Art in the Classroom
Message from Karen and Melissa
Art is one of the many way’s children use to express themselves. It is a form for children to communicate their feelings and emotions. It is through art and numerous other activities in the Montessori classroom where children develop and calibrate their fine motor skills. Maria Montessori said, “Imagination does not become great until human beings, given the courage and strength, use it to create”. In our classroom, we strive to provide open-ended art activities with different mediums and materials to help the children explore and use their natural creativity. We aim for process over product and imagination over crafts. We celebrate the budding artist in each of them as much as we celebrate artists throughout history. So far, we have examined the works of Eric Carle and most recently Henry Matisse. Both artists have their own unique artistic vision, but what we love about the two of them is the vibrancy of their color choice. We agree that their artwork makes us feel happy! Matisse said, “Creativity takes courage”, and as adults you either think you’re an artist or it terrifies you. Young minds on the other hand, all think they are artists. We hope you enjoy the show and that you are inspired by their original masterpieces.
Matisse Collaborative Collage
We had a wonderful time studying Henri Matisse. Much to his parent’s dismay, Henri grew up to be a painter, sculptor and collage maker, they wanted him to run the family store. As he got older and couldn’t paint anymore, he created a new medium called “cut-outs” or collages. For our collaborative project we cut out several different shapes and designs of bright paper and glued them on to a black canvas. The result was a vibrant, beautiful collage, one we are sure Matisse himself would have thought to be a brilliant masterpiece.
Foil Printed Moon Craft
After studying the Solar System, we were very excited to do this moon craft! We love to experiment with different ways to paint and stamping and printing with foil is a fun one we have tried recently. Make a stamp out of foil, and then use paint to print with it. The texture this creates works really well to make the moon’s crater-filled landscape.
Autumn Leaf Stenciling
In the fall we completed our unit on Trees and Leaves. After observing the beautiful leaves that were changing right outside our window, the children used a leaf stencil and Dot paints to create their own leaf paintings mixing together yellow, orange and red.
Tape Resist Watercolor Painting - AUCTION ITEM
For this project, the children took a piece of heavy watercolor paper and made random shapes, designs and lines with painter’s tape. The children next chose the watercolors they wanted to use for the different sections, (several vibrant colors as you can see). We let the paint dry for a little bit and then carefully and patiently peeled the tape off. We were so amazed at how beautiful they came out, we had to frame them.
For our contribution to the NMS Play Area Wish List Auction, we photographed all the finished pieces in natural light and ordered coasters of the photographs. We also made a collage of all the art and had the collage printed on a 34 x 36 canvas, sure to brighten up any space! LINK TO AUCTION
Shimmering Processed Art
Process art emphasizes the act and process of making art over the product produced unlike crafts which have a specific outcome. This art project is completely process art. The children were given a very heavy piece of art paper and their choice one of three different shimmery paints. We then gave them as much glue as they desired to squeeze wherever they wanted on their canvas. The final step included putting their paint/glue design in a box and shaking Epson salt all over it.
MLK "I Have A Dream" Cloud
Every year we spend a great deal of time honoring and celebrating the remarkable life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. We made “I have a dream” cloud mobiles where the children told us about some of their dreams. They are hanging beautifully in our room, we only wish you could see them, and all their art in person.
Sparkly Peace Doves
First, we had the children choose a word or two that best describes love to them and they or we wrote it on the back of their dove. Then the children sponge painted their dove and while they were still wet, they added silver glitter to them. As you can see, they look beautiful hanging from our classroom “tree”.
