We were having so much fun that everyone was laughing and it was difficult to trace the outlines on the paper. Some of them ended up looking like trees!"

"After we had traced the outlines we put the sheets on the big art tables and everyone helped to paint them in. The learners particularly liked drawing the designs for the shoes – Nike, Adidas, Puma etc. It was quite difficult to draw the faces but we managed in the end."

"After we had finished painting the pictures we labelled all the different parts of the body (in English of course!). We also played a game like “Simon Says”. I would say, for example, “Put your hand on your head”, but of I didn’t say “please” at the end of the command then the learners weren’t supposed to move; they were only to put move their hands if I said “please”. However, I think the learners are too accustomed to doing what the teachers tell them because they always moved their hand, even if I didn’t say “please”. Italian students are very obedient!"

"At the end of the class the learners had learned some new words like knee, elbow, hip, thumb, chin. It was a nice way to combine art with learning English."