Reason for Art

I believe art is a process, even when there is an end product in mind. This week we did some great art projects. I have really enjoyed having an easel set up that we can do buddy art. I never really did much group art in the past. I guess I was worried that it would cause problems because I was under the mistaken impression that taking a project home was the whole reason of doing the art. I have now learned otherwise. I have had this easel set up all year and never once have I had a student ask to take home the paper. Instead, I have watched children, sometimes in pairs or groups, wander over add to the paper then wander away again. I realized that to them, the point was not to create something to take home, but to just create something. Although this week I realized that just because they didn’t want to take it home, didn’t mean that the students didn’t take ownership in the project. As I looked at the paper to decide if I needed to put a new one up, I saw that three girls had signed their names 🙂 Another change I have made over the years is about handprint art. When I first started teaching, for some reason, I concluded that 3 to 5 year olds could not paint their own hands to make handprints. I would always do it. Then one year, a student took the brush before I could and made me realize that I was taking over something that they could do themselves. So handprint painting has become a lot more fun.

Not only did we do some awesome art, we had a great time playing (learning) too. I put up the train table, which is always a hit. And luckily, the weather warmed up again so we can still spend time outside. The fun this week was gathering up all the leaves and putting them in the compost bins. Serious, I sometimes feel like I should be paying you parents for the “work” your children do around the preschool 🙂