Thu 19.5.11, Morning
Trans. by Bracha B.A.
Art activity in the kindergarten in Hashem Al Daraj.
We picked up Eid, a local artist at Um al Khair and drove to Hasham al Daraj
Our objective was to conduct an art activity and continue our work in Huda's kindergarten. We planned to let the children draw on rocks with finger paints and cotton swabs (an inexpensive substitute for brushes). Huda, Mohammed, and Eid would run the activity and we would be observers.
Hamed has already bought a closet, and the construction of the new building has already begun!
It was good to come back to the kindergarten again. The children are already acquainted with us and run to greet us as friends. We took the small tables and chairs outside and Huda, Eid, and Mohammed helped the children find stones. We distributed cotton swabs and finger paints and the children hesitated to touch the paints at first and only used the cotton swabs. After we painted Eid's nose they got the idea and made some interesting drawings. Huda, Eid, and Mohammed wrote the children's names on the stones. There is a problem of storing things since there are no shelves, but perhaps next time Mohammed will help us fix up a place to hand drawings on the concrete wall and perhaps put up some shelves. At the end of the activity Huda helped the children make a poster with their handprints on it. We think it was a successful activity and something the children have never done before.
We stayed to talk with Huda and to plan future activities. We decided that there would be an activity every two weeks on Thursdays and to make it a permanent arrangement. We gave Huda a notebook to keep a record of our activities. We paid Huda her salary for the month of May.
Huda is interested in running the kindergarten during the summer as a sort of summer camp. We think it would be fun to bring inflatable swimming pools and let the children have the experience of playing the water since they have never done this before (and of course, have never been to the beach).