What do you do for art? I found some cheesy crafts/art projects for the kids to do for Thanksgiving. But those crafts aren't really teaching the kids anything about Art, ie. the masters, expressionism (sp?), great works, etc.
We use the arts and crafts book from A Beka, Alpha Omega's LifePac Drawing Basics With Thomas Kinkade, and books from the library. Ems loves the cheesy crafts so A Beka is good for her. We make them and place them all over the house. She will eventually cover the masters, expressionism, and great works so I do not worry about teaching it at this time. At her age, she is almost 9, she loves the hands on stuff. In the Drawing Basics they do cover art history in unit 4. The art history covers Ancient Art, Greek Art, and Renaissance Art. This is about as deep we go. Like I said, eventually she will be required to cover this but for now I am letting her enjoy her arts and crafts. You can look at the library. They have some great books on art appreciation. Some have great photos and who the artist are.
Thats what we do cheesy art, in Feb. the homeschool I belong to is having a 3 day art class and we will go to that other then that its hard to find anything but cheesy art if you don't use abeka or a Life pac one.
Oh, I am not against the cheesy stuff at all. It is always fun. I enjoyed it when I learned and the kids are begging for it. I just wanted them to get more out of art at some point. I guess art is just a slow process. I can deal with that. We can do a bit here and there.
I do not know about other art books from other publishers so I do not know about them but A Beka's Arts And Crafts teaches simple shading, blending, texture, as the children cut, paste, and color. They kind of throw it all together. I noticed that Ems book this year teaches a bit more then last year. I think eventually it will work her into other concepts.
we use a wide range of material for our "art class" sometimes we check books out from the library or use ones we allready have that show masterpiece works. we talk about the style of painting, what we see in the picture, how it makes us feel etc and then i usually have them all do a short written or oral assignment depending on age about what it would be like to be inside that painting, to be part of what was going on there, and then we make our own rendition of the painting. the back side of a light print or blank wrapping paper makes a great canvas for larger works (and can be rolled up for storage when you run out of oh-so-precious wall space lol!) We have 3 mona lisas and 2 stary nights on the wall right now, and a huge "frescoe" on our ceiling that transforms our classroom into a work of art not too distant from the originals by Michelangelo we also do alot of hands on suff.. we made our own greek pottery and and weve painted hyrogliphics, we even went to a catering place and watched them make ice sculptures. and of course we love the cheesey stuff too...its alot of fun, but sometimes its just hard to squeeze a whole lot of education out of traceing your hand and making it into a turkey.
There is a games called "Masterpiece" that is full of famous art/artists. We played frequently with friends before we moved here. The object of the game is to acquire as much priceless art as you can. There are fakes included, so strategy is also part of the game. I know I started remembering which arstist did what before long. It would be a great way to introduce artists without the kids knowing it. Plus, it's a really fun game!
I love cheesy art projects. lol. We do them all the time. However, for serious art study they go to the art museum or we get books from the libary. That game Pam mentioned, sounds really cool. I am going to look into that.
It seems that the game was last released in 1996 and originally game out in the 70's. There are about 60 of them currnetly listed on ebay for $10-15. Our friends bought theirs a few years ago online, so I'll check into where they got theirs.
The game sounds like something Ems would love to play. This is why I love homeschooling. We can use whatever we want to teach our children. Playing a game doesn't even seem like learning. This is when they learn best. Thanks for telling us about it Pam. Patty
Nothing wrong with a cheesy craft project! hehe A lot of times craft stores give classes that are usually pretty good. There is also a bead store in my area that does little one-on-one classes. So you could always look for something like that.
Aurie, The Artistic Pursuits are nice books that have several "art prints" that come with them and you glue them in the correct spot throughout the book. They are really nice and come with a nice price tag but....it's totally art appreciation. We use Mark Kistler's Draw Squad for "silly" how to draw things. I also have Mona Brooks Drawing with Children which is also really good. We also have a local art teacher that the boys go to class with once a month. They'd love to go more but...my checkbook disagrees. HTH
www.hitentertainment.com/artattack/fairydustpictures.html This site has lots of true art ideas. Tells how to draw a fairy outline, when you are done you smudge the chalk outwards. It makes a lovely, magical glowing quality. Another idea was painting with a piece of bread. Another idea taught you how to make magnificent. clouds. There are lots of neat art ideas. www.teachercreatedresources.com On the home page in search type Art. It will take you to books to buy. Click on the sample page and print the page. I got five neat ideas. Paper graph art. Draw a dolphin. And I printed this one in color. It had something to do with drawing fish. There was a paragraph story and told and showed how to draw an Angel Fish. FOIL ETCHING Grade : 2-6 Age: 6-10 What You Need: • Cardboard • Tin foil • Tape • Tempera or acrylic paint (dark colors) • Liquid Dishwash soap • Paint brush • Popsicle stick What You Do: 1. Tape a piece of tin foil to a piece of cardboard. 2. Add a couple of drops of liquid dishwash to a small amount of tempera (or acrylic) paint. 3. Brush paint over the entire piece of foil and let dry. 4. Using the popsicle stick, carefully scrape a design into the paint. 5. Glue the finished piece to a sheet of construction paper
Colored Polar Bear Story & Activity Once upon a time there was a beautiful white polar bear who often visited the St. Lawrence Island in Alaska. Now on this island, you find a little schoolhouse filled with many boys and girls and their beloved teacher, Ms. Andrews. It seems as though a neighboring child from Siberia ventured across the Bering Strait to St. Lawrence Island. Her name was Tatiana, and she had beautiful golden hair. As she explored the island, she soon met Mr. Polar Bear. The children watched out the windows of the schoolhouse as the bear wished he had golden hair like Tatiana's. He shut his eyes tightly and wished very hard for golden hair. Now will you just shut your eyes for a moment and help polar bear make his wish? (Teacher puts 2 drops of yellow food coloring in bear bottle) Now you may open your eyes! AMAZING! A blond polar bear- Oh, my goodness! Do you know what the children shouted out the windows of the schoolhouse? Do you think they liked a BLOND polar bear? Teacher gets children to slap, slap, clap, clap, and snap and say: POLAR BEAR, POLAR BEAR YOU ARE A SIGHT! YOUR COLOR WAS RIGHT WHEN YOU WERE WHITE! Mr. Polar Bear was MIGHTY SAD! He thought the children would like his new golden color! He climbed on an iceberg and began to think about his problem. Now, as Mr. Bear rested, he caught a new scent in the air. What did he smell? As he raised his head and looked around, he saw a young boy coming closer. Rene was from the GREEN forests of Canada. He wore a green hat, a green sweater, green pants, and green boots. Guess what he had in his pocket? Rene had a GREEN lollipop! Polar Bear thought GREEN must be the most beautiful color in the world! Maybe he should be a green bear. He shut his eyes and began to wish he was green. Can you help Mr. Bear? (Teacher puts 2 drops of blue in) Now he was a GREEN polar bear!! But the children said: (slap,slap...repeat chant above) Now this made Mr. Bear feel real bad. He pouted and pouted. Polar bear began to walk across the snow. As he topped a big snow drift, he met COUSIN BROWN BEAR from Kodiak Island. Cousin Brown Bear had followed the path of green tears that cam from polar bear. The two bears had a nice,long visit and before long, Polar Bear began to admire his SMART COUSIN. The Kodiak Bear is the world's largest bear and gets angry very quickly. Polar Bear thinks maybe the children would like him if he were brown instead. Let's shut our eyes and wish with Polar Bear. (Teacher adds 2 drops of red, and children repeat chant above) Polar Bear felt so bad, he ran away from the children and dove in the ice cold waters of the Bering Sea. Polar bears are the best swimmers of all bears. His thick, heavy fur was now BROWN and looked quite strange as the children of Gambel watched him swim DEEP, DEEP, DEEP into the sea. Now, if you will just shut your eyes and think about Polar Bear swimming around under the cold, cold water, a tiny bit of Alaska magic might happen. (Teacher bleaches the water, while their eyes are closed, and continues to talk about polar bear swimming while the bleach takes effect) Polar Bear swims up, up, up, up, to the surface and guess what! Children chant: POLAR BEAR, POLAR BEAR Your color IS right! WE LOVE YOU! WE LOVE YOU! YOU ARE WHITE! Polar Bear decided NEVER to change his color again. After all, polar bears are supposed to be WHITE, RIGHT?
Try this- http://intranet.cps.k12.il.us/Lessons/StructuredCurriculumTOC/SCArt/Art_K-3/SCARGK31/scargk31.html I haven't read all of this thread so I don't know what grade you need, but you can click on 'next at the top of the page to get higher than K-3.
That Art Attack site is got some wild crafts! The boys will love it. And the Chicago link will definately have some good learning lessons! You all rock!
I downloaded the entire Chicago public school art curriculum. It is great! It doesn't do art appreciation in great detail, but we can fill that in from the library. All the other links are great as well. I have shown the boys most of them, and they want to know when we start!!! They have several picked out they want to do first! Thanks again!
