Methodist School group 3

Today and yesterday we did group 3 and group 1 of the Bethel methodist school. These two paintings are from group 3 children. One of the chidren decided she has a long and skinny face, the other one thinks her face is big and round. We try not to help the children but to really make their own decisions while painting. Which has great results. Some children have true artistic talent and most love to paint. 

Terminal School

I always give examples of shapes a your head. After that, the children look in the mirror to see what shape they have. 

Only 6 children that do elementary scohool at the terminal school. Each of them has an individual program. On Wednesday afternoons they have art class, so that was the best time for us to come by.

 Teacher Hilda Doek joint the class. Somehow her  portrait resembles her. I guess it is in the eyes. 

Paintings

Some of the 250 paintings we have now. Another 140 to go!

Governor de Graaffschool

Here you see some pictures of the children of Gov de Graaffschool. Teacher Eric also made a portrait as you can see.
We did the Governor de Graaffschool in two days, yesterday group 7 and 8, today group 1 to 4 and group 5 and 6. The school is small, the atmosphere is great. The children were very supportive of each other. Today, we had two visitors, Elaine Marchena from OCW and Rens van der Hammen from RCN. They are making an article for the education magazine for Bonaire, Statia and Saba.

Today

Annelies and Annemieke helping the children of group 4. Fortunately we had good aprons. Yesterday was the last day at the SDA school. It was funny to have group 4 and group 7 on the same day. The children of group 7 are working in silence and do not need much help. The group 4 children, on the other hand, can not be left out of sight. before you know it, they make a mess of a beautifull picture!!!

Sketches

Here you see some examples of how the children make their sketches.

Measuring the eyes

I teach the children that the space between their eyes is the size of one eye. They look in the mirror to see if it is true.

Sda school first day

After the week opening, we set up the tables for the art classes. We have plenty of space!

Help from Dennis

Olga went by the two shops that sell wood. One does have panels we could use, but if we buy that, it will cost us 800 dollars. This is plywood and we could use less heavy panels. We decided to ask Leen de Jong, director of the Gwendoline van Puttenschool. They do have wood there at the school.  Luckily it is herfstvakantie and the new "houtbewerkingsteacher" Dennis van Nielen was present at the school. He was sitting in the patio behind his laptop. He was trying tonsend pictures to his former students in Rotterdam. We talked about "buurman en buurman", he said he always imitated them in class in Holland. We thought the Statia students might like buurman en buurman aswell.
When he was finished, he showed me his workplace. It has all the equipment that is needed and three large airconditioning machines hanging on the wall. There also is a seperate class for his theorylessons and outside there is working space aswell as two containers for supply. We founf exactly the amount of wood we need and Dennis said he will do this job with his students, he will make it prefab there at the school and take it to the Wilhelminapark in time.

Wilhelminapark

Today Olga and I went to the GIS office to meet Malvern. She is in contact with the BVD about protocol during the royal visit. She showed us the map of Wilhelminapark and told us what will take place there. There will be a choir, a dance group, traditional music and the signing of a kind of treaty
with paul Rosemoller. In Holland he is involved in "JOGG" (Jongeren op gezond gewicht) which means "youth at a healthy weight". On Statia we have called it "Statia in Shape" before and we keep to that slogan.

The King and Queen will walk around the park, on the grass and will have the opportunity to talk with the people and children that are there. There will be a corner for the senior citizens aswell.

Me and Olga were very happy with our corner at the Wilhelminapark. On the picture you can see we have the prettiest tree and plenty of shade.

Our First Week at the Golden Rock School

Early monday morning we came to the Golden Rockschool. All the children were gathered for the week opening and the principal, Rosalie Lopes, introduced us to the children. We had the opportunity to tell the children what we were going to do the coming week, but they allready knew. Ms. Lopes had three big tables ready, the church had brought them and had figured out that we best started with the highest classes. That appeared to be a good idea, because day by day we became better at our job. By the end of the week we were such a smooth team that working with the little ones, that need so much attention, was a breeze. Thank you Rosalie for your hospitality, thanks to all the teachers who were so enthusiastic and encouraging toward the children. And thank you, lovely children for the wonderful pieces of art you made. Some of the children did not understand they would eventually get their picture back. We keep them with us, until the King is back in Holland and then we give them back to the school.

Here is an photo impression of our first succesfull week: