Enjoy Art
Connie Jo Smith, Region IVB TASC, Western Kentucky University, Bowling Green, Kentucky
This article was inspired by the authors and artists of the Fine Arts Curriculum used by the Western Kentucky University Camus Child Care. Those artists are: Teresa Christmas, Lisa Embry, and Keith J. Overton.Breanne is painting with water colors and using a Q-Tip as a brush. Adam is pulling a 24" piece of yarn, which has been dipped in paint, across a large piece of newsprint. Morgan is squeezing a plastic bottle, with thick tempera paint inside, to make designs on construction paper. Zachary is finger painting on a special slick paper. AJ is painting on an easel.
·Paint can be very enjoyable for young children. Many kinds of paint can be used. A variety of instruments can be used in addition to brushes. Lots of types of paper add to the exploration. Look around for ideas.
Lauren, Traven, and Christian are working together to glue things on a large piece of paper attached to the wall. They have already glued feathers, seeds, and twigs on their collage. Robin and Eric are making a collage on a piece of newspaper on the table. They are stapling pictures cut and torn from magazines onto their collage. Becky is working on a collage independently on the floor. She is pasting many kinds of fabric onto a sample of wallpaper. She has included silk, corduroy, felt, and cotton. Tiasha ia making a collage on a piece of paper of cardboard. She has glued on sand, glitter, and cotton balls.
·A collage is a picture made by attaching materials to a surface. Materials can be attached in many ways: stapling, gluing, pasting, taping, etc. Materials to be added can be any thing that is safe and pleasant for children. The surface for the collage can be plywood, construction paper, cardboard, poster board, oak tag, wallpaper samples, etc. Children can make individual collages, small group collages, or a class collage.
Janine is coloring on a poster board clipped to an easel. Logan is rubbing a crayon over a piece of typing paper which is on top of sand paper. Elisha is using a cheese grater to shred old crayons onto wax paper. After the crayons are shredded another piece of wax paper will be placed on top and a teacher will iron the two together to create a picture. Travis is coloring on manila paper. After he is finished coloring and he will place his picture on a piece on newspaper and paint over it with thin tempera paint.
·Crayons can be used in many ways to encourage children's imaginations. A variety of crayons and many kinds of paper will extend the children's experience.
Providing materials and encouragement of creativity will result in art activities that stress the art process instead of the product. Finding ways to help children express themselves throughout the entire process is well worth the planning time it may take. Looking for the artist inside each child helps, and we can all show acceptance of creativity by being creative ourselves.
Providing exposure to art is the best way to enhance children's art education. Before introducing art to children it is important to become familiar with art materials, artists, and quality of work. A visit to museums and checking out books on art from the library are good places to start.