Art

March 6, 2001, updated Feb. 4, 2004

Philosophy - Expose your children to lots of good art in every category; music, sculpture, painting, architecture, and drama. Don't forget to keep doing it, too. Let there be a variety; like folk and opera, oils and watercolors, professional and kid entries. You never know what they will find interesting to know about, look at, and try. This page is primarily for the fine arts.

Books and Materials -

Art Fun (Art & activities for Kids) by Kim Solga (editor), et al is a great book of art projects and can be found on www.Amazon.com for $13.99 new.

Calendars of Art - buy them! They give such nice size pictures for the children to look at. They are much more exciting than the little ones in most art books. And they can even be 75% off after Christmas.

Our National Gallery of Art is a tremendous resource. They have free loans of lesson materials. Go here: http://www.nga.gov/ and then to education for more information. They also have terrific docent led programs.

Here is another story to read before going to the National Art Gallery; Zadrzynska, E. (1983). "The Girl With a Watering Can." Ill. by Arnold Skanick. New York: Chameleon. It is a picture book about a girl from one of the paintings stepping out of her spot and what she does then.

Go to the following link for more books and a lesson plan. http://teacher.scholastic.com/ilp/

Activities - As you go through one of the timelines of art development try the various methods.

Find a timeline
Use the materials and style to try to make copies of some of the next developments...art on wood.
...on paper.
....on silk.
...on plaster.

Many thanks to Linda H., Deb F., Karen T., and Cathy K.