In the process of -The art of imagining friendly ways of life with our environment-, we have had as motivation the video made by the shadow theater group El Gamma Penumbra on climate change:
We took some time to listen to what the kids had to say about environmental problems they see in Seðisfjöður and in the world. In icelandic they are called „Vandamál heims“.
The first thing that the kids of 4th grade said was: People don’t like to talk so much about this. Then they were talking about the amount of garbage that there is and that many people do not separate the garbage or do not use the garbage can. They were talking about smog, about there are too many cars and about the need to respect nature.
When the kids started to design a poster with a message, the messages were: Too much trash in the world / Throw the trash in the garbage / Stop cutting down the trees in the world.
In the case of the 5.6.7 grade group, they have talked about :
an island of garbage in the ocean that is three times the size of France,
the importance of companies investing in selling durable objects (furniture, kitchens, etc.) so that we do not have to replace them over and over again, buying and buying.
The situation of knowing about global warming but continuing to produce excess plastic and garbage, which we know, affect the climate, and damage the earth.
When I asked them a phrase that synthesizes everything we had discussed, they said: We are not talking so much about climate change and that is the biggest problem.
At the next meeting, we set out to imagine how to help mitigate climate warming. The kids from 4th grade have found a table full of reusable materials and the invitation was Build an object that shows us a better world.
The artworks that were born, were:
a friendly bus instead of an individual car,
a trash can and other characters saying, „We are not trash“,
another trash can,
a mask made of cardboard,
a warrior of the world,
a house with solar panels.
The 5.6.7 grade group was invited to imagine an environmentally friendly city; We have investigated what solar panels are, what tree corridors are in an ecological city and the kids have opted for a city without cars, only bicycles.
Each member of the group contributed a piece to put together a model of a -dream city- and then they filmed and said a few words about his look at the problem of climate change.
Sincerely,
Tessa Rivarola
The 11-13 year old young artists from Grand Expo Online School in Ukraine are making and sharing art with six students between 10 and 12 years old and the eight 9 years old from Seyðisfjarðarskóli in Seyðisfjörður, Iceland.
