By Melody Palmer, Youth Librarian, South Broken Arrow Library
If you ask an adult if they consider themselves an artist, chances are, they would say no. If you ask a child, however, they often heartily reply "YES!"
Children take such pride in their artistic endeavors and love to show off what they do. Some adults do children a disservice when they criticize artistic efforts because they aren't at the level of daVinci - or a Pinterest page. One needn't be a tremendously talented artist to take pleasure in creating something with their hands. I can't wait to share some books with readers this and next week that help children (and adults!) embrace their inner artist.
Art combines two different learning styles, visual and physical, and can be used to teach children many different concepts to support a STEM curriculum (math, proportions, perspective, color blending, hue, intensity) as well as gross and fine motor skills in a fun way.
Process art is not about the end product, it's about the process of getting there. This week, I'd like to share with you the book that begin my own journey into art with children:
Art Workshops for Children by Herve Tullet
Mr. Tullet generously shares his talent for engaging children in messy art with us. He walks the reader through several art workshops of varying difficulty which can be tweaked for age and ability. He includes material needed, set up, process, and suggestions for varying the activities. As you might imagine, paper, paint and paintbrushes are the primary materials needed, though a few workshops require some additional common household objects.
The focus is on BIG art, often times group-oriented, but these workshops can be done in a home setting as opposed to a large space. My hope is that by completing a few of these workshops by yourself or with your child will enable you to embrace your inner artist and have fun with the process of creating a piece of art.