Day: February 9, 2023

Literary Art Activity Ideas

Literary art refers to pieces of work that are written, such as books and poetry. Sometimes, pieces of literature are adapted to be used as a piece of performance art, as you would see if you attended a poetry reading.

Creating literary works of art with children will require quite a bit of support from teachers because preschool children are not able to write down their ideas. Fortunately, there is no shortage of creativity in children’s minds and teachers can act as the scribe that writes their ideas down on paper. This is a great way to make the connection between spoken and written language. Here are a few ideas for how to build literary art activities into the curriculum.

• Create some simple Mad Libs and complete them with the children. Simplify the language used to request different parts of speech (noun, adjective, verb, etc.) until children have a better understanding of these terms.
• Play a game called Sentence Stretcher. In this game, start with a very simple sentence, such as “The dog was sleeping.” With a small group of children rotate around the group and ask children to add one word or phrase to the sentence, which the teacher can write down for the children. It may look like this:
  • The brown dog was sleeping.
  • The brown and white dog was sleeping.
  • The brown and white dog was sleeping on the blanket.
  • The brown and white dog was sleeping on the blanket that Mom bought.
  • The brown and white dog was sleeping on the blanket that Mom bought for Grandma.
  • The brown and white dog was sleeping on the blanket that Mom bought for Grandma.

At this point, the teacher can add another short sentence for the children to expand, such as “Mom was mad.”

• Introduce children to tongue twisters and challenge them to try to recite them.  Once they are familiar with tongue twisters, encourage them to make up their own and challenge their friends and family to recite them.
• Ask children to think of different endings to familiar stories. Help children identify the arc of the story and then change one of the character’s actions. Encourage children to brainstorm what might happen based on this change in the story. Write down their ideas and then read the story using a few of the alternate endings.
• Before writing stories, conduct a few character studies. See if children can identify features of familiar characters. How does the character make decisions or solve problems? What changes does the character make throughout the story? Once you have examined a few familiar characters, you can begin to compare characters. How are characters similar and different? What would one character do if faced with the circumstances of a completely different story?
• Help children capture their stories by working together to write original classroom books. Teach children about elements of stories including the introduction, conflict, climax, and resolution. Read more here.  The children can work as a group or individually to express their ideas, which teachers can write down. Children can then illustrate the books before they are shared with the group.
• Older children may enjoy writing their own poems. Introduce different types of poems and invite children to try to make up original literary works of art.

For the main article Exploring Art with Children, CLICK HERE

For the article Fine Art Activity Ideas, CLICK HERE

For the article Applied Art Activity Ideas, CLICK HERE

For the article Performance Art Activity Ideas, CLICK HERE

Performance Art Activity Ideas

Performance art involves a person or group of people delivering or presenting a work of art using their bodies and/or voices. It includes acting, dancing, and music that is performed for an audience.

Your days are likely full of singing and dancing. Information has been passed down from generation to generation using these forms of performance art. Below is a list of just a few performance art activity ideas that you can use to enhance this area of your curriculum.

Keep in mind that children should take the lead in bringing these activities to life. Some of these activities may not be appropriate for younger children and adult support will be needed for most of these activities.

• Encourage children to participate in theater activities. At first, children may only act out parts of familiar stories. As they become more skilled, they may enjoy putting on longer plays or even developing their own. The book by Vivian Paley, The Boy Who Would be a Helicopter, paints a wonderful picture of how this practice can be structured with young children. Children can also use puppets or felt figures to act out their favorite stories.
• Some children enjoy making up new lyrics to songs. Show children how they could match different words to familiar melodies. You may be surprised how easily children come up with their own songs, too. This activity can be incorporated into a lesson about rhyming words.
• Similar to creating songs, some children love to dance and make up new moves! Exploring styles of dance from around the world is a fun way to expose children to different cultures. Even if the children don’t perfect all of the formal dance steps, they can recognize differences in the styles of music from different parts of the world. They can identify the tempo of the songs and intuitively move their bodies to the rhythm of the music. Older children may want to create their own choreography and perform their original dance for other classrooms.
• Children love playing with instruments. Encourage children to play along with songs from around the world. See if they can match the beat of the music with the classroom instruments, even if they don’t have access to the actual instruments used in the songs. Here is a resource for finding music from different cultures.  Again, have conversations about how the music makes them feel and the similarities and differences between the styles of music.
• Children can practice their mime skills through simple games like charades. Watch videos of mimes performing and see how many of the activities the children can identify. Ask them how they know that the mime is opening the door or washing the dishes. Encourage them to practice these skills as they play games of acting out familiar tasks. As their skills improve, the actions can become more advanced. Children can act out what a robot would look like if they were flying. The guessers would need to guess both elements (robot and flying).
• If the interest is there, teachers can engage children in producing short video recordings that are designed to entertain or inform. This would require children to collaborate on a theme, script, costumes, and the actual work of performing and recording the video. Children could plan a premier for families to showcase the videos they have created.
• Older children may be interested in learning how to do magic tricks, tell jokes like a comedian, or perform poetry readings in a dramatic fashion. These activities may not appeal to all children so it is important to follow the children’s lead when exploring these types of performance art.

For the main article Exploring Art with Children, CLICK HERE

For the article Fine Art Activity Ideas, CLICK HERE

For the article Applied Art Activity Ideas, CLICK HERE

For the article Literary Art Activity Ideas, CLICK HERE

Applied Art Activity Ideas

Applied art refers to any work of art that can serve a purpose or function. For example, a ceramic bowl can be a beautiful piece of art and it can hold fruit. An architect can design a building that is both visually appealing and functional because it serves as space for offices or homes. Textile or fiber art also falls into this category of art. This includes weaving, knitting, quilting, etc.

Below is a list of just a few art activities that teachers can introduce to help children learn about the world.

Note: Educators should strive to provide open-ended and process-focused art experiences. For more information about this topic, check out this month’s blog post.

• Conduct a study of homes from around the world and across time. First, encourage children to create drawings or 3-D versions of homes they are familiar with. Build onto that by showing images or videos of homes in different countries. Talk about the things the homes have in common and what is different. Then show images of homes from the past. You could read books about how people lived in the past to help children understand what life was like in the past. Again, compare and contrast the elements of homes past and present. Encourage children to imagine and create models of homes that might exist in the future. This project could take weeks to complete. If the children are interested, you might decide to explore other types of buildings and elements of architecture as well.
• A similar study could be designed that focuses on clothing. Discuss the conditions that necessitated the use of different types of clothing. Explore how clothing is used for warmth, protection, ceremony, and celebration today and in the past. Show pictures of how clothing has changed. Encourage children to create drawings of clothing from the past and if they are interested, they can design clothing for the future using fabric scraps or other fibers.
• In addition to clothing, children can learn about and design jewelry from different cultures and time periods. Common art materials can be used for this project. Children can explore beadwork and/or string as a medium for jewelry making. Mosaic work relates to the jewelry theme or it can be explored on its own.
• Consider introducing different types of clay that children can use to create functional pieces of art, such as cups, pitchers, bowls, etc. Show images or examples of these forms of art and talk with the children about their uses. See if children can think of why these items were made to be beautiful and functional.
• A variety of translucent materials can be used to explore light and stained glass art. The items can be arranged on a light table over and over again or children could use glue to create something more permanent.
• Set up a woodworking area where children can explore making items out of wood scraps. If you are not ready to include tools, you could introduce wood scraps and wood glue for children to use in their creations.

For the main article Exploring Art with Children, CLICK HERE

For the article article Fine Art Activity Ideas, CLICK HERE

For the article Performance Art Activity Ideas, CLICK HERE

For the article Literary Art Activity Ideas, CLICK HERE

Fine Art Activity Ideas

Fine art can be defined as any work of art that is created solely to be viewed and appreciated. In other words, the piece is not functional and does not serve a purpose beyond its visual appeal. Examples of fine art include paintings, drawings, and sculptures.

Below is a list of just a few ways that educators can explore fine art with young children as a way of broadening their understanding of the world.

Note: Educators should strive to provide open-ended and process-focused art experiences. For more information about this topic, check out this month’s blog post.

• Expand the types of art materials, paints, and drawing utensils that you offer to children. Encourage children to explore how the materials interact. Build vocabulary related to their observations. Some paints are runny and diluted while others are thin and viscous. Different styles of painting (abstract, portrait, landscape, etc.) while maintaining an open-ended approach.
• Explore works of art from different styles, time periods, and cultures. Talk with children about what they notice about the work, how it makes them feel, and how the work is similar or different from other art they remember. Encourage children to try different styles of painting or sculpting in the art center. The National Gallery of Art provides access to over 50,000 images of art that you can search here.
• Pinpoint artists from different countries. Gather information from families about their countries of origin, then identify artists or styles of art that originated from those countries. Spend time showing children examples of art from around the world, connecting children to their respective countries of origin. Ask children to notice similarities and differences in the works of art from different places around the world.
• Encourage children to work on murals and other collaborative art projects that promote communication and cooperation. Again, search the internet for images of community murals and have conversations about how the artists created and executed their plan for the work.
• Incorporate nature materials into art experiences. Encourage children to use rocks or sticks to create pictures or sculptures. Children can use a small brush to move sand into different designs. Again, show images of how these materials have been used to create art around the world.
• “Found object” art is created by artists who locate an item that has some visual appeal, such as a piece of driftwood or a discarded kitchen tool. They then embellish the found object slightly by adding paint or other materials, such as fabric or metal. This is a great way to start conversations about recycling and reusing materials rather than throwing them away. More information can be found here.
• Introduce children to photography and make a few digital cameras available to children who are interested in capturing images of the world around them. Find interesting images from professional photographers that relate to the children’s photos. For example, if a child takes an aerial shot of an ant on the playground, find a few photos of ants taken by professional photographers. You could include an image of the inside of an ant hill or an extreme close-up of an ant’s face. You could create a matching game that requires children to match their photos with the professional photos, based on the object of the image.
• Introduce children to different types of sculpture.  Show images of different sculptures and ask children to think about how they were made. Provide child-friendly materials and encourage children to spend time in the art area creating a variety of sculptures on their own. Be sure to include opportunities for kinetic sculptures that can be made with a variety of readily available art supplies.

For the main article Exploring Art with Children, CLICK HERE

For the article Applied Art Activity Ideas, CLICK HERE

For the article Performance Art Activity Ideas, CLICK HERE

For the article Literary Art Activity Ideas, CLICK HERE

Exploring Art with Children

Have you ever stopped to think about the vast amount of art that exists in the world? We have created art, in some form or another, for all of human history. From crude paintings on cave walls to the digital art being created today, art has been an ever-present form of expression and creativity.

But what is art? How is the term defined? Ask 100 people and you will get 100 different answers. At the most basic level, art is the product/result of imagination and creativity that can be experienced through the senses. This includes forms of visual art that can be experienced through the sense of sight. Art also includes works that can be experienced through other senses, while some forms of art can be appreciated through multiple senses.

Art history experts have identified a list of major types of art that includes painting, sculpture, architecture, literature, music, and theater. You can read more about these forms of art here.

As tools evolved and boundaries expanded, new forms of art must be added to the list. Consider culinary arts and innovative forms of performance art that don’t quite fit into traditional categories, but still meet the definition of art. Within each category of art, there exist different styles, movements, mediums, and genres. More information on this can be found here.

Exploring art in the classroom is a positive and engaging way for children to learn more about themselves and their community. Additionally, art explorations are a great way for children to learn about the world beyond their physical and temporal experience. In other words, art activities can also expose children to different cultures, traditions, and time periods.

In this month’s newsletter, we will provide ideas for how early childhood educators can help children better understand the world around them as it is today and as it once was.

For the article Fine Art Activity Ideas, CLICK HERE

For the article Applied Art Activity Ideas, CLICK HERE

For the article Performance Art Activity Ideas, CLICK HERE

For the article Literary Art Activity Ideas, CLICK HERE