Our sixth graders stepped deep into prehistory, back to the flickering firelight of ancient caves, where the first artists told stories through pigment and motion. Using wrinkled paper as “stone,” they worked with earthy ochres, umbers, and reds to evoke the primal atmosphere of sites like Lascaux and Altamira. But this was not mere imitation, t was reinvention.
One cohort explored colour innovation, fusing traditional prehistoric palettes with modern harmonies and complementary contrasts. Their hybrid cave paintings pulse with unexpected vibrancy; electric blues, fuchsias, and acid yellows humming alongside iron-rich siennas. These pieces bridge millennia, where ancient myth meets the bold experimentation of 19th- and 20th-century painters.
Another cohort focused on movement and rhythm, capturing the charge of the hunt and the fluidity of herding animals in motion. Using charcoal and layered mark-making, they discovered how repetition, overlap, and gesture could transform still figures into galloping forms alive with energy.
Together, these works celebrate the timeless impulse to create, to communicate experience through symbol, colour, and motion. Each piece is both ancient and new: an echo of humanity’s first storytellers, reinterpreted through the eyes, hands, and imaginations of a new generation.
MMI Art Expanded Classroom 
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