Category: Art

Mondrian and Picasso: Why Art is Important for Children

5/16/2015

Art helps children develop many important skills such as creativity, communication, problem solving, fine motor, and social/emotional skills.

In these Mondrian projects, the children had to problem solve by figuring out "What rectangle can I fit here?" Some children answered the question "How can I make more colors?"

The children express themselves in very different ways. By using these stampers, they are developing fine motor skills and building hand strength.

During Art, the children are learning to share the materials. They can can show their individual uniqueness through their own art, and this helps develop a positive self concept. Each child is learning that she has control over what she puts on her paper.

When a child shows us her art, we say things like
"Look at how much yellow you used!"
"You used a different technique with your stampers and look at how the blue, red and yellow exploded together!"
"I can tell that you were very careful to keep your red, yellow, and blue separate from each other on your paper."

When we say things like "It's beautiful! I love it!" and "Great job!" we're not actually letting the child know that we see what she created.

Children are learning to express themselves through art. Sometimes it is the creation that is the expression, and sometimes it is the process of creating through which the child is expressing herself.

In these Picasso drawings, children are following directions and building their vocabulary by using positional words.

Elementary Art has tremendous value on many different levels for children. We need to keep this in mind as some public schools are eliminating art programs from their curriculum.

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Art: Lines and Poetry

6/4/2014

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This is an art project we made earlier this year. The children began by making different types of lines across their paper with a pencil.

Once the children had their squiggly, straight and pointed lines on paper, they traced the lines with a black Sharpie.

When they finished their lines, they used liquid water colors to paint between the lines. We always keep liquid watercolor paint in our supply closet - the colors are so vibrant!

While each child was working on his art project, I asked questions for the poetry portion of the project. What is your favorite color? What is your favorite food? What is something you are really good at?

This is a fairly easy, multi-step art project that turns out great even if the kids don't paint neatly in between the lines!

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Last Day Of School: Messy Art Party!

5/31/2014

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Every year, on the last day of preschool, we mix BUCKETS of paint and take the kids outside for an outdoor art experience that they will never forget! The paint on on the left is chalk paint, a mixture of cornstarch, food coloring, and water. The paint on the right is powdered tempera.

We always organize our parties into stations, and groups of kids move clockwise through the stations when it's time to switch. This prevents kids from getting lost or missing out on any of our fun activities.
At our first station, the children got a chance to THROW paint on the driveway!

Our second station was bullseye painting.

We fill large socks with tennis balls; the children get to dip them in paint and throw them at the easel.

At our third station, the children were able to roll paint covered balls down a ramp.

We rolled icy paint around at the fourth station.

At our last station, we painted the driveway with rollers!

It was a blast!

We all used different techniques to get the paint on the pavement.

Some, messier than others.

We all had a great time!

Thank you to all of our awesome WCLC parents who made this year the best one yet! See ya next year!

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Art: Self Portraits

4/12/2014

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Teaching young children to draw is important not only because we are building fine motor/writing skills, but also because young children think, learn, and "read" with pictures before they can do the same skills with symbols. For example, when we play a rhyming game with preschool children, we will match cards with the pictures pig and wig. We do not use cards with just the symbols p, i, and g.

By learning to draw, these children are developing another way to express themselves.

As an introduction to the lesson, the children looked into the mirrors and answered some questions.
"What do you see?"
"How many eyes do you have?"
"What is above your eyes?"
"Is your nose wider than your mouth?"
"Is your neck really skinny or about as wide as your head?"
"What happens when you move your shoulders?"
"What parts of your body can you bend?"
"Touch your hands to the side of your body. Where do they touch?"
We wanted to give the children some sense of proportion before they began.

As they finished their drawing, they were encouraged to add lots of details.
"What are you wearing?"
"Does your outfit have any zippers or pockets?"

These kids did a fantastic job! As you can see, we have necklaces, hairbows, boots, freckles and fingernails on some of our drawings.

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Art: Color Mixing

4/1/2014

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We don't get to mix colors as often as the students would like in preschool. For this activity, we gave each child her own plate so that she could mix her own colors.

Each child was able to choose three colors; we also gave them white.

The children chose very different techniques for mixing their colors. Some chose to mix the colors on the plate and others chose to mix on their paper. They also chose different techniques for sponge painting.

Process art helps develop scientific thought through exploration of cause and effect.

These children are experimenting through their color choices and technique.

While the children are working on their project we help create their inner dialogue and build their vocabulary by commenting on what they are doing.

"I see Aubrie is dabbing lots of different colors on her paper."
"Nicholas is mixing his colors on his plate before he paints with them."
"Allison is swiping the paint across her paper with her sponge."

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Art: Flowers

3/19/2014

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The only "rule" for this art project was that the children draw at least two different types of flowers.

Notice each child's pencil grip! I am a stickler for holding a writing utensil properly, even for the very young. It is better to form good habits now than try to break bad habits later! Children need to learn and practice the proper grip for any fine motor activity.

There are five stages to children's drawing/writing - random scribbles, controlled scribbles, lines and patterns, pictures of objects and people, and letter and word practice.

All of our drawings were very different and that was one of the main goals of this project.

One of the best ways to talk to kids about their art is to tell them what you see.
"I see green and yellow and a LOT of red in your picture."
"I can see you are painting the center of your flower pink."
"I see a very TALL flower and some short flowers in your picture."

It is more important for a child to know that we see his picture than to hear that we like his picture.

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Art: Swirls

3/17/2014

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One of the most important lessons I've learned through teaching preschool is to have everything set up beforehand.

For this art project we made large dots on the paper with our paintbrushes and then used a milk jug lid to swirl the paint around.

This is PROCESS oriented art because we are more interested in the process of doing the project than the outcome. Process art is important in preschool because it gives children time to make their own discoveries.

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Art - La La Loopsie!

2/20/2014

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First, we practiced making loops on butcher paper.

Next we chose whether our paper should be TALL or WIDE (vocabulary building!) and then began drawing loops with our pencils. We traced our loops with Sharpies.

We erased our pencil lines.

We used crayons to add some color to our loopies. I contemplated using “mixed media” for this project, but ended up just using the crayons today.

Voila! Our finished project.

Notes: Mixed media rocks because it gives the children choices and chances to IMMEDIATELY compare the feel of crayon vs marker or the look of marker vs watercolor.
However, I just chose crayons today.

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Process Art - Rainbow Prints!

2/20/2014

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One of the really great things about open-ended art is that it doesn't take a ton of direction - just give the kids supplies and let them create!

For this project, we did rainbow printing. I set out trays with each of the colors of the rainbow on them. We actually have a bin of cool-shaped objects that we use for various art projects, so I picked out some neat ones, put them on the trays, and let the kids experiment. Some of the objects we used are combs, toy truck wheels, contact lens cases, bubble blowers, and some things that I can’t even identify…

When kids are doing projects like this, we build their vocabulary by narrating their actions - “I can see you have a BIG GLOB of green on that bubble blower.” “It’s really neat how you’re keeping all of your colors separate from each other.” “I like how you chose to blend your colors together with the comb!”

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Geometry Throughout the Classroom

2/16/2014

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How do you fit the Geometry Standard into your preschool classroom?

Patterning Blocks! Let kids manipulate different shapes. Ask questions about the different shapes. How many sides does the hexagon have? Are they all the same length?

Art! Let kids explore different shapes - this ‘circle art’ is great for young learners who are just learning their shapes.

Building! The kids need to be able to experiment with different three-dimensional shapes. This is a great math concept because the kids can actually SEE that it takes more blocks to build the longer side of a shape.