how to...teach a toddler to draw

For many parents, important milestones in their children's lives include walking, talking, sitting, or going to Kindergarten. For me, I couldn't wait until the day came when I would be able to draw with my children. My oldest been interested in Art his entire life, thanks to the wonderful pre-school he attends. He regularly brings home artwork that we swoon over and hang on the fridge or send to Grandmas.

My one year old gets in on the action. Apparently chalk is tasty AND fun!

His artwork for so long has much been process-based artwork...exploring with paints, chalk, foam, glitter, and natural elements...which has been great, and for a child this young (he's three) I don't think he "understood" that he could make art to represent something else.

Cue the moment I completely underestimated my child.

I'd become so comfortable with him just exploring with art materials...being care free and expressive. Scribbling on a paper and telling me it was a "policeman giving a ticket to a monster truck" with me smiling and encouraging on the sidelines.

We were in the Dollar Spot at this fancy boutique called TarJay and I saw some dry-erase marker boards for letter-writing. I picked one up fully intending to start in with some letter-writing this summer. When we got home, he excitedly opened it and bust out with a "dot, dot, SMILEY, arm, arm, leg, leg"! I was completely floored. I had muttered those words hundreds of times as we've sat in the driveway with chalk secretly praying he was paying attention and something would peek his interest.

So his first "recognizable" drawing is a little...well...rogue. My enthusiasm for his new-found skill propelled him to sit at our kitchen table and make a bazillion more of these people. After he "perfected" one, he drew two. After he drew two, he'd tell me a story about the people in the picture.

"This is me with my little brother Chase and we are playing ball".

As much as I wanted my son to draw (or color, or explore, or just BE artistic), he was...well...being a toddler. I saw something change in him as he became aware of this cause-and-effect of putting marker to paper to create a human "symbol". He started to visualize a picture in his mind before he created it. He wanted to make sure the feet were attached to the legs, and his brother was smaller than he was. He'd completely leaped into a new realm of thinking and creating at that moment, and somehow it clicked that lines on paper could symbolize something in "real life". I swear I actually saw wheels spinning in his head.

Okay, maybe not.

Being a creative person myself, this is one thing I really want to nurture with my children. Creative activities help children learn how to solve problems and come up with their own answers. This summer we've used this white board to draw...and erase...and experiment... and erase again. There have been purple people, snakes, unrecognizable fire houses, flowers...all these things that make my heart swoon. We've sat on the driveway and drawn for HOURS in the sun, often times my one year old joining in. Sketchbooks have been filled and our fridge is full of colorful, happy pictures. I'm in colorful mama heaven, I tell ya.

Ever wonder about your child's drawing development? This chart is very informative and you can see where your child(ren) fit in!

Oh yes we did! And no, I'm not crazy...and yes, it was edible and SO MUCH FUN!

Creative expression helps children tap into the magic of their own imaginations, which is what being a child is all about.

Well, that and making messes.

Joanna Davis-Lanum is a National Board Certified Teacher and K-5 Art Teacher at Garden Elementary School in Venice, Florida. She is also the mom to two creative souls who keep her on her toes daily. For more great inspiration for using art in your classrooms, please head on over to We Heart Art for lesson plans and photos!

bottlecap snakes!

When life hands you 12,987,645 soda bottle caps....make bottlecap snakes! We recently made these adorable snake sculptures in my Kindergarten class and the kids absolutely ADORED them! This project takes quite a bit of prep work, but your children will enjoy the outcome so much that it won't matter how long it took!

Materials:
20 soda bottle caps (or water bottle caps) with pre-drilled holes in the center
Floral wire
Pony Beads
Button Assortment
Colored Sharpies (optional)
Googly-eyes (optional)

Begin by having students use pony beads to make the snake's "tongue". We use about 8 beads for this and while some like to use red, others like to use multiple colors or patterns! The first bottlecap that you string on should have the flat (top) of the cap facing the beads.

String the remaining bottle caps in a pattern (or not, either works just fine!) and when you get to the last bottlecap you need to flip it backwards.

You can see the last two bottlecaps on this wire, the white one is facing one direction and the blue cap (the last one) has been flipped backwards. Then have students select 8 buttons that vary in size and line them up large to small. They are going to string the buttons on large to small (this is the "rattle").

Last, they glued google eyes on the front of their snake and decorated the white bottlecaps with patterns using Sharpies. This was the MOST fun with a project I've ever seen them have...they named them and played with them while they waited for their friends to finish!

So this summer while you're staying hydrated with water, save those bottlecaps, because you never know how you can use them!

Joanna Davis-Lanum is a National Board Certified Art teacher that also blogs on her classroom blog "We Heart Art". She loves to use recycled products to make art projects because it teaches her students how to be creative and resourceful! Happy summer!

using iTechnology in the classroom

This fall I wrote a huge grant to the Education Foundation of Sarasota County, Inc. which included the purchase of 3 iPads for my classroom. I teach USING a lot of different technologies (digital cameras, photo software, ActivBoard, ActivExpressions, ActiVotes, etc) but I lacked in areas allowing the students to USE technology to learn. This grant, which specified that students learn to speak about artwork using appropriate vocabulary, focused on the app called FotoBabble. Long story short, FotoBabble allows you (or your students) to speak over a photo that you take and upload it into a FotoBabble gallery. Cool, huh?

Recently we did a project on Dale Chihuly's "Macchia" in my Kindergarten classes. It was really the first time we had talked about a specific "famous" artist, his life, his "process", or his medium. As the students went through their own process of creating Macchia using markers, coffee filters, and heavy starch, I interviewed them on their Macchia-making process, what they thought about Chihuly's artwork, and about their favorite parts of the project and uploaded all their interviews onto our FotoBabble account.
I mean, using aural learning (learning about Dale Chihuly), verbal learning (re-telling events in his life, his artwork, or their own artwork), and visual learning (making the Macchia) uses 3 intelligences and pretty much guarantees that a student is going to remember facts about this artist, the artistic process, and their own artwork.

As if this wasn't meaningful enough, just wait...it gets even cooler!

I then took the link to their FotoBabble interview and put it into a QR code generator (I like Kaywa), copied and pasted their QR code to a word document, labeled it, and displayed the QR code with their artwork. Now parents, teachers, administrators, and visitors can stroll through the hallway, scan the QR codes, and listen to my students talk about their artwork. Technology in action, an extension to reach the masses...it's a beautiful thing!

This FotoBabble App can be used in so many different ways:

• Students could interview each other about ANYTHING to develop relational skills.
  


• Students could practice speaking skills and learn vocabularies.


• Students could verbally narrate an artwork, picture, diorama, or project.


• Students could sing or recite a poem.


• Students could practice reading and verbalize what was just read.
  


• Students could re-teach a lesson or process.


• Students could...the list is ENDLESS!

I also had the barcodes put in our school newspaper with a picture of the student's work so we could reach ALL parents with smartphones at home! The sky is the limit here, friends!

Do you use QR codes in your classroom? Have you thought about it but didn't really know how to go about doing it? Trust me, I thought the same thing...and when these iPads showed up in my classroom I actually had to have a group of 5th graders set me up. Technology is daunting; there is SO much to know, so much to share, and SO much to learn! I definitely had to step out of my comfort zone here, but they were steps I'm so glad I took!

A picture is worth a thousand words, but if you give that picture a voice you are able to say so much more!

Happy creating, coding, and storytelling!

Joanna Davis-Lanum is a National Board Certified Art Teacher and teaches at Garden Elementary School in Venice, Florida. She is the author and voice behind her classroom blog called "We Heart Art". She learns more technological stuff from her students than any class in college ever taught her. You can hop on over to We Heart Art to see more students creating, implementing, and using QR codes in their artwork, grades K-5.

making art together: collaborative circle painting

This year I have done quite a few of these "circle paintings" with my Kindergarten and first grade Art students. I am always amazed by the boldness and gusto my students have when they're creating work together, characteristics I sometimes never see from many of them. I absolutely adore these projects, and I think after reading about the elements and principles of circle paintings, you may even be inspired to give it a whirl with your students!

Heip Nguyen, who created the first community-based circle painting, desired to connect with the children of his neighborhood. The neighborhood children kept coming back for more, often bringing friends with them. He was inspired to use circles (a symbol of connection) as a way to connect with others in the community. Originally, circle paintings have been part(s) of community functions, bringing community members together to create LARGE, colorful, collaborative works of art.

I have brought that same excitement to my classroom recently:

My Kindergartners creating their collaborative circle painting.

I love doing this project with my Kindergartners because they begin with a circle, a small, relatable and attainable shape. "So cool! I know how to make a CIRCLE!" Working along with the other students in the class, layers of color and circles are added and added and added by their peers to produce a much more complex project: a collaborative celebration of color and circles.

During the collaborative process of circle painting, something magical happens. Every single student, not just select "stars", suddenly begin to work and think like real artists...from which colors to use to where to add their newest circles. I see them thinking more on a collaborative project than on individual ones. Every time we do this project, the kids are amazingly enthusiastic, and they’re involved in the whole range of the artistic process, from conceptualization to execution.

Even though we, as adults, know the complexity and symbolism of the circle, the kids have no idea how powerful their work has now become...or how beautiful it is. All they often see is scale (large) and colors (many).

Collaborative art-making is a great way to teach pre-K and K students the theme of UNITY. Students who feel inferior in the art-making process suddently come alive. They realize that their contribution to the artwork is just as important as their classmate's...everyone is now an equal game-player, and everyone's contribution matters. Whats even better is that while creating, students develop relational skills ("I like the polka dots you added to MY rings!") and they just plain GET ALONG. There are conversations about colors mixing and compositional terms I had no idea they even KNEW. It's magical on so many levels.
I am always amazed at the amount of pride and sense of ownership every student expresses at the end of the project: “I made this. I did THAT one right there! Isn’t this great?” No one is going to pick out the "wobbly" circle, in fact no one even notices. It’s a huge self-affirming lesson for a child to experience a job well done, especially a job well done collaboratively. Together students can create what they could never create alone. What an essential lesson! It can’t be taught too often.
While there’s nothing new about circle painting OR collaborative art-making, what is new is
bringing this approach into your classrooms and taking the plunge to "go there" with your students. Don't be afraid of the "what if's"--that is what is so great about the minds of young children and what is so HONEST about their artwork. There will be wobbly circles, there will be mixed-paints. Let me tell you, thier pieces of the puzzle don't even come close to stacking up to the final product. Your students will see this, too.

There is no doubt that your students can create astonishing art that you never dreamed possible. Circle paintings are do-able, the experience is powerful for everybody
involved, and the final products are amazing. Collaborative art-making has tremendous potential for changing the "inferiority complex" that your students may have about making art.

And in the end? After I've displayed their collaborative work for (what, to them seems like) an eternity...I cut it up into 22 individual squares and pass it out to them. They don't even care if they got THEIR circle. They're just happy to have a slice of the masterpiece!

So, go forth and create...and if you decide to take the "plunge" please come back and link your project in the comments section of this post!

Joanna Davis-Lanum is a National Board certified Art Teacher and teaches at Garden Elementary School in Venice, Florida. She is the author of her classroom blog "We Heart Art" and amazingly (to everyone's surprise) wears white pants on occasion in the art room! For more lessons on the circle project, you can check out the lesson plan here or a circle painting mishap here.

Book smART!

Hi everyone! It's Joanna from We Heart Art, taking a break from the Holiday hoop-la to give you a little Art inspiration for the New Year!

Using children's books as inspiration for art projects is one of my favorite "stepping-off-points" for many of the projects we do in my class. Here are two of my favorite projects for my kindergartners, using books that you (may) have never heard of! My kindergartners LOVE having a tangible idea of what their artwork may look like seeing it in an illustration first.

The first book is called "I Ain't Gonna Paint No More" by Karen Beaumont. This book, and it's sing-songy silly storyline will have you singing the entire time you are working! Trust me, you can't help yourself!


The book is about a mischievous little boy who gets into paint and makes a HUGE mess in his house. I have my students draw large pictures of themselves with crayon, drawing themselves as the little angels that they are (ha!). They love it because they have NO idea what is going to happen next! Next, I whip out the splatter box. You can click here to see how I use my splatter box in my classroom and how much fun the kids have splattering away! It is possible to make a mess and have fun in a controlled way with kinders in Art class!

(side note: i LOVE the blonde eyebrows with the black hair on this one!)

The next book I love using for my kinders is a book called "Jeremy Draws a Monster" by Peter McCarty. Jeremy learns his lesson about drawing a grumpy monster. I use string to teach my students about organic-vs-geometric shapes, but you could go in any direction with this project.


For a visual of the entire process, you can check out my blog right here. I just adore how honest and colorful all of these monsters are...and I can assure you that NONE of them are as rude as the monster that Jeremy drew!

Our ringleader here at PreK and K Sharing, Debbie Clement, even has a free download of a super-cute song called "Monster Spray" that would be great to incorporate into this lesson.

Sometimes, inspiration for art projects is right in front of your eyes and in the books you read every day! For more literacy-related art lesson plans including Tar Beach and others, check out my classroom blog!

I am Joanna Davis and I write a blog called "We Heart Art" (http://www.ourartlately.blogspot.com/). I am a National Board Certified Art Teacher and teach Kindergarten through Fifth Grade Art at Garden Elementary School in Venice, Florida. Ihave over 600 "MONSTERS" that inspire me creatively each day and keep me on my toes. I challenge you to look beyond the coloring sheets for artistic inspiration!

Editor's Note: This post has been added to our very first LINKIE Party here at PreK+K Sharing, in an effort to help keep track of these brilliant resources! Just click the button for the master list of PAINTING ideas!

the power of peppermint play-doh

My name is Joanna Davis-Lanum and I'm the author and voice behind my classroom art blog"We Heart Art". Among other things I'm addicted to (photographing my two boys, anything crafty, crock-pot meals, colorful scrapbook paper, and home-fragrance items) I'm addicted to Pinterest. Recently I came across a little gem on Pinterest that has rocked my classroom. And my house. And my nose. And my inner-child. Behold the the power that is....

Peppermint Play-Doh!

Most teachers don't enjoy using play-doh. It's messy. The kids mix the colors. The kids may eat it. We don't have time for it. It dries quickly. Kids with sensory issues don't like it.

I sit here writing this while my 3-year-old makes a "flesh-eating penguin" (his words, not mine! Certainly he didn't learn that from me?!) out of some peppermint play-doh. It's soft. It's super-pliable, and we LOVE it!

Besides the creativity that abounds from a lump of play-doh, there are other obvious "plusses" to this "go-to" indoor activity! Play-Doh provides fun while increasing strength of those intrinsic muscles in their hands! It's great for dexterity and fine motor skills! It strengthens neuro-transmissions in the brain!...in other words, Play-Doh is supercalafragilisticexbealidocious!

Here is my wunnerful no-dry super-soft peppermint play-doh recipe! The trick is in the cream of tartar and the vegetable oil...it's the BEST recipe I've ever used!

1 cup flour

1/4 cup salt

2 tablespoons cream of tartar

1 Tablespoon Peppermint Extract (by the Vanilla Extract in the Grocery Store!)

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

1 cup water

red glitter (optional)

red food coloring (optional)

1. Mix flour, salt, & cream of tartar in a medium cooking pot.

2. Add water, peppermint extract and oil.

3. Stir over medium heat 3 to 5 minutes stirring constantly.

4. When mixture forms a ball in pot, remove.

5. Knead until smooth. I use red food coloring to make some red and leave some white as well.

6. Store in any air-tight container or bag, or decorate to give as gifts---like me!

Now, beside this stuff being completely awesome and cute, there are some teaching extensions that you can use to make it classroom-worthy!

• 
  
  
  Smell and Build: the aromatherapy of the peppermint extract will fill your classroom with this calming scent! Peppermint has been used as a calming agent for hundreds of years...it may be just what you need for your energetic kids on a cold day right before Winter Break! Encourage your students to describe the smell with words.



• 
  
  
  Talk it Out: If you make the play-doh with the students, ask process questions while you're making it: "What will happen when we add the red food coloring?"



• 
  
  
  Bead It: use these math mats! Have the kids roll the play-doh up into balls and practice counting!



• 
  
  
  Just Beat It: Playing with and pounding on play-doh can offer all children a healthy and safe outlet for releasing extra energy and expressing their feelings!



• 
  
  
  Still think that play-doh is just for fun? Check out this article in Young Children Magazine from 2005 outlining the pros to play-doh!

Play-Doh isn't just for child's play anymore...it can be a useful, tangible, therapeutic learning tool that you can use in your classroom! Do yourself a favor...and do your kids a favor...and plunge into some peppermint play-doh. You'll be glad you did, and you'll be hooked!

Joanna Davis is a National Board Certified Art Teacher and teaches at Garden Elementary School in Venice, Florida. She is a mom to two young, energetic boys, and sometimes besides kneading play-doh for therapy, she takes peppermint bubble baths!

This post has been added to:

Toys in the Dryer blog hop!
Living Intentionally blog hop

I Heart Nap Time link-up

Hi Sugarplum! Christmas Cheer link-up

Thirty Handmade Days Pity Party

Catch My Party link-up

La-la's Home Daycare Holiday Linky

The Girl Creative link-up

No Time for Flash Cards linky

C.R.A.F.T "Making Monday Marvelous" link-up

Somewhat Simple SYS linky

Craft Junkie Too linky

Crafts Unleashed Holiday Link-Up

The Grant Life Friday link-up

If I've left you off, my apologies, I think the peppermint is getting to my brain! Leave me a comment so I can right my wrong!

Embrace the Hand-print Turkey

In my list of "duties" in my life, my role as Mom is number one on my list. I'm that Mom that makes a huge deal out of every piece of artwork that my son brings home from school (he's three). I have all the artwork he's ever done stacked in folders in our hall closet, and every time I open the door some sort of colorful macaroni noodle falls from the pile of art onto the floor. Yes, I am that mom. It's important to also note that I'm a tad biased because I am an elementary Art Teacher and feel that besides learning manners, creativity is one of the most important skills my son is learning in preschool!

From the day my kids were born, we were using their handprints and footprints to make things....Christmas ornaments, Valentine's cards, even footprints on a step-stool for the bathroom. When your kids are babies, their precious handprints and footprints are their identity. Case in point:

My son's first Christmas program at school, in a onesie they created in class of a reindeer using his handprints as antlers. Guess who still has this onesie in his keepsake bin in our over-stuffed closet?! How could I get rid of this? I am not a hoarder. I am not a hoarder. I am not a hoarder of keepsakes.

I digress.

Last year I did a project with my Kindergartners called "Rudolph the Handprint Reindeer". The kids were elated with their work. They were ah-dorable! I received phone calls from parents with rave reviews of their child's artwork. Their artwork showed up on holiday mugs and Christmas cards. PARENTAL KUDOS! JACKPOT!!! In all my years of teaching I have never received so many kudos from parents as I did on that project. Handprint art forever!

Rudolph the Handprint Reindeer, made by one of my ECSTATIC Kindergartners.

That being said, I house a lot of my students' art projects on an online art gallery called Artsonia and also post a lesson plan starters to the site for other art teachers to give feedback, try the lesson, etc. My only comment on the lesson was "I swear, if I see another handprint project I'm going to scream..." It also included some other banter about lack of exploration and creativity, blah, blah, blah. Of course the comment was written by an anonymous poster and it bothered me all day.

How could someone NOT like handprint artwork?

It must have been a high-school teacher.

It must have been someone without kids.

They must have had a bad day.

They must be joking, right?

After stewing on it for a couple of days...er...almost a YEAR...(no, I'm not someone who lets things go very easily!) I wanted to put together a come-back for this commenter that the artwork wasn't necessarily ABOUT the handprint. It was about the whole composition, about fine-motor skills, and about sensory-processing. It was also about utilizing a piece of their identity to create art. It was about my students experiencing SUCCESS.

It's no different than when I was asked in college in EVERY SINGLE studio class to create a self-portrait of myself. Draw your eye, draw your hand, draw the back of your head (?!). For a preschooler, their handprint is their identity. They aren't aware of how they look, or what makes them look different. They don't see "color lines", races, ethnicities (aren't pre-schoolers the BEST?!) What they know is that "THAT, Mommy, that is MY hand! It's a part of me! It is not like anyone else's!"

Fine motor skills activities for children are the best way to ensure proper development and promote the most functional use of a child's hands. You see, normal development DEMANDS that children are able to accurately and effectively use the small muscles (intrinsic muscles) in their hands. These intrinsic muscles will be used for the rest of their lives and for essential functional activities. Have you ever watched your kiddos trace or cut out their handprints? It's truly agonizing for me to watch, but they're learning. I had some three-legged Rudolphs last year and embraced them all the same.

I won't even go into how the handprint has been used as subject matter throughout the history of Islamic, Aboriginal, and pre-historic Art. I think I have enough in my arsenal for a comback of epic proportions about how handprint art IS essential to a pre-schooler's development, creativity, fine-motor skills, and SUCCESS in creating art. And you wanna know what my comeback said? I was fired up, I had done my research, I had my boxing gloves on. I was ready for a full-out battle of words.

"Thank you for your opinion". Why did I have to defend my students' happiness and success?! It is, after all, all about them.

So teachers, continue on with your hand print turkeys, butterflies, jellyfish, and Fourth of July flags. As parents, we LOVE them. As a teacher, I ADORE the kids' faces and squeals of joy when they're finished and successful. As an educator, I THRIVE off the phone calls of delighted parents thanking me for a piece of meaningful, sentimental artwork. Embrace those hand print turkeys, because sometimes you just need to make art for ART'S SAKE.

I am Joanna Davis and I am a National Board Certified Art Teacher and teach at Garden Elementary School in Venice, Florida. I write a blog full of art lesson plans for grades K-5 called "We Heart Art" at www.ourartlately.blogspot.com. My boys are my life and teaching Art is my passion. My students inspire me daily to push myself creatively and raise my teaching standards. I love the "honesty" of children's art...the reckless abandon of color and thought, and pure imagination at work. I have NEVER met a handprint turked I didn't like! If you'd like to see more handprint artwork, check out my Pinterest Handprint Art Board http://pinterest.com/art_strings/handprint-art-for-kids/. Happy Handprinting!

Editor's note: This post has been added to our very own, first ever "linkie-party" on: ALL THINGS Painting. Just click on the button to go back to the master-list of ideas!