Volunteer Spotlight: Interview with Avanthi Seneviratne

Avanthi talks about her experience as a volunteer art teacher for Let’s Build Great Things!

VolunteeringRanitri Weerasuriya13 March 2024Sri Lanka, Art class, volunteering, 2022Comment

Volunteer Spotlight: Interview with Tharshika Sivagnanasunderam

Tharshika talks about her experience as a volunteer art teacher for Let’s Build Great Things!

VolunteeringRanitri Weerasuriya19 June 2023Sri Lanka, Art class, volunteering, 2022Comment

Volunteer Spotlight: Interview with Pulith Jayarathne

Pulith Jayarathne talks to LSEG- Sri Lanka about his experience :)

VolunteeringRanitri Weerasuriya6 September 2022Sri Lanka, Art class, volunteering, 2022Comment

21: Temple-Mosque-Kovil-Church

Today’s lesson was derived from an old thought, a larger project designed around the conversation of religious tolerance. Can art help foster this?

Maker skills, Fostering ConversationRanitri Weerasuriya13 January 2021Sri Lanka, Art class, workshop 2019, PrayerComment

20: Attempting to Fly

The challenge: Make something that falls slowly, or make something flies in the air

Problem Solving, Maker skillsRanitri Weerasuriya29 November 2020Sri Lanka, Art class, Flying objectsComment

19: Mini Treehouses inspired by Laki Senanayake

It was truly exciting to watch the transformation of these little ‘trees’ into adorable little dwellings, each with their own atmosphere and personality.

Educational tourRanitri Weerasuriya17 September 2020Sri Lanka, Art class, tour, Laki Senanayake, Exhibition workshop, MaskComment

18: Spirit Animal masks at Lunuganga

Soon we saw animals emerging out of their masks. Several owl’s, several monkey-lions, turtle-fish and so on.

15: Building a little Sri Lankan village

The next day, back at the class after the tour of Apè gama, we selected a collection of natural materials that were a miniature scale of what we had seen in real life. The models that the students came up with were INCREDIBLE.

Observation, Educational tourRanitri Weerasuriya27 April 2020urbanism, Sri Lanka, Colombo, Art class, Environment, village, gama, tourComment

14: 2019! Tour of Apè Gama (Our Village)

We explore a village in the city to understand ecological ways of living through traditional, vernacular ways of life.

13: Building our Mini City: Reimagining Colombo

Mapping big and making a playful, colorful three dimensional model of our dream city!

12: The City is our Classroom: Our Class Tours Colombo!

The City is our classroom on this double decker adventure.

11: Mapping our Street

‘Do you see the humps on the road?’ ‘How many garbage trucks are parked across the playground?’ ‘Did anyone notice the staircases leading to all the houses? How many are there?’

We accepted any answer.

10: Mapping our Classroom

We had students come to the white-board to draw the class table, the cupboard, the computers, the trees outside, even a car in a ‘bird’s eye view’.

Observation, VisualizationRanitri Weerasuriya8 November 2019urbanism, art, class, mapping education, Sri Lanka, Colombo, Art class, mapping, maps

Thoughts: Building Hope with our Children

How do we react and foster conversation in the face of a traumatic event?

Thoughts: The WhatsApp Fundraiser

Given the motives of the class to promote ‘observation’, next week’s workshop involves a tour of the City of Colombo. I really want the kids to experience something special.

FundraisingRanitri Weerasuriya8 July 2018sri lanka, Whatsapp, Fundraising, Bus tour, colombo

9: CLAY: Exploring materiality

Is it soft? smooth? heavy? wet? As we continued spinning the bottle, the students themselves began the search for interesting materials to hand over to their blindfolded companion.

Maker skillsRanitri Weerasuriya24 June 2018Materials, Clay, Art class, Architecture for kids, Materiality, Texture, makingComment

8: Building an Iratu Bridge

Can Iratu hold up a stack of books? We build a bridge out of it.

Problem Solving, Maker skillsRanitri Weerasuriya23 June 2018Stick, Iratu, Mini Bridge, Structures, Architecture for kidsComment

7: Mapping your School

Why does this place make you happy? Why don’t you like this place? Can we all think of ways to make the sad places happy again?

ObservationRanitri Weerasuriya23 June 2018mapping education, mapping, Architecture for kids, Art classComment

6: The Rain Problem

The following week, it rained during the class, and the kids excitedly claimed ‘Let’s take our umbrellas outside!!’

Problem SolvingRanitri Weerasuriya17 June 2018sri lanka, Kids, making, rain, umbrella, Project Based LearningComment

5: The Cardboard Tower

We stacked the boxes back up and it looked pretty great! It was well over 7 feet tall and the kids impressed themselves with the scale of their own work.

Maker skillsRanitri Weerasuriya16 June 2018cardboard, Tower, sri lanka, Kids, making, Art class, architecture, urbanism, MakeComment

Workshop Journal