Fun lessons for learning art while studying English
May I have 7 seconds of your time? Aya-chan series: "Learning Art and English"
Aya-chan is a 5th-grade girl as of this spring.
She has been coming to learn painting with me alongside her father since she was in the 3rd grade.
On this day, I had Aya-chan work on her English studies while drawing illustrations.
Aya-chan studies English in school and can generally write the alphabet 👏👏👏. However, there are still some letters she struggles with occasionally, such as the differences between uppercase and lowercase.
If you look at the picture above, you can see where Aya-chan had trouble. By the way, she drew this while singing the alphabet song 🎶. Therefore, she wasn't thinking at all about writing neat or beautiful letters while she was drawing them.
Even if she made a mistake, it's fine as long as she learns while noticing the error, so I had Aya-chan keep drawing the alphabet on the drawing paper.
And then, right after that, I told Aya-chan this:
"Try coloring in the areas enclosed by the lines of the letters."
I said.
And then...?
Oh, how wonderful! It turned into a beautiful illustration like the one above!
It looks like a little piece of art (laughs).
What's interesting is that although I requested Aya-chan to "try coloring in the areas enclosed by the lines of the letters," she accidentally colored in a space that wasn't enclosed in the letter N halfway through.
However, I thought it was beautiful, so I just said, "That's okay" (laughs).
There is no rule that says you must do things exactly as instructed.
In this way, just by coloring the letters as she felt, a beautiful picture was completed.
I hoped that she would notice the beauty of the colors and the unintended fun of the letter shapes while playing.
The world is full of beautiful things.
That is what I think.
Of course, in reality, the world is full of complex and dirty things, but I hope that the sensitivity that "the world is beautiful" will sprout within Aya-chan...
That is what I wish for while teaching these lessons.
<By the way, what is the letter that looks like an 'h' at the bottom??? It also has a black dot in it. It almost looks like an animal. It's a very beautiful design.>
<This picture is posted here with the permission of Aya-chan and her father.>
<I have taken a break from "My Showa Sketch" this week.>
<©2026 Art/Aya & Yu Morio, Text/Yu Morio. This picture and essay are protected by copyright. AYA & Yu Morio. This picture and essay are protected by copyright.>