The RCEF Blog 博客

Namaste,Merrybelle! Hello from India.
I am terribly sorry I have not replied your email earlier about your lesson plan. The past month has been crazy.
Anyways, I am glad that your storybook project with the kids is going so well. I love your ideas about the scavenger hunt and drawing faces. Last month I have just finished a project with a painter and a group of refugee children using painting and video to talk about “what is home.” I want to share this process with you. Hope it is helpful. We didn’t really request the kids to be creative but tried to provide them a way to find themsevles. Being able to explore one’s visiion usually will lead to unique stories. The children has been given three colors to do abstract paintings to express what they see—like “imagine you are standing in front of the window of your house, what do you see…” “Imagine you are flying in the sky, walking in a forest, you are finding a place to land.” We also took kids to parks to look at trees, film trees, and paint trees in day time and night time. I was amazed by the colors and expression the children developed in their paintings over the past month, despite the fact that they were having a hard time to stay focus during activity. In the final part of the project, the children were asked to put together the paintings based on their visual connections and write a story. The story came out amazing original.

SOrry i have to go in ten minutes. Here is a short brain storming piece for my new video based on the children story. The writing is quite messy but can tell you a bit about the process and the stories:

Intro:
In this documentary, I will use mainly the paintings and stories created by three girls(two refugee and one buffalo girl) to tell an emotional and artistic search for self, friendship and home through a journey of watercolors with an refugee artist who grew up in buffalo and shared somewhat similar childhood experiences.

Brainstorming about structure:
OK, this is just my imaginary structure. I have not “examined” the footage carefully yet. But in my head, the footage plays together like this. It may not make sense. Just a rough idea.:)

1. Opening: Ajak’s story: “Once upon a time, I went through this time portal…I found an heart-shaped land, I saw lots trees surrounding a house in the middle…..I never leave there ever again” (A scene of Ajak telling her story with her hand moving from painting to painting)
2. Girls sit in a circle using a camera to interview each other about each other, where they are from, what they want.
3. Pragna: “Close your eyes, imagine you stand in front of a window…Kids’s discussion on their paintings that reflect what they see from a heart-shaped window.” Children doing painting, showing the images they film from their home windows inside or outside. (Perhaps I should add a short of girls holding the camera and stand in front of a window. Ajak said she can’t film at home because her mother doesn’t like. I will go with her to find a window that she likes outside and film from there.) Then, Elizabeth talks about her image—”I saw the sun through a rain drop looking out from my window” more girls talk about their images…
4. Girls started using brush to explore colors and went on a visual journey—Elizabeth tells her story: once upon a time, I went on a journey, I saw purple, green….changed into organze….I met a friend called…
5. Pragna’s interview with Elizabeth. Elizabeth said she felt the trees in her present world is brown, because she is surrounded by all brown people…Ajak said the trees in her hometown are red, and then now are black…they explained why…
6. Pragna: “Imagine you are walking through forest, flying in the sky, you are looking for a place to land…”
7. Pragna’s conversation with the girls on her purpose on this painting project, and the girls’ find out more about Pragna and her experiences…
8. Children’s discussion on the colors of their trees in the painting, in the past and the present. Girls asked Latrisha: where are you from? Latrisha: Buffalo. Girls to Latrisha: You never moved? Latrisha:”Never.” The girls were surprised then they listen to Latrisha’s stories about her moving from different houses…Latrisha is one of the girls who are not refugee in the program. (Interview Ajak why she doesn’t want to draw roots for her tree?)
9. Latrisha’s story about her growing a garden that keeps dying, and she finally gives up.
10. I originally want to end at Latrisha’s sad story but I want to give a more critical note. So I may try to interview Latrisha why she wants to leave a sad ending for her story, since children’s stories usually have a good ending. We will see what she would say. The end.