How to Teach Art to Kindergarteners
Art education plays a pivotal role in the academic development of children. Art provides a way for the child to express herself through creation of paintings, drawings and sculptures. This, in turn, allows for expansion of brain activity in creative ways for development of necessary life skills.
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Things You'll Need
- Paper (construction, foam, card stock)
- Markers, crayons, pencils
- Safety scissors
- Glue
Instructions
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Deciding on a Project
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Sit down with the kids for a discussion. The first and most important step of teaching art to kindergartners is to talk with the children. Despite their young age, these children have ever-expanding imaginations and a capacity for creative thought that is sometimes underestimated. Start a discussion with the children about what interests them artistically and develop a general consensus from which to formulate an appropriate lesson plan. Feel free to make suggestions, but make sure the children have an opportunity to throw ideas around too. A few suggestions include finger painting, individual scrapbooks, drawing or working with clay.
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Develop a plan of action. Once you've had a talk with the children and have an idea of what they want to create, it's time to develop a lesson plan. Use the kids' suggestions as guidelines to work from and incorporate similar ideas into one project. The scrapbooking idea is particularly useful, as it covers a broad range of art media.
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Collect the supplies you will need to complete the project. Use colorful construction paper, foam paper, markers, crayons, large coloring pencils, safety scissors, glue, paintbrushes and anything else your project requires. Find unconventional art media such as buttons, raised stickers and other knickknacks that you think are fun for your kids to work with.
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Begin the art project. Reiterate the art subjects you discussed previously and present the project to them. They'll be excited to see you paid attention to their ideas and will be invigorated by the project because of this. Explain a few basic instructions to maintain order, but give the kids full creative rein while they work on their projects, as this is the whole point of developing individual creativity and thinking skills.
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Give the kids a chance to talk about their designs, why they created them and what their inspirations were. Form a constructive discussion and use this as an opportunity to educate the children on classic artists, famous works of art and simple creative techniques.
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References
Resources
- Photo Credit Kids Art image by Vanessa van Rensburg from Fotolia.com
