About Corina Chiran:
"I had the chance to translate in Romanian a workshop of the famous Irish story teller- Joe Brennan, who was in Romania for a Theatre festival for children. I was following Joe in a Romanian kindergarten for 3 days and I realized then for the first time that working with children is fascinating. I have designed my own games and exercises and I sent an intention letter to all the private kindergartens of Bucharest. At the moment I’m working with 2 private kindergartens in Bucharest where I lead an original workshop in artistic improvisation for 2 to 6 year olds.
I use in my work with children poems accompanied by physical elements, various exercises on music, psycho-drama elements, original drawings containing objects / figures from the various outlined shapes: palms, fingers feet of every child. I wrote 2 books of Roamnian poems for children and I created and developed a theatre performance for 0-3 years with Cliodhna Noonan, and the show was produced by Ion Creanga Theatre, Bucharest, in may 2009."
’Little Magic Moments’
Group therapy, in which each child narrates an event that happened at home, an important moment in their lives or something they were punished for from memory, according to the theme of the session. In this photo we were talking about a nice dream that we had and we remember.
Expression -game - in silence I purpose some movements that the children imitate. I alternate simple, correct movements with funny gestures. The have to follow, eventually to smile, but not to laugh in order to maintain the silence as the rule of the game.
Free stories with finger toys - improvised by the children.
Drawing. Related to the theme of the therapy game (photo 1) I ask the children to draw their short stories (for example the dream they had)
Drawing. As above.
Imaginative development - Colored spots. Using little colored balls, made from ecological leather, the children choose which color they prefer and they imagine various round objects. The spot in the photo looks like a forest fruit tart (cake).
Role-play. The children choose which character they would like to be from the story I read and in doing so they learn basic acting skills. In the photo a cat is asking the friendship of a kitty, after offering her a flower.
Warm-up game. I said: ‘when the music stops every child must sleep, no matter where’. In the photo are 3 good friends that decided do sleep close to each other.
Free stories with finger toys.
Improvisation and Artistic Interpretation - I asked them to pretend that they are all trees in a forest. The boy in the photo said: BUHUHU. And I said: the trees are not speaking and he replied: Was the bird on my branch that did the noise.
Warm-up game. I said: ‘when the music stops every child must sleep, no matter where’. In the photo the boy found a nice pillow.
Improvisation and Artistic Interpretation- colored scarves: with these scarves, the children dress-up and disguise themselves in turn. They try to guess who the characters are.
Creative Artistic Play - In every session, using the outline of the children’s hands/ fingers/ fists/ toes/ heels we create a drawing to take home and keep, almost like a certificate of participation in the course. Sometimes the drawing is a collective effort (using all the hands/ fists etc in one place) and the crèche keeps it.
The importance of documentation
"I guess it is essential for me to document constantly my work, first of all because I am a free-lance artist. I don’t depend on any structure so I have to promote myself in the most transparent honest way to the parents, to the kindergartens managers, to the festivals organizers, in order to achieve their attention and their trust.It is hard to manage 15 -20 little children in the same time and to try to take some spontaneous photos too, then to update constantly my blog with children’s sayings and to compile weekly feedbacks regarding children’s behavior, but documenting I keep my mind very clear, I confirm to myself why I am doing this fantastic work, I correct my method when necessary and thanks to the fabulous power of internet I can share with others extraordinary moments that the children are offering to me."
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