If you were the local school's Art teacher...

[Liberty]

..what would you teach to each grade level?

 

I may have bitten off more than I can chew (we'll see), but I've volunteered to be the Art teacher for my kids' school. They don't have a curriculum and I'd be teaching Pre-6. The classes are broken up like this: Preschool, Kindergarten, 1/2, 3/4, 5/6. It will be one day per week and, basically, it's entirely up to me what to teach and how. They do have supplies and a small budget.

 

So, the question that baffles me is how to come up with a course of study that is different for each grade. This is keeping in mind that if I do this next year I wouldn't want to repeat myself (or maybe i do?).

 

If anyone here has ideas for me, please, PLEASE, post. I would love you to pieces!!!

[Chris in VA]

This is my take on art.

 

Preschool:

I am firmly in the process art camp for everyone under K. I use the book Creative Art for the Developing Child. It's fantastic. It makes the point that art comes from inside the child. It's all about expression, and about finding out what the various art materials "do" by messing around with them, exploring and experimenting. It lays out the basics of art development, stage by stage. Did you know art and writing start out very similarly? There are names for each stage, but the sequence is basically random marks, then discovering the cause and effect stuff (I can make this mark with this material), scribbling, then drawing intentional lines and shapes (this is where writing diverges). You will notice, around 3-4, the cross (which is the beginning of the person), the sun, and the mandala (like a sun, but the lines are inside, like a wagon wheel with spokes). Kids that age make those fun spider people--the head is the whole body, and the legs and arms come from it. Then you start to see the separation (head and a body). Details are added. Later, you get a baseline (that green line or area at the base of their pictures that usually represents grass or the ground). Then they get more pictorial, and you begin to see things like houses, animals, and more members of the family. BTW, this is also where they begin to use other cultural symbols for houses--if anyone shows them "how to" draw that house with the square and the triangle for the roof, they will pick it over what they think a house looks like. The kids have intention before they draw now, and begin to value work that looks realistic. It's at this stage that many kids remain, because they are not given the skills to continue to develop their art ideas, and it becomes unsatisfying because they cannot draw/create what they value.

 

Elementary

I firmly believe a child needs time during the preschool years to learn how the materials work, and become familiar with media. Now in elementary school, they can develop the skills that will lead them to produce art that satisfies. Learning the elements of art and how to use them is hugely helpful. Simply going thru color theory (they should already know the simple color mixing stuff from the "messing around" stage) and learning the vocab is helpful--making hues, darkening with black, going beyond the primary mixing, cool and warm shades and their effect, making things recede and "pop"--all of that is appropriate to early elementary. Learning about lines--thin, thick, curves, etc, and about the other elements should be an emphasis. Evan-Moore's How to Teach Art to Children is fantastic at this early stage. I'd pull in some famous works that illustrate the elements for a little art history, too. Now is also the time to intro more craft stuff, if you want--they will have the cutting techniques and the control of media that will help them create--but you should not make "things that must look like mine"--keep some element of choice or you will be taking the emphasis off the creative process and putting it on the product. Unique is good.

 

Older elementary

This is where most kids drop art, again, because they don't have the skills to create, or the permission. More advanced techniques and cool materials are key. But if they haven't had the foundation, give it to them. This age is still learning that foundation, but I mean give them what they should have had in preschool and early elem if it is lacking. This is a great time for a book like Artistic Pursuits (older one) or some of the really good meaty art books out there.

 

Just my thoughts. Ymmv.

[Mom0012]

Well, let me say that I know very little about art, but if you are looking for a curriculum, I am very happy with Atelier Art. It is a program that is used in schools and it is very easy to implement.

 

We did our first lesson yesterday and we had a kindergartener, 2 1st graders and 2 3rd graders here and everyone enjoyed it. The other mom I'm doing this little mini-coop with did the project and so did I. I think we enjoyed it even more than the kids. So, it seems that it could be used for any age. We are using module 3.

 

Lisa

[Guest Virginia Dawn]

If I were an art teacher, which I am not, I would spend some time using the principles in Mona Brook's book Teaching Children to Draw (?) This teaches children how to see like an artist.

 

When she was 10, my daughter's art teacher also had them do a sculpting project, a project with pastel crayons where each child tried copying a master work, another project where they did abstract art in acrylics, one where they created a human figure in a pose using coated wire, and block or transfer printing.