Have you Tried? Crayon Box Wash and dry an empty cardboard juice carton and cut off the top. Using bits and pieces of masking tape, have the children tape up the entire carton, covering all sides, the more tape the better. Use crayons to color the masking tape box. The tape makes the box sturdier and will make a great crayon holder for their desk or dresser. Paper Towel Tube Holders Decorate a paper towel tube with paint, markers, glitter, stickers, construction paper and crayons. This becomes a colorful carrying tube. Roll their pictures up and put inside to take to their teacher, grandparents, friends, or relatives. Some special pictures could be for their Grandparents, a special aunt or uncle, or even for a brother or sister. Protect Paint Brushes bristles by storing them in small straws. Hanging Artwork Hang art at "Your" Standing Eye Level. Most people hang artwork too high. If you are unsure, drop the artwork down by 3". Over a Sofa hang your art only 6" - 8" above the back. Homemade Decoupage Instead of purchasing premade modge podge, make your own by mixing equal parts of white crafting glue and water. c.2004 - 2008 |
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| Visual Arts |
| Tips for Supercharging Your Child's Creativity
1. Question and Challenge Assumptions. Ask your child to imagine new ways and wonder, "What if?" "What if you could have a dinosaur as a pet?" "Imagine vacationing on other planets." 2. Generate a lot of ideas. Anywhere. Anytime. Encourage your kids to be creative everywhere-at restaurants, shopping, or traveling. Bring along plain paper and crayons so kids can draw what they imagine. 3. Explore other points of view. Ask your kids to put themselves in others’ shoes. See the Earth as an insect would, or imagine what it would be like to trade places with a friend for the day. 4. Encourage creative collaboration. Few creative solutions are generated in isolation or by one hero. Build on each other's ideas. Serve as a role model by tossing in your ideas, too. 5. Combine facts with fun. Knowledge and creativity go hand-in-hand. It's the playful spin on what we know that leads to a new discovery. Take a simple problem you notice at home and ask your children to be inventors who create new solutions. Stages of Artistic Development When you marvel at the artwork created by renowned artists, remember . . . before they drew or painted masterpieces, they had to experiment with scribbles, non-representational art, raw sketches, and various art mediums. Children normally go through developmental stages that affect how they draw and create artwork. Toddlers scribble from the first time they hold a crayon until around age 3.They marvel at how their movements create marks. By scribbling, toddlers build wrist and hand muscle control, grasping strength, and eye-hand coordination. They progress to a more controlled use of lines around age 3. Between the ages of 3 and 4, preschoolers gain more small musclecontrol and perceptual abilities and begin to form simple, rudimentary shapes. Three-year-olds usually master circles, which emerge from controlled scribbling. Circles are the simplest shapes to make. Aligning lines and creating corners enables preschoolers to create squares. Most 4-year-olds can imitate making cross marks, squares, and triangles, then progress to initiating these shapes on their own, with no model to follow. Around 4 years of age, children begin to combine shapes to make nearly recognizable objects, like a person or house. Prior to age 4, children create "non-representational" artwork, meaning their creations don't represent anything—at least not any object that others would recognize. At 5 years of age, children draw pictorial images. Their people have limbs and show motion. Their butterflies include colorful sections and details with antennae and wings. As children mature in age and have more art experiences, they learn how to use line, color, shape/form, and texture to communicate thoughts and feelings visually. As children learn about the principles of visual organization—unity, variety, balance, repetition, rhythm, pattern, emphasis, proportion, perspective, composition, and movement, their artwork becomes more sophisticated. The development of a young artist is a marvelous sight to behold. This school year, really look at your children's artwork and appreciate whatever stage your child is in! Creative Exercises Everyone will need a blank piece of paper, a few paints, a brush and some containers to mix colors. Make sure each person memorizes where each color is. Take a deep breath and close your eyes. Now mix the colors that make a perfect sky. You know - the one you see in your mind and long for in your heart. Don't think about bills or laundry. Allow yourself the freedom to create. (You can repeat this one with your eyes open.) You may want to go outside for this one. Get a big piece of paper. Butcher paper or poster board works well. Set out some paint on a paper plate and paint a picture. The only catch is you have to use your feet. Put on some music you enjoy. Preferably one with no words. While you’re listening, paint how the music makes you feel. Explore and compare the emotions of melody and rhythm reflected in your art. Cut out a bunch of different sized shapes using many different colors of paper. Some of your shapes should be similar but different sizes. For instance, have 3 circles of different size, etc. When you cut them out be sure you have 2 pieces of paper together so you cut out one set of shapes for you and one for your child. Have one person arrange the shapes on a piece of paper without the other person seeing. Now describe your picture so that the other person can try to recreate it. Cut out various pictures from a magazine or newspaper. Paste them on paper and take turns writing the story. Using colored pencils scribble on paper making various sized circles, lines, ovals, etc. Work on one area of the paper at a time. When you feel one area is done turn the paper to a different angle and scribble again. Continue until you have filled in all the corners. Take turns looking at each other's scribble art. If you see a meaningful picture, shade that area to make it more vivid. Take paper and paint to a nearby park. Paint a picture using pinecones, leaves, sticks and anything else you can find. Talk about the results of each tool used. Get some clay and try to shape a person keeping your eyes closed. Get as much detail as possible. The goal here is to pay attention to how the clay feels in your hands and trust your own instincts. When you open your eyes it's okay to laugh. Lay on the ground with your kids and create a story by using characters that you see in the clouds. If you come up with one you both like, write it down and illustrate it. It's a great way to get a peek inside your child's head. This one is only for you. Think back to the time when you were a child. Back to the time when you had the courage to wear what you wanted without any regard for peer pressure. Back to the time when you created like a child. Now find a picture of you at that age. Frame it and keep it somewhere so you will see it every day. Let it be a gentile reminder to trust your own sense of style. |
| Prop Box Resources Include the following collections of objects and materials for children to create, discover, and use for imaginary play. Store collections in boxes or baskets to be accessible at any time (indoors or outdoors) for children to enhance their play. Always in Stock white glue, masking tape, scissors, stapler paper punch, and various sizes, colours, textures, and types of paper (try sand paper, greeting cards, tissue paper, newspaper or wallpaper), Materials for Modeling: clay, play dough, plastercine At Home Pencils , Erasers , Crayons, Markers , Colored Pencils , Modeling Material, Paint , Glitter Glue , Glue Stick or White Glue , Construction Paper, Lined Paper , Ruler , Scissors, Folders Designing a Toddler Art Kit Choose items based on the age and interest of the child(ren), and introduce items one at a time until collection is complete. Water colour Paints Paint Brushes Old Toothbrush Glitter Glue (great for just drizzling on the paper) White Paper Water Colour Paper Construction Paper Sand Paper (interesting for drawing on) sticky shelving paper Washable Markers Crayons Rainbow Crayons (tape two or more crayons together) Stickers Masking Tape Chalk Bingo Dabbers Cotton Balls (smearing chalk drawings, or for collage) Rubber Stamps Play dough |
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| There are painters who transform the sun to a yellow spot, but there are others who with the help of their art and their intelligence, transform a yellow spot into the sun.
- Pablo Picasso |
| Visual Arts Directory Painting Collage Sculpture & Modeling Drawing |