There is a hive of activity in the Art room, lunchtime Tuesdays! The Kindergarten boys often call it ‘chew and draw’ as they often need a little longer to finish their lunch. Lunchboxes in hand they arrive ready and eager to participate in Drawing Club. 

The simple act of drawing does indeed play an important role in a child’s physical, emotional, and cognitive development. Like no other activity, drawing allows young children to express emotions, experience autonomy, and build confidence.

I love hearing the stories they share from their drawings at the end of the session. Drawing lets their imagination run wild and it’s so much fun delving into creative thinking.

All the boys have a range of explanations to why Drawing Club is so popular at lunchtimes:

• ‘I like drawing club because I get to draw with my friends Alfred and Leo. We draw our Chinese characters and my friends help me draw.’ Justin (Kindy)
• ‘I like drawing stuff because I like the stuff that I am drawing. I draw dolphins and seals. I draw at home too because I want to make puppets out of the stuff that I draw.’ Beau (Kindy)
• ‘It’s fun when I draw. At the moment I like drawing chameleons. Sometimes I draw dragons. I like drawing the things I like’. Elliot (Kindy)
• ‘I like drawing because I like making my own creations. I like making monsters and I use my brain and my imagination. I create a super drill that can drill two thousand million trillion. It can drill super deep and find dinosaur fossils.’ Thomas (Kindy)
• ‘I like to draw a dinosaur because it can breathe fire. You can change anything you want when you’re drawing. You can change a lion to a tiger. I like drawing everything.’ Austin (Kindy)
• ‘Drawing makes me draw better. I want to draw really good so I can be an illustrator.’ Younghoon (Kindy)
• ‘I like being an artist, like Picasso, he is really good. He makes people stay in a pose for about an hour. You can learn how to draw and its fun drawing because you can draw anything you like. You get to practice your drawing in drawing club.’ Christian. H. (Year 2).

As you can tell from the boy’s comments drawing is a magical experience when you are a youngster. There is no limit to your imagination when drawing. Drawing helps enhance the development of their brain by putting all parts of the brain to work. The left side of the brain is usually responsible for facilitating logical thinking while the right side is for creativity.

People draw to heal, to tell stories, to express joy, hate, love, loss, they draw to escape. This is what I like about drawing and creativity. Because it helps us grow and be a better version of ourselves.

Kylie Bain – Art Teacher