Art Project: Sandpaper & Chalk Pastels

I have another project to share with you that we did this week in our after-school club, "Expedition in the Desert!": chalk pastel drawings on sandpaper. This extraordinarily easy project is also a tactile delight for kids. Many thanks to DLTK - Growing Together for the idea. 

I recommend using a coarser grain of sandpaper and good-quality chalk pastels. Before they began drawing, I gave the children the following tips:

1. Lightly sketch the main parts of the picture with a pencil before using the chalk pastels.

2. Draw the things in front first and then work on the background. This is an important step when starting out with chalk pastels. Because you can't color over things with chalk pastels without them showing through, you draw what is in front first and then work on the background last. This is the exact opposite of what a child would do in painting and it is worth pointing out to them. 

Here is my sample painting that I showed the children:

And here is some student work:

The picture that I drew is of the burning bush from the Moses story that we heard this week. I did not intend for the children to use this theme, but most of them did anyway. In an art class, that would be fine, but in Godly Play, it is not. I realized then that my sample had been too direct and that it would have been better to have simply told them what to do rather than show them. Oh well, we learn from our mistakes. : )

Jump St(art) in Math

I’ve written a lot about art books that inspire me, but I am fortunate to have some real people around me for inspiration as well!  Stephanie Jünemann  is a professional artist who some years ago turned her attention to teaching art.  We got to know each other through our sons, who were in the same kindergarten and now the same school together. I love tossing around ideas with her and seeing what she will come up with next. Today, I’d like to share one of her projects with you, and at the same time give you an example of some of the amazing creativity in art education going on in Germany.

The elementary school that our boys attend here in Berlin specializes in early childhood mathematics.  Mathematical concepts permeate every subject the children learn.  Accordingly, when asked to teach an after-school art class, Stephanie came up with an idea called “Mathematischen Phänomenen auf der Spur” (Tracking down Mathematical Phenomena”).  In this class, math and art came alive to the children as they crafted geometric bodies and drew pictures illustrating the cool things one can do with a little mathematical knowledge.

Here are just a few of the things the children made and learned:

 Geometry: They learned all about triangles and how to make them into three-dimensional objects such tetrahedons, pyramids, and other geometric bodies.

Two dimensional triangles make a star of David, but that's not all . . . 

add a few more and they become a 3-D polyhedron.

These children are happily cutting and pasting triangles . . . 

to make an icosahedron!

Exponential growth: They drew number trees to visually explore this concept.  The trunk of the tree is a one. The child then draws two branches that are marked with a two. Then each branch gets two more smaller branches that are marked with four and each of them get two more until you end up with  . . . Voila!

An impressive number tree!

Examples of student work.

And number flowers, too: The middle is one, then you add five petals, and then two more to each of the five and so on.

The little artist here working on his number flower just happens to belong to me!

Perspective, horizons and vanishing points: They explored these concepts by drawing pictures with vanishing lines and placing objects such as streets, trains and trees within the vanishing lines. (My son’s perspective skills improved immensely after doing this exercise a few times with Steffi.) 

And this is only the tip of the iceberg!  If you would like to know more or use some of Stephanie’s curriculum ideas, please feel free to contact her.

Remember "art" is the root word of "start"!

Art is the Root Word of "Start"

The first children, besides my own, that I ever tried to teach art to were the son and daughter of good friends.  The 6-year-old son, Cooper, was a bright, likeable child.  Much to my dismay, in the middle of each of our drawing lessons, Cooper would burst into tears and refuse to draw anymore, often negatively comparing himself to his older sister who seemed to do everything perfectly. Cooper’s outbursts were usually precipitated by a mark that he perceived as an irreparable “mistake”.  (I had the children purposely draw with pens or markers to avoid erasing.) At first, I was at a loss as to how to help him and a bit frustrated over his behaviour.  Eventually, I took the course of action recommended by Mona Brookes in “Drawing with Children”.  I constantly repeated the mantra that “there are no mistakes in art – only changes to be made” and tried to help Cooper think through what changes he could make to end up with a drawing that he was satisfied with and that expressed his thoughts.  Eventually, Cooper stopped the crying spells and began to understand how he make changes to his drawings that led to more exciting possibilities. This process with Cooper was an important lesson for me in observing one of the most valuable skills that children can learn through art:  problem solving.

So why is art important in a child’s education and why is it important in the church?  I will begin by answering the first question. (The second question will be another blog entry!)  Art assists children in developing foundational skills that will overflow into all other academic and practical areas of their lives.  Art is the root word of “start”.  Quite simply, art gives children a place to start.  A place to start developing language skills.  A place to start learning to solve problems.  A place to develop perseverance by seeing a project to its logical end.  Not to mention, that it is a fun place to start!

Art author and educator MaryAnn F. Kohl identifies 5 areas where children develop life skills through art:  communication, problem solving, social and emotional, fine motor, and self-expression / creativity.  I have written much in this blog about language development in young children.  Children are sensorimotor learners who have the ability to reflect, but lack the language skills to express themselves.  Here, art, be it visual or performing arts (music, dance) can help children express ideas that their tongues can not yet readily put into words.  And their art teachers, by asking the right questions, can help them begin to talk about their work.  Mona Brooks also writes that teachers have reported “dramatic increases in letter recognition and reading readiness” as well as increased motivation to read when art is combined with other subjects. (For details on the other areas, see Kohl’s article, “The Importance of Art in a Child’s Development”.)

Just as nature has a calming effect on children that increases concentration, Brookes also writes that children with attention deficit disorders also experience increased concentration when working on art projects.  Brooks herself was a teacher for at-risk students with learning disorders and writes of their progress in “Drawing with Children”. (Read more in the article, “Teaching Basics Through the Arts”.)

Jo Murphy, an art educator in Brisbane, Australia, drawing on the work of John Dewey and Elliot Eisner, writes that art teaches students to make judgements about qualitative relationships in the world, thereby increasing their problem-solving skills and ability to interpret their world. (Read the full article, “Creative Arts Develop Problem-Solving Skills”.)

Another great article to read on the benefits of fostering creativity and the hindrances to it is “Creativity in Young Children” by Sara Gable.

My own son is also now in a perfectionist phase where he frequently bursts into tears at having made a “mistake”.  This time around, though, I realize that it is an important part of his development.  And he is starting to problem-solve rather than being paralyzed by his mistakes.  A good start indeed. 

The following pictures are my children's rendition of a wonderful winter art project from Gail at That Artist Woman.  My son had his latest opportunity to problem solve while working on this project. 

Before: there were lots of tears when my son in a hurry to finish picked up a paintbrush and used black paint to paint the polar bear's features.  After what seemed like an eternity, he calmed down and began to think with me how he could change it.

After:  he decided to let the white and black paint dry and then paint over  what he didn't like with white paint.  Then, he drew the new facial features in with a pencil.  We were both pleased with  the result!

And just for fun, here is my 5-year-old daughter's painting.  I was so pleased with her polar bear stencils that she drew all by herself!

Doing Art Together

My own children were my first guinea pigs in learning to teach art to children and incorporate it into their spiritual journey.  When they were still quite young, Kate, my art teacher friend in Texas, highly recommended that I read a book called Doing Art Together by Muriel Silberstein-Storfer.  Kate had finished an internship under Muriel at the MET in New York and her own teaching style had been highly influenced by Muriel’s work.  Like Drawing with Children that I mentioned in a previous post, this book helped set me on the path that I am now on.

    

I don’t know if Muriel has a background in or any connections to Montessori, but her principles fit very well within the Montessori context.  The basic philosophy of the book is that children explore art at their own pace with the help of a simple structure and prepared environment.  Parent and child sit at the same table together with each focused on his/her own work.   The importance of the child’s “work” is validated by the parent’s involvement in his/her own art. To this day in children’s church, I often sit with the children during the creative phase and work on my own artwork as they are working on theirs.  I rarely finish anything (!), but this communicates to the children that what they are doing is valuable. It also sharpens my ability to be spontaneously creative.

A typical session is comprised of three rounds in which children are given opportunities to work with paint, collage and sculpture respectively. Depending on time, one can do all three or just one or two.  (I had never worked with collage much before and actually discovered through this parent-child workshop that collage is my favorite artistic medium.)  Muriel also gives teaching tips for each medium as well as suggestions about how to talk with the children about their work.

Some significant practical advice that I gained from Muriel’s book was how to prepare the environment in an orderly way to teach respect for the materials and avoid chaos, but at the same time allow children the freedom to manipulate the materials as they choose. (I have to admit that I had always been nervous about children and paint, but Muriel’s tips convinced me that I could paint with my children and still keep my walls intact!) Painting materials are set out on tray with one tray per child / parent.  Small amounts of paint (primary colors, black and white) are squeezed into furniture castors so that only as much paint as needed is used.  Two paintbrushes (one large and one small), a sponge, and a water container for rinsing are set on the tray as well.  After the session, the child is involved in the clean-up process as well.

Here is my set-up for a left-hander.  I use baby food lids instead of furniture castors for the paint and yogurt cups for water bowls. 

This is my son at age 3 shortly after we started the Doing Art Together method. 

My 1-year-old daughter also participated, but I started her off with finger paints first. 

If you are seeking to incorporate art into your children’s ministry, classroom, or even at home, this book is a must-read!

Click on Doing Art Together for more about Muriel's work. 

Joshua and the Promised Land

At our Familienbrunch (Family Brunches), we've been following the story of the Israelites from Abraham on.  I always start by bringing out the Wüstensack (Desert Sack) that you see in the middle here. 

This week I told the children the story of Joshua and the Israelites entering the Promised Land.  The story came from Young Children and Worship, a book that Godly Play founder Jerome Berryman co-authored with Dr. Sonja Stewart.

After the story, we sang some songs together and the children had an opportunity to pray together.  Then we began the "creative phase" in which the children are able to express their thoughts or emotions about what they have heard and experienced or spend time with God.  The children can either spend their time playing with the desert sack and figures from the story or they can choose to work with the art materials.

Today was a typical day in which I laid out materials in trays for the children to choose from rather than having a project that was instructional. The children could choose from oil pastels, collage material, chalk pastels and beeswax crayons. And some of the children used all of the mediums.  

Sometimes the children draw pictures directly related to what they have just heard.  Many times they draw something that they have heard several weeks before.  And other times, they draw things that they have experienced in everyday life, which is also very important.  This boy is drawing a pumpkin because he was at a pumpkin carving at our house the day before.  

Teaching Children to Draw

When I tell people that I give my children drawing lessons, they often look at me as if I could turn water into wine.  Although it's been a magical experience to teach them, the method that I use to do it fortunately doesn't require any supernatural abilities. On a trip to the States just before my son turned three (almost 5 years ago), I was looking for some books with art projects for children.  I caught a glimpse of the book below:

 

Every once in a while you run across a book that changes your life.  As soon as I saw this, I knew that I had to have it. I was especially intrigued by the subtitle: "A Creative Method for Adult Beginners, Too".  Could I (gasp!), who had always tried to draw, but was unable to overcome my perfectionism, actually learn to draw as well?  The answer was yes, and I would get to teach my children and others as well.: )

The premise of Mona Brooke's phenomenal book is that absolutely anyone can be taught to draw.  There are basic components in drawing, that once you know them, enable one to learn.  It is comparable to the phonetic sounds in a language that help one to learn to read, or notes in music.  Knowing these basics principles, according to Brookes, is key to developing drawing skills. 

Equally important is having the right attitude, which proved to be the key to helping me as an adult, and is also essential for children to progress. One of Brookes' sayings that has become my mantra with children, is that "in art there are no mistakes, only changes to be made".

The following is a little bit of what I have learned from Ms. Brookes. A typical drawing lesson begins with simple relaxation exercises for the eyes and limbs.  Then we review the basic shape "families" by finding things in the room or outside the window that belong to these families. Next, I give each child a set of warm-up exercises that are much like scales and etudes in music.  Below is what I gave my 4-year-old daughter on Tuesday.  My sketches are in black and hers in red.  The object is not for her to make an exact copy of what I have drawn, but rather to fill in the space in a similar manner.

On this particular day, we decided to do a still life of pumpkins, chestnuts and leaves.  I recently started letting her use oil pastels and she was very excited about this.  Together, we drew the still life with me guiding her through the shape families that the objects are composed of.  I drew on my paper and she drew on hers. 

Here is the her result below.  You'll notice that it is not an exact representation, but that is not the purpose of drawing.  When we draw, we interpret what we see rather than making exact copies.  What is also interesting in her pictures are the repetition of certain elements that are early indicators of design.

I know for sure that I didn't find this book by accident. Though creative as a child, frustration at not being able to draw realistically led me to give up on myself as an artist.  And in another life, I might have studied art education.  There were other factors as well that caused me to follow another path, including lack of an adequate art program at the time I was growing up; the Berlin Wall coming down as I was entering university and making the idea of learning Russian irresistable; and the lie that art teachers are only people who couldn't make it in the art world themselves.  Anyway, the path that I eventutally followed led to some very valuable life experiences, and when the time was right, God began to resurrect dreams that had been dead so long that I had forgotten about them.

Creative Phase: The Tabernacle

The church plant that we are a part of offers a Family Brunch twice a month.  We brunch together and then I lead a children's worship service afterwards.  Last Sunday, I told the children the Godly Play story, "Die Bundeslade und das Zelt der Begegnung" ("The Ark of the Covenant and the Tent of Meeting").  The story was completely new to the children and even my son, who is quite knowledgeable about the Bible, was unfamiliar with the Tabernacle and its furnishings. 

Typically, after a Godly Play Story, the children choose their own art materials and express their thoughts on the story (or anything else they are thinking about!) to explore what they have heard or express worship to God.  There is a great discussion in German Godly Play circles about whether the creative phase can be "angeleitet" (instructional or not) and this same discussion is also going on in the Montessori world over how much an art lesson/project can be instructional.  (If it bugs anyone that I throw German words into my sentences, I can't do anything about it.  It just expresses who I am during this season of life.)  I happen to think that it can as long as the children have room to determine the course and outcome of their creation and I experiment with such in our worship service.

All that to say that on Sunday, we had an instructional creative phase based on the Tabernacle story.  I got the idea while doing an autumn art project from Deep Space Sparkle with my kids in which we painted leaves with white paint and made prints on black paper.

1. First I made stamps for the children using foam rubber and sponges based on the furniture in the Tabernacle (accidentally left out the bronze basin filled with water!), symbols for the Trinity, and a person.

(You might be wondering why I included the symbols for the Trinity.  I have been heavily influenced by Tim Keller's "Christocentric" method of teaching and I try to help the children see that the Old and New Testaments have a natural relationship to them rather than being separate entities that have nothing to do with one another.)

2. Next I instructed the children to think of a place where there they like to meet with God and paint this as a background of sorts.

3. Then, the children were encouraged to add the stamps, as many or as few as they saw fit, to their pictures.

The children, even the youngest (age 3), took lots of time with their pictures and the results were quite dramatic. (They especially loved the gold paint!)

 (age 7)

 (age 6)

(age 3)

(age 4)

I love my job!!