Bapu in the Drawings of Children
Stories are a powerful medium of learning. When we tell stories to children, it develops their creativity and imagination and helps them to structure their thoughts and ideas. When children listen to stories they become more curious about the subject and the world around them.
While listening to stories children acquire a variety of new words, which helps them improve their vocabulary. In turn, this fosters communication skills and boosts their self-confidence. It also helps them hone their storytelling skills. And this is clearly evident from the drawings of our students and the stories they share with the art instructors.
The topic of the art sessions conducted in September was “Mahatma Gandhi”. The art sessions introduced them to the inspiring stories from the life of Mahatma Gandhi. Since, students knew little about him and his life, they were very curious while listening to the many stories of bapu. After listening to the stories about him, they were able to envision the kind of person he was, his teachings and habits and that’s what they have depicted in their drawings.
By encouraging them to tell stories through drawings we nurture the life-long love for art among children.
Samad (Kodai chowki Government Primary School, grade 5) shared the inspiration behind his drawing with our art instructor Chandan
Kamla
"All the houses near where I live have the National Flag as you can see in my drawing. I have also shown myself cleaning the nearby houses along with my brother and Gandhiji. Gandhi ji was a nice human being, he loved children '', Kamla (Naria Government Primary school, Grade 4) shared the inspiration behind her drawing with our art instructor Kavita.
Sumit
"Gandhi ji loved goats. He used to feed them nice things so that they could remain healthy. Gandhi Ji always drank goat's milk so that he could stay healthy. I have never seen Gandhi ji. I just know him from the stories my teacher has told us about him, and that's what I have drawn", Sumit (Aditya Nagar Government Primary School, Grade 4) shared the inspiration behind his drawing with our art instructor Moni.
Arun
"Once Gandhi ji offered sweets to a sweeper. The sweeper tried to keep some distance between himself and Gandhi ji. Then Gandhi ji asked the sweeper why he was doing that. The sweeper told Mahatma because he was untouchable. On hearing this Gandhiji went closer to him and gave him the sweet. This made the sweeper very happy.
I have never seen Gandhi ji, but I've drawn him based on what my teacher told me about him", Arun (Nagwa Government Primary School, Grade 5) shared the inspiration behind his drawing with our art instructor Harshita.
Jahnavi
"Once Gandhi ji sold his gold kada to help out his brother. He was scared of getting scolded so he lied to his mother about it. He felt really bad about lying so he confessed to his father by writing the truth on a piece of paper. Gandhi ji's father read that and got emotional. My teacher told me this story and that is what I've drawn", Jahnavi (Kabirnagar Government Primary School, Grade 4) shared the inspiration behind her drawing with our art instructor Harshita.
Young children are generally spontaneous in art-oriented activities. Children can communicate thoughts and feelings in art before they develop language-based means of expressing ideas and emotions. Art-making serves as a precursor to literacy. That's what our Let's Start Art sessions aim to achieve.
The art sessions were conducted by Kavita Kumari, Harshita Gupta, Chandan kumar Sahu, Radha Gupta, and Moni Gupta in Government Primary Schools at Kabir Nagar, Aditya Nagar, Orderly Bazar, Durgakund-1, Sundarpur-1, Sundarpur-2, Kodai Chowki, Nayi Sadak, Chittupur, Lolark Kund, Nariya, Bhikharipur.