LAA open house

Reflections on GSEL project (The Little Arts Academy Open House 20-23 Nov 2008 )

1. Through the project, I learnt to accept different opinions and ideas of others. Constructive criticisms make us aware of our individual differences and of peer reactions. I want to bring this experience to my students and get them to know their own individuality and not be fearful of their expressing their personal opinions.

2. Serendipity learning is an unintentional outcome of exploratory learning of efforts. We tend to seek order and meaning in our lives, and the acknowledgment of our inability to predict and control events of some importance may be highly unsettling (Bandura, 1998). As can be seen in the project, students have a rewarding experience if they explore with curiosity and without inhibition.

3. Play is designed primarily for enjoyment; it has a dose of fantasy and is internally motivated. As can be seen in the gsel project, the arts, used as a “play” allows the students to imagine, try out different roles, tests their own behaviours without the fear of reprisal. Through the arts, the students can investigate the sensory qualities of the environment; understand their own emotions, feelings and their own social setting and the world they live in. I understand that though the arts seen as “play” is considered not important as it seems to achieve nothing, the gains made during the process of art are of enormous importance.

Felicity Lim Sy Hing

Reflections

Helping out with this GESL project has really enlightened me alot on the learning process of education.

During these two days, i have a chance to meet kids from diverse backgrounds. Some are very well behaved kids while there are the usual mischievous ones.

In a particular media recording class, I had to step in to help the trainer with a particular child that seemed rather adamant towards following the class syllabus and being insistent on doing things his way. Later on, a young girl stepped into the class late so I took the both of them.

To my surprise, this young little primary 4 girl exhibited a level of matureness that I have not witness in most of my upper secondary students. She treated the lesson very seriously, gave a very good media recording performance, and yet at the same time understood that the boy needs a little more attention.

This incident left me to think about what kind of an education and upbringing that the little girl has been thru for her to grow and mature at such a young age. And should I ever find out the answer, I will definitely want to instil it into my class lessons in the future.

Another thing I have learnt from this project was that young kids tend to love art subjects more than academic subjects regardless of their backgrounds. Be it whether they are shy or outspoken, well behaved of mischievous, when it came to the badge making, they were all very excited at the prospect of colouring their badges and bringing it home. So much so that I had to purchase more badges as they ran out on Sat.

As educators, we can definitely explore this avenue of designing lesson plans for the students.

Cheers,
Low Kiah Yong

Behind the scenes

I, for one, fully support the idea of giving children the opportunity to develop their creativity. Its like how important education is in developing a nation and to equip people with skills for thinking for themselves and understanding the world around them. However, it is unfortunate that things like creativity tend to be lacking in formal curriculum due to the difficulty of black and white justification (via grades for example). But the importance of creativity is that it allows people to be passionate and to develop self-confidence in taking that first step in exploration, discovery and creation. Creativity is not synomymous with art and design but rather the ability to think out of the box (i.e. non-uniformity/conformity and originality). And this idea of passion for creativity is what I feel is essential (but still lacking) in most of us.

I babble. Okay. So yea, we split ourselves up into groups and had meetings up down left right. I would say most progress would have been at the premises itself as watching the completion of the very creative and child-centred interior design served as a source of inspiration and encouragement to all of us. Working in different teams, we split up the tasks as efficiently as we could and coped with whatever extraordinary working styles we had. Wasn't easy, but we made it!

Design documentation :

So I had to do all the design bits for this event. We initially thought of having certificates as a token souvenir for the kids but in the end, we could just make do with a brochure.. and then just an e-brochure...

The main thing I had to ensure was that I was able to capture what LAA was about, and to recreate something that was in sync with what the LAA representatives wanted. So while I was pretty happy creating random kiddy-styled designs (though its so totally not my kind of design), I still had to go down to the premises to take photographs and integrate those mascots and color motifs in their own flyers in order to create something that everyone would be satisfied with.

And abit of the challenge was that everything was evolving at the same time so as the way design usually goes, it was important be chilled and just go with whatever changes needed. Another thing to note about design.. to never be overly attached to your design at any time as most of it would be process and not final ;)

So here's the final brochure. Leaving it here before removing it from my computer.. :)

Signing off for the last time as
- The Design Team

the little arts academy fashion show!

we, the NIE students, came up with a fantastic idea to get the children to do a runway show! it was 2 hours of great fun and a big frilly mess in the pantry of the LAA grounds. :)

the pantry is transformed into our work room. lots of cutting, pasting, rolling, wrapping.

the old and young helping out.


this girl crouches in one corner, working on her masterpiece. she does everything quietly, in her own way.

and she quietly pastes it on her group's model.

another boy helps out. hard at work.

let's put it on!! check out that silly grin. :)

the finished product.

another group's masterpiece. this girl gets into character so deep that she answers every questions with a penguin-esque "beep!!".

all the finished products after the runway show.

and now, all the groups with their prizes!







alright i'll be back with more photos of other events happening during the open house and more reflections!

Lianya

LAA Open House :)

I had the honour to attend 3 classes during this open house. I learnt a great deal from the instructors and had lots of fun! It was a great way to spend my weekend!

Baking Class

We had the chefs from Raffles Hotel to teach us how to bake the bread and butter pudding. Children were made to see, smell, touch and taste the natural raw materials (e.g. cinnamon and vanilla pods) used to bake the pudding, which was very educational. They were also taught to keep the cooking area clean and dry as well as to wash the utensils properly after each cooking session. The recipe was easy to follow and the end product was yummy!

Drama Class

The first session was relatively quieter as the children were shyer. However, during the second session, the children were very active and open. They made use of their body language and facial expressions to display their emotions. Some impromptu comments and movements they made really crack the instructor and helpers up, I could not stop giggling and laughing!

Project Runway

The children were separated into the different teams and were asked to think about their favorite animal. After which, they were briefed to make use of the recycling materials available to make a costume of that animal they had in mind.

I was encouraged by some children who volunteered to be the model for the group. Their enthusiasm was infectious as the other group members began to contribute excellent ideas to the costume. Some parents also took a step forward to help.

The models were then asked to parade along the reception area, pretending to be the animal they were dressed in. The shyer children braved through the crowd nonetheless. After the parade, some children insisted on keeping and bringing their costumes home, this shows how much they value and treasure the costume they had made.

All in all, I enjoyed myself tremendously with the children, the staff of LAA and my team mates in 'The Oneders'. I brought home a handmade badge as well as loads of happy memories!

Thanks to everybody, who played significant roles in this memorable event of mine!

:),

Angeline

LAA Open House: Opening Up New Doors

After much preparation and anticipation, the LAA has officially opened with a successfully conducted Open House from 20-23rd November.

I went down along with my fellow coursemates from NIE to assist in the running of this event and the event was an eye-opener for me.

Brother and sister reading after badge-making

I interacted with the two kids in the picture above earlier when they were making the badges. They are brother and sister and came along with another sister. The three kids struck me as being very outspoken, bright kids. They told me how they enjoyed the workshops they had attended they day before. They also started to tell me about who ate faster than who, what their favourite food was and other random but very interesting facts. It was the opportunity to interact with these kids that I really enjoyed.

More kids hard at work at badge making

I went on later to help out at the Tote Bag making competition and was really amazed at the works that these kids came up with. At the workshop, a parent started to speak to me and she told me that she was truly thankful for the opportunity for her children to come and explore their interest in the arts. As I saw the kids in the workshop do their totebags, it was truly inspiring to see how much effort they put into it and how simple yet personal their totebags were. There were kids who just went from workshop to workshop continuously, from totebag painting to percussion then High School Musical and drama. Children indeed have endless amounts of energy, as I can testify to having to play with my six year old nephew at times, and it was great to see their energies being channeled to something positive and useful.

Both volunteers and children enjoying tote bag making

The "letter-writing" exercise was indeed an activity that left an impression on me too. I remember Adelina mentioning at the Little Arts Academy, they believed that the arts has something to offer to everyone, that the arts is a means and a channel to inculcate values and to teach the children something about themselves. The letter writing exercise was truly a testament to that as the children channelled their creativity towards being effective 'ambassadors' for Singapore. They had to think about how to convey a warm greeting and how to represent Singapore through their works.

As a literature teacher and a strong believer in the arts, I too believed that the arts has a lot to offer to each individual as a means of self-exploration, reflection and discovery. The Open House indeed bodes well for the work that the Little Arts Academy is going to do for all the children that enter into its gates. Thank you LAA for this opportunity to be a part of your work for us to learn more too about how we can help our students in the future!

Andrew

Open House basic details.

Hello :) welcome to The Little Arts Academy!

The Little Arts Academy (LAA) is an interdisciplinary creative space, which aims to discover and develop artistic talent, build confidence and nurture compassion in every child through the arts. Offering training by professionals in dance, drama, new media, visual arts, music and singing, The Little Arts Academy will provide opportunities for all children who have strong interest and artistic potential to receive interdisciplinary training in the arts.

The Little Arts Academy has been running special programmes from November to December 2008. These Special Programmes are short, intensive training programmes in specific areas of the arts, usually held once a week, over 10 training sessions (60 minutes per session).

From Theatre, Visual Arts, Ballet and Brick Film animation, The Little Arts Academy will give your child an insight to the holistic interdisciplinary programmes developed specially for The Little Arts Academy, and will give each child the opportunity to determine which of the genres he or she might prefer or be naturally talented in.

Children with strong interest and potential in specific art forms will be encouraged to enrol in 2009. Additionally, all Special Programmes will culminate in a mini-showcase of what the children have learnt and parents, teachers and friends are welcome to enjoy the performance.

To find out more about our programmes, please visit our Open House :)

First, we need to tell you about the dates and times.

Dates: 20th to 23rd November 2008 (thurs-sun)
(22nd-23rd Nov workshops are open to public)

Time: 11am to 5pm

Venue: The Little Arts Academy city campus
Address: 1 Selegie Road, Paradiz Centre #05-01/02 Singapore 188306

Here below is a map of the campus and directions on how to get there.

(map courtesy of Google Maps)

Buses: 56, 64, 65, 131, 139, 147, 166
MRT Station: Dhoby Gaut MRT (NE6 for North-east line; NS24 for North-south line)