Discovering Art

The art studio is always a busy place!

 

Children are encouraged to look at the details of what they are drawing.

We talk about colours, shapes and lines as we discuss their wonderful artwork.

 



Children's artwork is often inspired by the natural materials and nature walks that we immerse ourselves in every day.

 



 

Inspired by our kite-flying, Savannah decided to make a kite of her own.

 



Stories begin to come alive when the children have the opportunity to come to an open art studio and choose their materials. Scissor skills and storylines develop right beside each other!

 





Sometimes, the children begin their artwork with something in mind, then it changes as they create. Miya began drawing a spider. As we sang the 'Itsy Bitsy Spider' song, she decided to draw the water spouts and the rain. Then she included musical notes she learned about with Mrs. Roberts when she was in JK. As we continued to talk about her picture and experiences, the conversation turned to our trip to Greenview Aviaries. Miya drew a platform and the two water spouts became the poles for the 'Zipline'! Drawing is a creative way for the children to make sense of their world and to revisit wonderful memories.

 

Megan was missing her 'Gran'. We talked about how we might do something special for Gran. We ended up on the rooftop garden and gathered many natural materials for a collage.

She quickly set to work, choosing the plants and creating her collage. When she was done, she was happy to write a lovely message to Gran from Megan.

 

Megan inspired other children to create a nature collage!

 



 









When children first come to the art studio, they often experiment with the materials that are available.

This is a fabulous first step in developing their knowledge of the materials and skill in how to work with them. When we see a painting that is filled with many colours, lines, shapes and we aren't able to determine what the picture is of...we are sure there was a great deal of learning happening!







Emmy and Addison decided to squish the marshmallows that were being used along with toothpicks to build at the light table. Emmy squished and squished until she had a blob of soft white stickiness.

How exciting to have a self-made medium to create art with! She and Addison collaborated with the squished marshmallow and spread it about on their paper, using glue and paint to colour over the sticky white.

“Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time”.

 ~Thomas Merton~