This luscious painting was created by a first grader. She told me, "I'm just seeing how it looks to paint circles softly. Then sometimes I just put the brush on the paper. I'm trying different colors, too."

Here is a side by side of her two paintings. On the right is the rainbow, with a few experimental marks. I asked her if I could display the painting. She looked at both of them and handed me the rainbow. "You can keep this one," she said, "I can make other rainbows, but I don't think I'll ever be able to do one just like this [experimental painting]. My mom will really want to see it." Had I had my own classroom, I'd have shown her some work done by Kandinsky . . .