The Best Art Activities for Kids (extra ideas in the Kids Art link on this blog!)
EXCHANGE EVERDAY, May 19, 2016
In her article, "Why Typical Preschool Crafts Are a Total Waste of Time" in Science of Us, Melissa Dahl discusses insights from the book by Erika Christakis, The Importance of Being Little, regarding the mindlessness of common preschool craft projects:
"Christakis's objections, to which she devotes an entire chapter of her book, are about these kinds of preschool crafts as a whole: the cotton-ball snowman, the paper-plate Easter bunny, even the perennial classic Thanksgiving hand-turkey. These activities, she argues, place too much emphasis on the product — in this case, something to hang on Mom and Dad's refrigerator — and too little emphasis on the creative process. Kids at this developmental stage benefit from messing around with paints, or clay, or crayons; they gain little, on the other hand, from assembling together some construction paper shapes that their teachers cut out ahead of time....
"There are some equally important developmental markers — social and emotional skills, for example — that are overlooked entirely by the hand-turkey activity and others like it. If you listen for it, Christakis says, signs of this kind of development are evident in 'the kind of really rich, expressive language that emerges when children are engaged in creative work, like building a fort or playing house with other children. In contrast, that kind of self-expression doesn’t happen during a more by-the-numbers 'creative' activity, the research suggests. As a consequence, 'we have very little sense of these young souls who are doggedly making turkeys,' Christakis writes. 'Whether it’s turkeys or rodents, there is so rarely a sense of a real child, in a real place, attached to any of the institutional paraphernalia affixed, with pride, on people's walls.'
"A better way to go about art projects for this age group, she argues, is... placing more emphasis on teaching children skills and less on having it all result in some tangible creation that can be dropped into a backpack at the end of the day. Instead of giving kids a project of making a sunflower out of a paper plate and premixed paint, for instance, what if preschools took the time to give them real instruction in how to use real art materials, like clay? Christakis, herself, was skeptical of whether this could actually be worth the effort when she had her own classroom, but she’s since changed her mind. Imagine what could happen, she writes, if a teacher would instruct her class how to actually use clay — how to shape it, how to change it with the use of more or less water, how to keep it from drying out by storing it properly."
Contributed by Zvia Dover http://www.pakeys.org/uploadedContent/Docs/ERS/Process%20v%20Product.pdf
The Importance of Individual Expression through ArtAr
By: Michelle Mallonée
We all know that parents like those cute little pieces of art to hang up on the refrigerator. They like to be proud of what their child produced. While it is important to please the parents it is more important to look at what the child is gaining from that project. What goes through a child’s mind when his/her finished product does not look the same as the example? A feeling of inadequacy because his/hers is not as good as the rest? A feeling of failure to comprehend the directions?
When planning art activities for children stop and ask yourself . . . What are we teaching children through these pre-cut, pre-planned out comes? Does the project inspire the child to think creatively, or express him/herself uniquely? Are the children being offered the opportunity to explore and discover the materials set before them? If the answer to any of these is nothing or no then you have planned a project/product.
When art materials are used the focus should be on the process or the skills that children are developing and practicing by using the materials rather than on the end result. When children explore with the materials, they also have the opportunity to practice fine motor skills used later for writing and self help. Math skills emerge as children experiment with shapes and size as well as lines and space. Science skills come into play as children discover that red and blue combined creates purple. Most importantly is the opportunity to have a sense of control over the outcome and to use these skills to create something that is uniquely their own and to showcase the way they perceive the world around them.
The ERS scales focus on offering children the ability to utilize art materials for “individual expression” meaning that the children have the opportunity to select either the medium (materials used) or the topic (what is created) if not both. If children are provided with blue paper, glue sticks and some cotton balls and are told to make the clouds in the sky (even if there is no teacher example to look at) this is a project because children were not able to choose either the medium or the topic.
Now if the same materials are set out on the table and one child makes a sky, another makes a sheep, another makes cotton candy, and another randomly places the cotton on the paper and does not call his/her creation anything, then these children were at least able to select the topic even though the materials were selected for them.
On the other hand children may be provided with the topic to create (ex: the sky) but offered a variety of materials (paper, cotton, glue, paint, yarn, crayons, macaroni, stickers, play dough, egg cartons etc.) from which to choose. One child may select the blue paper and cotton balls to create clouds while another may select colorful yarn to create a rainbow, and another may drip the paint onto the paper as rain or snow. This method offers children the opportunity to express their own personal view of what they think and see in their mind when they hear the word sky.
The highest quality facilities take this one step further by offering children the opportunity to select from a variety of materials as well as the topic created. So on the same day you may see squiggles painted at the easel, snowmen made from play dough, a necklace strung from painted noodles, and a crayon drawing of mommy and a dinosaur. This is okay! This practice allows children to explore the art materials in a way that is meaningful to them and create something that is important to them at that moment. It offers children the opportunity to experience the difference in texture between tempera and water color paints and to see what type of line a smaller brush will make. It allows them the opportunity to figure out through trial and error what is the best tool for flattening the play dough and much, much more. But most importantly it allows children to problem solve, express their unique creativity and to be and feel successful with the experience.
In his article in the May 2016 issue of **Exchange**, "Children Draw the World to Know the World," Jinan k.b., the force behind the Re-imagining Schools at a school near Pune, India, offered this observation:
"Drawing is the playing that children do on two-dimensional space, which is where modern humans are located most of the time. In the three-dimensional space, that is in the real world where children play, again, provided they have their way. But when they are forced into the two-dimensional world of the book, they draw. Drawing comes naturally to children, unlike writing. They draw on the wall, paper, floor, even on water, and on any such space where children can get their hold. They draw with whatever they can get hold of. Apart from pen and pencil, their own fingers come to help while drawing on the plate, misty windows, and so on. Through the process of drawing, children are able to understand how the world looks — the form, what happens around them, both in the natural world and the social world. The reason, rules, what, and how children draw are dictated by biology or nature or life, provided we don’t interfere. The same is the case with play."
Distinctions Between Two-Dimensional vs. Three Dimensional Art
www.ehow.com/list_7146764_preschool-3d-art-projects.htm
bugs, hats, clay
www.ehow.com/list_6460261_preschool-3d-art-projects.html
ocean animals, windsocks, hats
www.ehow.com/info_7830875_three-dimensional-art-ideas-preshcool.html
recyclable object city, pasta art, clay art, decorating rocks