Favourite colours

The 7 year-old Ukrainian pupil who did this left the school today to be relocated from the ship to a hotel in East Kilbride. Springtime means "Jack and the Beanstalk" as a context for my EAL learners and this was her work today.
 The reason for posting this is to do with watching the child perform her task of recreating scenes from the story.  She was completely absorbed in it, head down talking sotto voce in her mother tongue to the scenarios she was creating. A check for English grammar and spelling then she patiently had the characters talking, first in English and then in Ukrainian. 
 Thoughtfully she added colour, picking dark green for the stalk and light green for the leaves of the beanstalk; also particular was her choice of colour for the clothes. This done she took a fine black pen and went over it all highlighting the shape and contour of her creation and bringing it to a sharper definition. She was absolutely absorbed by it. As her world was shaken by upheaval and change once again there she was: a quiet, still centre of attention bringing such care and detail to her creation. I found it so moving. Such simple focussed pleasure in creating a world and painting it your favourite colours.