On November 28, 2020, the last trip of the year of Thang Long school’s art class was held at the Saigon Zoo and Botanical Gardens. Unlike other years when children of the art class often left the busy city to the sea sights or the mountains to produce more creative pictures. This year, the students were taken to The Saigon Zoo and Botanical Gardens by their art teacher to have firsthand experience the most authentic pictures of animals that are very familiar in life but can only see them through photos and books.
All 21 students and the 3 teachers in charge were having a wonderful time here.
Most of the children in the painting class are in Primary and Secondary, so they are all very innocent kids. When they came to the elephant cage to draw the first picture, the children rushed to see the elephants and spend some time study the elephant here, smiling and talking playfully. The innocent drawings of the actual elephant through the child’s gazes are pretty unique and each painting has its way of innocent and lovely features.
For the next topic, they were required to draw giraffes. Seeing tall giraffes for the first time, all of them were raising their eyebrows in surprised. They quickly settled in front of the wooden bars, drawing and chatting with each other very excitedly.
After lunch, the children are free to visit any animal that they want around the centre of the zoo, where there are animal cages close to each other. The children go in groups and have a teacher in charge to watch over them. This is the time for them to go sightseeing and draw freely. After the teacher’s order to disband, some of them rushed to the tiger’s cage. 1 student pulled the teacher’s hand and lead to crocodile cage, some like to see the bears, some like to see the deers, children were running everywhere.
The sun gradually rises to the top, but the atmosphere inside the zoo is still very cool and fresh thanks to many trees around. Students had finished drawing. The teachers guided the class touring to the remaining areas and then out to the gate. Meanwhile, other teachers booked tickets to the History Museum and watched the water puppet show as a reward for the students for all of their hard work in paintings. The children were very excited. When they were going to the museum, they were very focused on the museum interpreter’s explanation about the meaning of each antiquity. Then the part that all of us are waiting has come, the water puppet show. This is a form of folk art that is slowly disappearing in the modern age. For the children, watching water puppet show is a very new and interesting experience They cried out in surprise every time puppet characters appeared behind the white smoke or each time the puppets splashed water on their rows of chairs.
At the end of the trip, all of the students had an interesting and realistic painting experience. Everyone is tired, but they are all happily looking at these lovely animal pictures they have drawn. They also have a chance to learn more about the ancient Vietnamese history and last but not least, experiencing and amazing water puppet show.
The purpose of this trip is to give students a real-life painting inspiration as well as a present rewarding them for a year of good dedication to study. With the love for children, we would like to ensure that every kid in Vietnam has access to the best quality education, so they can develop themselves intellectually and spiritually. No matter where they born or how difficult their family circumstances are, every child entering Thang Long school receives the love and the best quality education from the teachers and staffs of Saigon Children’s Charity