So it was a Friday afternoon, which meant art, which meant portraits as that was the topic.
Previously the children had learnt how to draw their own face (with the help of a mirror, and a lot of patience from me).
Phrases such as "are your eyes really on your forehead" / "have you got a nose on your chin" / "don't you have any hair covering your forehead" / etc had been frequently uttered in absolute despair as they produced what I thought at first were classic Picasso style images.
The latest lesson involved introducing paint (a chorus of "whoooo" went around the class), followed by a discussion why there was no pink paint in the pallete tray. Finally the answer "we don't have pink skin "was suggested - but only after a lot of prompting.
The task of this lesson was to mix white with traces of yellow / orange / brown to create a skin tone very close to their own. They could test this by putting their hand next to their creation and compare. Simple. Maybe not...
A few minutes into the lesson and one of the boys is asking for mirror. "A mirror?" asks the teacher. "Yes. ", he replies, "I want to see the colour of my skin."
Obviously this child does not consider his hand to contain any colour at all. Bizarre!
