We decided to do scrapbooking with the Ukrainian community with the children and teens. We decided to meet every Sunday at 2 pm. On the first day, we sorted out the materials we needed for the class before letting the children begin working on their books. The children had the opportunity to design their scrapbooks using colourful paper, stickers, paint, and other craft materials.
We spent around one hour to an hour and a half with the kids, playing music and making art. Throughout the class, the kids learned various techniques, from layering to creating unique layouts, all while expressing their personal stories through their artwork; each scrapbook was filled with special photos, drawings, and mementoes. The children began to make their pages in their scrapbooks, layering different materials and adding cut-ups from newspapers and magazines and printed-out pictures, glueing them together.
At first, they were shy, and we had a language barrier, which was a little hard to communicate, but then, over time, they began to open up to us. We got to know them personally through their art by seeing how they expressed themselves through their art, who they were as individuals and the way their ideas came together in their scrapbooks. Some of the children did collage work, while others drew from the inspiration they found in their everyday lives.
When the finished scrapbooks were done, we got to see the pages coming through and how different each one was, which reflected their distinct personalities.
