PL25 HA Let’s paint the picture! Warsaw in my heart.

During a visit to the Royal Castle in Warsaw on the previous day, students select a given painting and take its photo. As a follow-up activity students use tablets and the application called Infinitive Painter and their task is to draw an imitation of their famous painting in the application. Students are given approximately 45 minutes to do it. They can perform this task individually or in pairs. After the completion of the task, they present the original version and their created copy to each other by sending in to Padlet and  they talk about the most significant message of their selected pictures and their original author. They try to comment on each other’s works and find their strong and weak points. They assess each other’s engagement, creativity and faithfullness to the original. Teachers initiate a brief discussion about the role of painting and benefits of possessing at least elementary knowledge about European (and not only) art. Students talk about their feelings and emotions related to their contact with art, painting in particular, and they talk about advantages of possessing artistic abilities (e.g. an ability to draw and paint). The activity develops the students’ artistic abilities – everyone can become an artist for an hour and create their own work of art. It also enhances students’ assessment abilities as they need to critically assess each other’s works. They increase knowledge on European artistic legacy but also learn new communicatice and interpersonal skills and get to know how to talk about art. It can be a perfect initiation of students’  new hobbies and interest and a stimulus to become more involved in the world of art. and to gain new knowledge on movements in art. and artistic skills.

The final product of the activity is the reproduction of famous Polish paintings, prepared by the students. Due to this activity students not only learn how to use the new application but they improve their knowledge on history of art. and european painting. They become more sensitivre and internationally-minded. They learn how to appreciate and discuss works of art. They also practise linguistic skills and learn how to collaborate in pairs and groups.