A Teacher's Reflections

Every April my preschool class has an Art Show on display for the community at the post office.  Every year I say, “This is the best!”  And it always is, year after year.  Why?  Because children naturally love art.  When they are introduced to real art and artists… I’m getting ahead of myself.

The first thing I do is show children art masterpieces and recite the title.  Nothing else.  I let the art sink in, slowly.  They immediately recognize Starry Night, as it is one of three art posters hanging in the classroom.  The other two are a Grandma Moses, and an Eric Carle.

We then talk about styles of art- impressionism, cubism, and more.  Before we begin to paint, when children are comfortable and familiar with art, I show pictures.  I stop at each one and say to children, “John, you could do this!” (John nods his head) or “Carla, you can paint this!” (Carla smiles).

This year we are learning about Italy, so we began with the Mona Lisa.  Children really looked at her portrait, in earnest.  They saw things in the painting you have probably never seen.  We wrote a story about her.

We then began to paint her.  After all, how can you paint the Mona Lisa until you have studied her and written a story?  A child was focused and quiet,  He really worked hard.

We introduced real artist paints in tubes and squeezed them onto pallets.  Children were painting like artists!  After studying major works of art, this was the perfect medium.  A child was taken by one particular work of art, Large Blue Horses by Franz Marc.

He worked so hard on his rendition.  Look at his big smile!

We painted sunflowers and Venice.  We dipped spaghetti into paint and dropped it from high above onto paper to create modern art.  We used a plethora of shapes with different designs and colors to create cubism.

How did we keep this art work flowing, day after day?  Music!  Music inspires art.  I brought in my record player and albums.  I introduced the record player slowly, as if I was figuring out what it does and how it works.  Rubbing my finger under the needle and hearing the sound was like finding the end of the rainbow.  Then, I pulled out a record album, Beethoven’s Symphony No.9.  Putting the record onto the player and turning it on was electric for children.  You could have heard a pin drop.  The music begins softly and quickly becomes loud and bold.  What a thrill for children.

I said, “When you hear the music, it goes into your brain, then into your heart, and it shoots through your fingers like fireworks, so you can create art.”  I made my fingers shoot out.

We played Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, Handel’s Water Music…and the Beatles.

The final piece was giving each child an opportunity to name their work of art.  Every masterpiece has a title.  This instilled pride and reinforced how important and special all their work was.  Here are a few titles:

The Future
Eighteen Beautiful Shapes
Sun in a Cup the Whole Rainbow
Starry Night in Italy
My Mommy and Daddy’s House
The Sky
Wild Animals
Beautiful Sunflowers

I am so proud of my preschoolers.  More importantly, they are proud of themselves.  Yes, in the words of Pablo Picasso, “Every child is an artist.”

Jennie