Welcome Back! Let’s Start with Art

Welcome back to school! It’s a fresh new school year and the season of beginnings. Many of you already have classrooms filled with eager, bright and often shy new faces. Others are busily preparing for that exciting first day of class. All of us, whether we are teachers, parents or simply “grown ups” who love children are eagerly anticipating a year of joyful learning.

Let’s explore how ART ties in with those first exciting weeks of school.

How do YOU use art to help children engage in your classroom? Here’s a useful handout to send home with parents as school begins - it helps them understand how they can partner with you in using art to help children grow and become their best selves.

Recently I asked a group of seasoned teachers about their favorite “first art project.” Several responded with SELF PORTRAITS, I liked that! But given that there are so many drawing materials to choose from for a self portrait, where is a teacher to begin? I love the use of BOLD permanent markers for early self portraits. Here are some examples of back to school self portraits from Francine Farkas’s 4-year-old class.

Francine gives children bold, permanent markers to draw with so their portraits really “pop” on the page. She keeps these initial self portraits in her children’s Art Portfolios (more on that in a future post) and they will serve as a “baseline” drawing of each child’s development when the year began. Each portrait will be saved and shared at parent/teacher conferences and will serve as a valuable reference point for measuring developmental growth as the year goes by.

Francine mounts each portrait onto construction paper to emphasize the importance of each one and to create an “art gallery” effect. Because her classroom is not so large, she uses the supply door closet as a gallery space.

The teacher next door took a different approach to her “first art” self portraits, still using bold permanent markers so the portraits “pop” on the page, but adding a photograph of each child. Look closely at the clever use of a blank picture frame held by each child in its photograph.

This teacher’s laminated self portraits hang outside her classroom door. What a delightful way for both children and parents to be greeted at the start of each new day.

Teachers in the four-year-old classrooms at Pressman Academy often leave fine tipped, black permanent markers (PERMBLK) out for open-ended drawing, and as a result children create bold pictures with a sense of authority.

One other thing: When I asked my group of seasoned teachers for their favorite “art tip” to start the new year right, they said to offer lots of open ended exploration of art materials right from the start. This included the simplest idea of starting out with easy to use Colorations® tempera cakes (A8TCA) with Colorations® easy grip brushes (EGBRUSH).

And moved on to including unusual sensory art ideas that children would not likely find at home. Such as these rainbow striped pom pom balls (COLORPOM) in a sensory tub (TUBS) which I saw in one classroom, and those same colorful pom poms in another classroom on trays with sea and zoo  sticks (AP632J) and a variety of other pinch grippers. I loved both these applications! And I also imagined several other things we might do with these same colorful, oversized pom poms.

Have a wonderful new year, and don’t forget to stock up on fun new art materials to inspire your students and keep YOU feeling inspired as well.

 

Materials Used:

Colorations® Black Permanent Markers - set of 12 (PERMBLK)

12 x 18" Colorations® Heavyweight Construction Paper - 50 sheets (12CP)

Colorations® Jumbo Tempera Cakes (A8TCA)

Colorations® Easy Grip Brushes - set of 10 (EGBRUSH)

Rainbow Striped Pom Poms - 200 pieces (COLORPOM)

Sand and Water Activity Tubs - set of 4 (TUBS)

Sea and Zoo Sticks - set of 4 (AP632J)

 

* Brought to you by Discount School Supply®

* For more ideas, visit Art and Creativity in Early Childhood Education



Foam Paint Fun!

When was the last time you used Colorations Foam Paint in your classroom?  This paint is so much fun, children never get tired of it no matter how many times you bring it out.  Here's the way I set it up for a group of 4 year olds.

Here we are using Foam Paint to decorate the cover of Paper Bag Books, which we had made the week before. Here I am introducing the idea to everyone, you can see how engaged they are.

Foam paint is so inviting, children are always eager to get started. Of all the paints I use with children, foam paint is one I can bring out again and again with any age child and they never get tired of it. There's something magical about watching brightly colored foam spritz out of a can and pile up high on a plate! It even makes noise as you spritz in out onto a paper palette, it is the ultimate sensory experience!

Sometimes I pass out large bristle brushes and sometimes we use paper towel rags to apply the paint.   Here you see four year olds applying foam paint with large chubby brushes.  You can see the white crayon scribbles underneath the paint, if you look at the finished book on the tabletop.
 

And here you see a 3 year old boy applying foam paint with a paper towel. He is using the paper towel as a "painting rag" instead of using a brush. Either paper towel rags or large chubby brushes works fine, and I suggest you try both ways at different times. After all, when you vary how you apply paint, you stimulate new problem solving and a variety of different fine motor skills.

Here's the finished result from the 3 year old class. In this particular application, the children were working on "Rainforest Paintings." They used large write crayons to first put down lines that represented rain (scribbles, dots and stripes) then patted foam paint on top with their paper towel rags. We used foam paint that represented the colors of the rainforest. Then, for the final layer, we used Liquid Watercolor in bingo bottles to create rain "splashes" on top. The foam paint gives these paintings wonderful color and texture. For an introduction on how to use foam paint, view the video clip below. Thanks for checking in!

MATERIALS YOU WILL NEED:

Colorations Foam Paint, set of all 7 colors - BFPSET
Triangular Chubby Brushes- TRIBRU
Large White Crayons - 12PCWH



Reggio Inspired Use of Liquid Watercolor

I just had the good fortune to attend an inspiring BJE Early Childhood Institute hosted by Adat Ari El Synagogue in Los Angeles. I was completely mesmerized by Adat Ari El’s classrooms, which were full of life and color, and clearly reflected engaged learners. I found great pleasure and inspiration from their use of art and the way children responded to their open ended approach to creativity. Check out these colorful examples:

Their ECE Director, Beryl Straus, explained to me that Adat Ari El has been slowly incorporating Reggio Emilio principles into their curriculum for seven years. Adat Ari El preschool is known in LA as one of the places to schedule a site visit if you want to learn more about the Reggio approach to learning. But Beryl pointed out to me that their Reggio inspired program didn’t happen overnight - that their curriculum is always in a fluid state of change, adaptation, and improvement. They have an “Atelier” (art studio) and an “Atelierista” (art specialist) – how exciting! But each of their teachers also incorporates art in their classroom daily, and they share ideas and materials with Tali Soffer, their Atelierista. Adat Ari El preschool is a truly engaging environment and I’m happy to share photos from their Atelier and classroom art here, by video clip. Most of the artwork shown here uses Liquid Watercolor, one of my favorite paints. I found Liquid Watercolor being used in every classroom, with beautiful results.

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Materials List

Colorations Liquid Watercolor - complete set of colors

Colorations Liquid Watercolor Kit

Colorations Oil Pastels

Real Watercolor Paper - 50 Sheets

Colorations® Super Classroom Paint Brush Set