“The beginning stages are where the students learn the most. They need to research topics and themes together with teachers. A mythology mural will bring history, literature, art and math together. They then need to look at an image, simplify the shapes, scale them up and check perspective all before even picking up a paint brush”. It is a literacy that is all too often forgotten about — a visual literacy that tells a story.
Creating murals requires an ability to simplify and reduce a complicated image down to its essence, so that it can be ‘read’ from a distance.”And I never use brown or black while painting. It makes painting much simpler and makes students look at objects in terms of the colour of the light falling on it an not a preconceived idea. A tree trunk is not brown.
It’s the sort of ‘outside the classroom’ experiential learning that has proven to help kids learn difficult concepts. The students don’t even realize they are ‘learning’ because it’s fun (kind of like summer camp). For Maureen, she enjoys working with each student individually, allowing every one to add something unique to the mural. “Working with two students at a time, for half an hour each over 5 days, 60 students have the opportunity to contribute, taking ownership of the project and making it a truly a collaborative effort.”
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