Manna Project International Nicaragua

CREATIVE ARTS CLASS

Every Tuesday and Thursday in Cedro Galan we host a children's Creative Arts Class that teaches everything from painting and jewelry making, to drama. The class size averages at around 12 children from ages 2-12yrs old. With such a wide range of ages in the class lesson planning has proven to be especially difficult. To accommodate all of the students many of the lesson plans are modified to be easier or more difficult. For example when we do beadwork, we use giant beads that are easy to put on string (for the little ones) and tiny seed-beads with tiny holes that are more difficult to work with for the older students. At many of the children's schools art is not considered an integral aspect of an education, so it is a little tricky trying to teach creativity. The children have little patience or confidence in their ability to make artwork and often can be heard saying "no puedo" or "I can't do it." We combat this with lots of encouragement and a regular exposure to all things creative. The program has been running for two months now and we are very slowly beginning to see improvements in these areas. My hopes for this program is to foster and nurture the arts in a place where they are often overlooked.

Rene

Gheral

Arleth