PRACTICE 2

In this workshop project, we completed a three-part assignment centered on art education, practical research, and classroom management.

First, we analyzed the Primary Education Curriculum of the Región de Murcia to understand the specific objectives, key competencies, and assessment criteria for artistic education across different cycles. Following this curriculum review, we answered several theoretical questions about artistic creation in primary schools. Through these answers, we explained that art does not have a single correct solution but instead encourages divergent thinking, and we noted that children need to develop a sense of time and sequence in their work rather than just focusing on isolated moments. We also discussed how art connects seamlessly to other subjects and why teachers should value each child's individual journey of self-discovery rather than demanding photographic realism. Furthermore, we provided examples of sensory questions to guide stuck students, explained that visual spacing techniques like overlapping show a child's psychological awareness of others, and detailed how art builds essential cognitive, sensorimotor, creative, and socio-communicative skills. We concluded our answers by outlining the four key artistic strategies for primary education, exploring how art serves as a sensory bridge for students with disabilities, detailing proper session preparation, identifying two-dimensional and three-dimensional methods, explaining that assessment must focus on the creative process rather than just the final product, and highlighting museums as valuable educational partners. As a creative group exercise to round out this preparatory work, we also chose a classic painting, Santo Entierro by Caravaggio, and physically recreated its dramatic composition in a group photograph.

Second, we designed and executed an interactive research project based on the a/r/tography approach for a group of seven 6th-grade students, focusing on how making art can help children identify and express complex emotions that are tough to say with words. Our project mixed teaching with qualitative research, and we started with an activity called "Color Your Emotions" where students chose colors matching their current mood and painted a piece of a divided drawing without knowing the final picture so their choices stayed pure. Next, in an activity called "Sculpting the Internal Weather," the kids used clay and recycled items to build 3D shapes representing difficult feelings like frustration or anxiety, which successfully turned abstract emotions into tangible objects they could see and touch. For the third activity, we gave them a simple outline of a human body to create an emotional map, and they used their colors to mark the exact spots where they physically feel those emotions inside themselves. We then had them work together on a "Collective Mural of Empathy," combining their ideas into a large poster that proposed ways to support a peer experiencing these tough feelings, which allowed them to practice teamwork and social awareness. Because we had extra time left over at the end of the session, we quickly adapted and threw in an improvised collaborative drawing game where each student started a sketch for thirty seconds before passing it to a classmate to continue, which kept the classroom energy high and spontaneous.

This entire experience taught us that simple artistic practices have a massive educational impact on emotional awareness and personal development. Our research confirmed our hypothesis that artistic expression improves a student's ability to identify their inner feelings compared to verbal communication alone. We also observed that heavy emotions like anxiety and stress are very much present at the primary school level, even though they often go unnoticed by adults in everyday school contexts, making safe creative spaces absolutely essential. Finally, handling the session taught us the vital importance of group adaptability and flexible time management, showing us that when teachers support one another and students actively help with materials and ideas, spontaneous decision-making becomes highly successful.

 https://docs.google.com/document/d/1EQJ7M5Qh4gIHCYLs8yAFqclUf10GAAbab6GBHP9-wc8/edit?usp=sharing