Preparing a Montessori art curriculum might feel overwhelming. Especially if you don’t know what should come first when teaching Montessori students art. In this blog, I’m sharing why you should teach primary color mixing to Montessori students. I’ll give you my art teacher advice on what’s important to focus on first.
Primary color mixing should be on the top of your art curriculum scaffolding. Why is teaching it so essential? Because all visual arts are connected to color theory.
If you want to teach children how to paint, they will need to learn how to achieve the colors they need when those colors are not available in their palette. And when learning how to create realistic images you need to know how to control color values by mixing primary colors together. Artists also tint and shade by understanding basic primary and secondary mixing ideas. To create color pop in designs you need to understand warm, cool, and complementary color ideas as well.
So start with teaching the basics of color mixing, then move into more advanced color theory ideas. Be sure to check out my store for the art supplies you may need for this curriculum.
Good news!
As a homeschool mom, artist, and art teacher I know how difficult it can be to create an art curriculum. I’ve spent the last five years developing an easy-to-follow sequential step-by-step curriculum for parents and school teachers…so you don’t have to!
It took me twenty years to create this method. I start my color theory curriculum modules first with primary colors into secondary color mixing, then move into more important color theory ideas with easy lessons. I can save you valuable time from trying to figure this all out, so check out my links below!
Painting With Primary Colors | What to start with?
Sometimes I get a lot of questions from teachers and parents wanting to know which colors they should first introduce to their students. So, I often recommend starting with primary colors red, yellow, and blue (water-soluble mediums).
Just start with these three primary colors if your student is new to painting. Learning to mix primary hues can teach lots of valuable secondary mixing lessons.
A book I published a couple of years back called Kids Color Theory is available in my store, and a recently designed Kids Color Theory Curriculum is now available too. You can order both in digital form or paperback copy here.
Kids Color Theory Book
Primary hues can come in lots of different mediums.
If you look at my pictures I have primary hues in all of these mediums which can be used to teach color theory:
Acrylic
Watercolor
Watercolor crayons
Watercolor pencils
As you can see, there are many options to choose from. Many are available in my store.
I review each one of these mediums in my book Kids Color Theory and how they work.
Painting with primary colors is a lot of fun. My book will show you how you can teach your students primaries. It will show how they can mix their own secondary colors, and fun value color mixing ideas. In my Montessori Color Mixing Curriculum, I have over 37 color mixing lessons you can follow. Check out my color mixing curriculum here.
Water tub color play evolved many years ago for me when introducing toddlers to primary color lessons. Watching the children, I noticed children getting transfixed on colors when pouring from bowl to bowl.
They became delighted when colors transformed into another different hue. Then, I even witnessed toddlers try to correct the colors by pouring other combinations of colors together.
Toddlers were no longer distracted by their surroundings and became totally absorbed by these color transformations. It was exciting to notice calmness and relaxation set in with the children as they painted. Although I knew they were not mixing colors intentionally, they were processing discovery. And, they knew something was happening because of their actions. Order my book Kids Color Theory Curriculum to help you teach your kids about primary colors while having fun!
As teachers, we always want what’s best for our students; we want them to excel at the task at hand and get the most out of their lessons. If you want them to succeed, knowing when to teach them is just as important as how and what you teach them. Because, believe it or not, there are actually optimal times to teach specific types of lessons. And the best time to teach Montessori art lessons is going to differ from math or science.
There’s been a lot of research and studies done on the optimal time for learning, and much of it has found that people tend to be the most primed for analytical thinking in the early morning.
This means that morning will typically be the best time to teach the more logical or methodical lessons—such as math, science, reading, and writing. These subjects require sharp, critical thinking.
A Danish study, conducted over the course of three years, looked at how the time of day affected kids’ test-taking skills. The results showed that for every hour later in the day the test was scheduled, scores decreased by about 1%. This, again, shows that children are ‘better thinkers’ in the morning and earlier in the day.
So what does this mean for the best time to teach Montessori art lessons?
Art is pretty much on the other side of the spectrum from those critical-thinking type subjects. A big difference between visual arts and academics is that there are no wrong answers in creative art; it’s all about each artist’s perception and how they want to design, make, and create things. Instead of needing to think logically or analytically, art involves a more relaxed state of mind.
To get into a creative flow, kids don’t need to have full focus on their project—in fact, it’s best if they have very little on their minds, and are actually in a more playful mood.
That’s why I suggest that the best time to teach Montessori art is in the later afternoon.
So if you’re in a traditional classroom setting, schedule your more analytical subjects in the morning; and after kids break for lunch, they can set up for their art lessons and assignments. If you wait until after lunch, kids will typically be more refreshed, more playful, and in a more relaxed state—which is the optimum state for creative and innovative thinking.
Where to Start: Build Your Schedule Around the Best Time to Teach Montessori Art
Your classroom’s schedule is likely to change from day to day and week to week, but if you know that there really is a best time to teach analytical subjects and a best time to teach art, that should be the place to start. This should help you organize and plan ahead for your lessons during the academic school year. And if you need ideas on the what—as in what to teach in those art lessons, check out this blog for more Montessori art lesson-planning ideas.
I’ve worked with so many Montessori teachers from all over the world and they’ve all told me how intimidating it is to actually teach art in their classrooms. I want art to be accessible to every child, from early elementary on up—and to do that, I know that actually teaching art needs to be easy.
One way I love to introduce teachers to the idea of how to teach art is by showing you how to work with tools you already have—like storybooks! I created a virtual training that teaches you how to teach art by using storybooks to create art lesson themes. And as a bonus, I share some quick-planning ideas to help you regularly and easily schedule art activities in your Montessori classroom.
To get access to this incredible training (for free!), click here!
A Short Cut Just for You
If you’d like to learn more about all the benefits art can offer to children, read my book, Defining Visual Arts. It provides art literacy standards and gives you a guide to what you should be teaching your students. The book also includes tips for using artistic language, choosing the best art mediums, and putting together art projects for kids of different ages.
It’s truly a solid foundation to help you teach art in your classroom (in a way that’s stress-free for you, and exciting and fun for your students!). To purchase Defining Visual Arts, click here.
No part of this blog may be used or be reproduced in any manner whatsoever including reproducing, publishing, performing, and making any adaptions of the work – including translation into another foreignlanguage without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. Nature of Art® Publishing P.O. Box 443 Solana Beach, California 92075.
We made it through another year and I’m super excited for all the new lessons I have planned for you in this new year! I have so many art teaching tips, advice, lessons, and trainings I can’t wait to share and talk about! But today, I want to share some advice on teaching kids virtually, specifically, how to modify Montessori art lessons for virtual teaching—since it looks like that’s how a lot of us will be starting the year off (at least for us here in California and a few other U.S. states).
(By the way… find me on Instagram, @nature.of.art.kids and let me know if schools in your area are currently open or closed!)
Last year was a rollercoaster, to say the least, but as teachers we had to adapt. I taught all my normal art lessons, but modified them to work virtually during the pandemic. And guess what? They were huge successes!
I hope this new year turns out to be so much better than last, but just in case we’re looking at more virtual teaching and crazy curveballs, here are a few ways to make virtual teaching a little easier—and even fun!
5 Ways I Modified Montessori Art Lessons for Virtual Teaching
If I’m being honest, I genuinely loved teaching in 2020. It gave me the chance to be a little creative in how I taught my students. And being an art teacher, I love the chance to be creative! Here are five ways I changed my teaching methods!
I embraced storybooks into my lessons. I read fun art storybooks out loud, virtually on camera. Then, kids created their own artworks based on the topics of each book. (This type of lesson can be repeated again and again and again—with a new book each time!)
I shared fun links to really cool art museums. Kids had the chance to visit those museums virtually and tell me what they liked or thought was weird. Then we created our own version of the artworks we discussed. There are lots of virtual tours offered on museum websites from all over the world! That means there is a TON of lesson and project ideas. (Always check out the kids’ education pages and resources for inspiration.)
I mixed things up. Rather than having the kids look at me or just listen to just me instruct, I shared pictures and presentation slides of artworks and did lots of screen sharing in Zoom. It kept students super engaged. I also timed these lessons to be 15 minutes or less, to keep kids from being bored or checking out of my talks.
I had discussions about art, instead of just giving lectures. I listened and asked my students about their thoughts and opinions. I’m not talking boring art history lessons here—I mean cool art conversations about buildings, inventions, fun pop art, and unusual art pieces. And do you know what? Kids learned a ton about art without even having to make it. Just by having conversations and having students reflect on art, you are taking kids through one of the steps of the artistic process. So don’t feel pressured to make something creative or pretty every time.
I gave kids less time to work on their projects. I didn’t want them to have to sit in front of the screen for too long or work so long they get distracted. I truly modified how each segment was addressed, so we worked on a project more slowly, over time (sometimes just working on it for 15 minutes a day). It gave myself and my students some breathing room and it gave kids something to look forward to working on the next day!
I truly believe there is always a way to keep your students engaged and excited for learning art literacy.
Where to Start: Think Outside the Box
You just have to think outside of the box and maybe even step away from typical, traditional mediums.
For example, I challenged kids to make artworks using items from around the house and out of mediums they already had. Not everyone has the same supplies at home, so I was very relaxed and let them use anything they wanted.
One project that was a big hit was creating mandalas! I asked kids to make a mandala out of whatever they wanted, and it could be a 2D or 3D version. So many fun things came back! Chalk mandalas, sticks and stones mandalas, painted rock mandalas, colorings of mandalas—so much creativity! BUT get your kids’ parents’ permission first, because they just might use up all the toothpaste as paint—yes, this was one student’s brilliant idea and while I loved it, mom was not exactly on board.
One Step Further: Download My Easy Montessori Art Lesson Prompts Cheat Sheet
Before I became a Montessori art teacher trainer, I was an artist and homeschool mom. I also taught other art students from around my community how to create art, and have led programs in museums and educational conferences from different pedagogies throughout the world. With all this experience (more than three decades!), I’ve been able to observe the activities that excite and engage students. I’ve also learned what prompts can be done virtually anywhere—from your classroom to your students’ homes!
These virtual Montessori lessons support independent learning—and I’m sure parents will thank you for them! While you can offer these prompts to students to do while schools are closed, I also encourage you to do them in your classroom as well once school starts up again. They’re easy for you and fun for your students!
You can download 10 FREE Easy Montessori Art Activities by clicking here.
A Short Cut Just for You: Downloadable Art Lessons for Virtual Teaching
Here’s some good news: YOU can teach your kids art at home—and you don’t need any experience to do so. I’ve created the Kids Art At Home Lessons Download so that you can start presenting easy and fun art lessons to your kids.
This limited-time bundle features art lessons from each of the visual arts domains (drawing, painting, clay modeling, crafting, and color theory), so you’re actually laying a solid foundation for your child’s art education. You’ll receive:
1 Drawing Lesson
1 Color Mixing Lesson
1 Painting Lesson
1 Clay Modeling Lesson
1 Craft Lesson
PLUS, you’ll also get 50 art lesson ideas, a materials list, and video and blog resources so your kids can continue to do art every day while at home! All of this is delivered as a bundle; you’ll download each item separately, so you and your child can be introduced to and work through the activities one at a time so they don’t get overwhelmed.
You can purchase Kids Art At Home: A Bundle of Beginner Art Curriculum & Activities for Kids—which is available for just a limited time—by clicking here.
No part of this blog may be used or be reproduced in any manner whatsoever including reproducing, publishing, performing, and making any adaptions of the work – including translation into another foreignlanguage without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. Nature of Art® Publishing P.O. Box 443 Solana Beach, California 92075.
The tradition of making gingerbread houses has been a favorite with my family and kids of all ages at my art workshops for many, many years. But did you know that the tradition of making decorated gingerbread houses dates back all the way to the 1800s? The tradition started in Germany and became popularized by the Brothers Grimm’s fairy tale, Hansel and Gretel, which was published in 1812. That means that whenever you’re doing gingerbread decorating with kids, you’re participating in a tradition that’s more than 200 years old!
Of course, you don’t have to be a kid to enjoy decorating gingerbread houses—adults really love it too! I started the tradition of decorating gingerbread houses with my kids when they were young teens, and I thought they would lose interest as they got older, but every year they get more excited to outdo their last creation with even more creativity and details! It’s something we all look forward to every December.
Gingerbread Decorating with Kids
The first few years we started decorating gingerbread houses, we actually started with plain graham crackers—not gingerbread!—and icing. They came out so darling! In years after that, we would go “treasure hunting” and local candy stores for new and pretty sweet treats to add to our houses.
What I love about this holiday tradition is that it’s really an art activity kids can do at home! Art can be presented in so many ways to kids, and this one is always so much fun!
I would always show my kids pictures of other gingerbread creations to look at for ideas, but allowed them the freedom to make their house any way they wanted. It’s important to let your kids just have fun and be creative—there’s no right or wrong way to decorate a gingerbread house. After all, even if their house topples over, it’ll still be a delicious treat to eat!
What You Need:
A flat and sturdy surface, like cardboard – you can use boxes from holiday packages or recycle a pizza box; just trim them to size and line them with foil, parchment paper, or wax paper
Graham crackers or baked gingerbread (The Food Network has a great gingerbread recipe) or a gingerbread house kit
Icing
An assortment of candy
Wipes and paper towels
Where to Start: A Pre-Made Kit for Gingerbread Decorating with Kids
Of course, I believe making a gingerbread (or graham cracker) house from scratch is a fun challenge for kids, but there are some really great short cuts out there too. So many stores offer gingerbread house kits and they come in all different shapes and sizes—houses, castles, villages, even trains, and a camper! If you go this route and buy a pre-made kit or even a pre-made house, I strongly suggest you find extra treats to add to it. The kits are usually pretty standard, and offering your kids more types of candies and icings to decorate with will allow them to be more creative and have even more fun!
Knowing that the tradition of gingerbread houses has ties to a fairy tale is proof that we can use stories to inspire our art. While the story of Hansel and Gretel may not be suitable for younger kids, there are many, many other story books that can serve as inspiration!
I created this free training, How to Theme Art Lessons with Story Books, to show you exactly how to use story books (plus science and history books too) to create art lessons for kids. It makes coming up with art themes and activities easy, and shows you how to bridge literature and text books with a creative outlet like art—which helps kids make connections, stay engaged, and retain valuable lessons and concepts. Get the training for free by clicking here!
A Short Cut Just for You
Even if you don’t consider yourself to be ‘artsy’ or do many art activities with your children, you’ll find that decorating gingerbread houses opens up a whole new world of art appreciation! Art doesn’t have to be stuffy still-life paintings or incredibly detailed statues—it’s simply fun! And to a young child, exploring art through play is a natural way to learn and appreciate it.
If you want to learn more about how to give your children fun, meaningful, and educational art activities that stimulate their senses and little minds, check out my book Nurturing Children in the Visual Arts Naturally.
Many books have been written on the subject of teaching visual arts to children, but they use traditional fine art as examples and in lessons. My book, on the other hand, teaches you how to set up kids to explore and develop their own natural creative abilities. Art is a brilliant way to help your child strengthen their fine motor skills, better express their emotions, and tap into creative problem-solving and thinking—and Nurturing Children in the Visual Arts Naturally breaks it all down for you so it’s easy to understand and facilitate.
Download the e-book of Nurturing Children in the Visual Arts Naturally now, by clicking here!
No part of this blog may be used or be reproduced in any manner whatsoever including reproducing, publishing, performing, and making any adaptions of the work – including translation into another foreignlanguage without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. Nature of Art® Publishing P.O. Box 443 Solana Beach, California 92075.
This time of year is a special one. It gets a lot busier, but we also tend to make time for more special moments—even in the Montessori classroom. Kids’ holiday crafts, like painting ornaments, are a wonderful way to let kids work creatively and independently. I’ve painted ornaments with thousands of kids in classrooms and workshops during the holidays and they all love this holiday craft so much! And it’s something students and their families can keep for years to come! I have kids visit me every year to make a new ornament to add to their collection.
What makes this kids holiday craft great is that it’s simple to set up and you don’t need very many special items beyond a basic paint kit. I like using woodcraft ornaments because they’re better for the environment than plastic and safe to have around younger kids (versus glass ornaments).
Here are some tips for setting up this holiday art activity for your students (or kids at home too!).
Setting Up an Ornament Painting Station
Painting ornaments can seem like a messy project, but if you set up a special area for painting, it’s actually totally stress and mess-free—and really fun!
The space you set up should be in an area where children are allowed to get a little messy. I suggest using a drop cloth, especially if your students are painting inside. You should also provide smocks, aprons, or large old t-shirts for them to wear, so their clothes don’t get messy while they’re creating—some paints do not easily wash off clothes.
It’s much easier for kids to paint if their materials are at eye level and on a flat and sturdy surface (like a table). You may want to put a drop cloth or old newspaper on top of that too.
Ornament Painting Supplies
Here’s everything you need for this kids holiday craft of painting ornaments:
Wooden ornaments – while ‘holiday shapes’ are fun to use, any shape will work
Acrylic paint – you will get the best and longest-lasting results if you use acrylic paint
Paintbrushes – put out a few sizes, including very fine/tiny ones for details
Paint palette – any size palette will work for this holiday craft, even a paper plate
Glitter – you can use any color you choose, I personally love white glitter for painting ornaments
Smock – or another cover-up to protect kids’ clothes; acrylic will not come out of fabric
Napkins – for wiping paintbrushes between color changes
Jar – water jar to clean paintbrushes between colors
Hairdryer (optional) – for older kids or adults to speed up the drying process and work on details
A note on ornaments: You can find unfinished wood craft shapes at your local superstore or craft stores, or you can find them online as well. You can even use glass orb ornaments, I would just be very careful with younger children. It’s also a great idea to recycle old ornaments! Kids will love adding to the designs or completely “destroying” a design to create their own new one.
A note on paint: For this activity, you want to use acrylic paint, because it’s the most durable and it’ll last the longest. (I still have ornaments my kids painted when they were young and I pull them out every year during the holidays!) It’s very important to use kid-safe, non-toxic acrylic paint—you can buy some here.
Where to Start: Choose the Right Ornament Painting Color Palette
I really encourage you to allow children to paint whatever they want—they don’t have to stick with traditional holiday themes. However, more than likely, they will choose symbols of Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, and other winter holidays. Most of the children I’ve worked with choose to paint shapes like stars, Christmas trees, Santas, and snowmen.
These are some great colors to start with:
Red
Black
White
Gold
Silver
Dark Green
Yellow
Orange
Pink
Purple
Brown
Burgundy deep red
If you don’t have all these colors, that’s okay; students will be able to make beautiful holiday ornaments with just three to four colors too!
Don’t forget, if students are using glitter for their ornaments, make sure they sprinkle it on their ornaments while the paint is still wet. If they wait until their ornament is completely dried, the glitter won’t stick and it’ll just fall off.
If you haven’t done very many painting activities with your students, you’re in for a real treat—kids love this craft! It’s so simple to set up, you can do this with your students a few times during the holiday season. Or, you can expand on this activity and do rock painting and just painting on paper. The materials stay the same, the images, paint colors, and canvases are the only things that may need to change.
With any painting project, as long as children have the right painting materials, they will learn and have fun! If you want a free downloadable version of the paint materials listed above (plus a few more), get my Kids Painting Materials Checklist now by clicking here.
A Short Cut Just for You
Once you see how much your students love painting, you’re going to want to include it as a regular part of your curriculum. My Kids Painting Practice & Process Curriculum has 57 master lessons that walk students through everything they need to know to be successful at painting, from setting up a paint station and holding a brush all the way to creating beautiful nature landscapes and painting different types of animals!
Each lesson is part of a sequence and includes all the components, tips, materials lists, and instructions you need to ensure you will be able to actually teach your students to become skilled painters. All you have to do is simply follow the instructions and easily present the activities to your students.
Kids Painting Practice & Process Curriculum sets the foundation for their art education and will help them transform into little artists! To purchase the curriculum, click here.
Let’s start this blog off with a fun fact: I have probably painted thousands of rocks with kids throughout San Diego! It’s one of my go-to art activities because it’s fun for kids, easy to set up, and leads to really diverse artworks. For example, now that we’re heading into the Halloween season, I love changing things up and doing this Halloween rock painting Montessori kids art project.
Here are my tips for setting up this art activity so your students have the best experience (and you have the least amount of mess and stress!).
Halloween Rock Painting in the Classroom or Home
When you’re setting up this Montessori Halloween rock painting project, you really only need three things: rocks for painting, kid-safe painting supplies, and a painting space.
Collecting Rocks
Kids love collecting rocks outside! You can find rocks everywhere, they’re a free resource that helps make this project really affordable. However, if your class is unable to go out and collect rocks, you can always find bags of them at craft or garden stores. If you are using collected rocks, make sure you clean and dry them before painting.
Natural rocks come in different sizes and shapes. Have your students imagine what they would like to paint, then look for rocks similar in shape. The best rocks for this project will have a nice, flat surface to paint.
Setting Up a Rock Painting Space
The space you set up should be in an area where children can get messy. If you want to protect your floor, use a drop cloth. Make sure your students are also prepared for a little mess; they should be dressed in clothes that can get messy, some paints do not easily wash off clothes.
It’s much easier for kids to paint if their materials are at eye level and on a flat and sturdy surface (like a table). You may want to put a drop cloth or old newspaper on top of that too.
Rock Painting Supplies
Here’s everything you need for this Halloween rock painting Montessori kids art project:
Acrylic Paint – safe, non-toxic acrylic or thick craft paint will work great
Paintbrushes – very small brushes for making details and medium brushes to paint the full surface of rocks
Water Jar – to clean paint off paintbrushes between colors
Napkins – for wiping water and paint off paintbrushes
Palette – if you don’t have small palettes you can use paper plates or recycled egg cartons to hold your paint
Newspaper – to protect the working surface and catch paint
Smock, apron, or old clothes – to protect child’s clothes from getting paint on them
Halloween Rock Painting Colors
Acrylic paint is the best option for painting natural rocks; it will adhere to them long term. Just make sure you are only using kid-safe, non-toxic acrylic paint brands, especially when working with children under 12 years old.
You can make lots of fun Halloween designs on rocks using just a few colors of paint. These can be simple designs for kids to mimic.
White – ghosts, mummies, skulls, eyeballs, spider webs
Black – jack-o’-lantern, black cats, bats
Orange – pumpkins, jack-o’-lanterns
Red – eyeballs, drops of blood
Green – witches, monsters, Frankenstein
Purple – monsters, spiders, witches’ hats
Yellow – candy corn, scary eyes
Remember, the final artwork will depend on your students’ ages and the time they’ve been exposed to painting before this activity.
Where to Start: Follow My Halloween Rock Painting Tips
This Montessori Halloween rock painting activity is actually really simple. All you really have to do is demonstrate how to properly use the materials—paintbrushes, water jar, napkins—and then let kids work independently to create their artworks. Here are three quick tips to help make the project go smoothly.
Tip 1: Rocks are not paper; they don’t absorb paint as easily.
When kids are cleaning their paintbrushes in between colors, make sure they wipe all the water off the paintbrush before they dip it back into paint. You don’t want runny paint when painting rocks, the paint is harder to control with precision and the image won’t be as clear.
Tip 2: Paint the background color first and let it dry completely before adding more paint.
If you want rock to have a solid background color, paint that first. Then, let the paint dry before painting anything else on it. This will help the image come out nice and clear, and keep the paint colors from smearing together.
Example: If painting a ghost rock, paint white first, let it dry, then paint black eyes and mouth once the white has dried.
Tip 3: If possible, paint rocks in direct sunlight.
Acrylic will dry quicker if it’s under a heat source. Rocks will take much longer to dry if they are being painted in a cold or cool temperature. Once your students have finished painting their rocks, lay them in direct sunlight to dry.
Like I said earlier, students can do rock painting in so many different ways and themes! The general idea and materials stay the same, the images and paint colors are the only things that may need to change.
With any painting project, as long as children have the right painting materials, they will learn and have fun! If you want a free downloadable version of the paint materials listed above (plus a few more), get my Kids Painting Materials Checklist now by clicking here.
A Short Cut Just for You
Painting—whether it’s rocks or on paper—is always such a fun activity for kids. I encourage you to set up painting projects and lessons for your class on a regular basis. My Kids Painting Practice & Process Curriculum has 57 master lessons that take kids from setting up a paint station and holding a brush all the way to creating beautiful nature landscapes and painting different types of animals! Each lesson is featured as part of a sequence and includes all the information—materials, demonstration technique, and direct and indirect aims—so you can simply follow the instructions and easily present the activity to your students.
Kids Painting Practice & Process Curriculum sets the foundation for their art education and will help them transform into little artists! To purchase the curriculum, click here.
It’s finally autumn! Hopefully where you are the leaves are turning beautiful hues and you’re enjoying the season! To me, nothing says autumn more than being surrounded by pumpkins! And, based on experience, I think a lot of Montessori students would agree! This pumpkin painting Montessori art project is a favorite among children (and teachers) every year!
Pumpkins add a festive touch during the fall holiday season, and this art activity gives you the chance to talk about plant life cycle or a number of other Montessori topics!
What I love most about this pumpkin painting Montessori art activity for kids is how easy it is! It’s a great alternative to carving pumpkins, which can be difficult or even dangerous to do with Early Childhood and Lower Elementary students. This project is very safe and lots of fun children of all ages.
Pumpkin Painting in the Classroom or Home
When you’re setting up this pumpkin painting project, you really only need three things: a pumpkin, painting supplies, and a painting space.
Picking a Pumpkin
First, your pumpkin. Any size pumpkin will work but try to choose one that has little to no blemishes—this will make painting easier and actually make the pumpkin last longer. Once your child picks the pumpkin they want, clean its surface gently with soap and water or a wipe. Then allow the pumpkin to air-dry or dry it with a cloth before painting.
Setting Up a Painting Space
The space you set up should be in an area where children can get messy. If you want to protect your floor, use a drop cloth. Make sure your students are also prepared for a little mess; they should be dressed in clothes that can get messy, some paints do not easily wash off clothes.
It’s much easier for kids to paint if the pumpkins are at eye level and on a flat and sturdy surface (like a table). You may want to put a drop cloth or old newspaper on top of that too.
Pumpkin Painting Art Supplies
Here’s everything you need for this art project:
Clothes to get messy in; artist smocks and aprons work too
Paint brushes – small ones for little pumpkins and large ones for bigger pumpkins (kids can paint with sponges and their fingers too!)
Water jar – for washing brushes between paint colors
Napkins – for paintbrushes and paint spills
Baby wipes (optional) – I love having these around for quick clean-ups, they get all types of paint off kids’ skin, even acrylic
Palette – to hold paints (paper plates and egg cartons work too)
Remember, this is a seasonal project and will only last the life of the pumpkin. So safe, non-toxic paints will work perfectly. I recommended using water-based paints like mineral paint, milk paint, acrylic paint or tempera when working with young kids.
You can choose whatever paint colors you have in your classroom, but I suggest using a mix of fall colors like green, white, red, orange, yellow, brown, and purple, which all stand out on a pumpkin.
Note: I recommend leaving black paint out of young children’s paint palettes. The smallest amount of black will turn all colors gray. Your child’s pumpkins will still look wonderful without black paint.
How To Present Pumpkin Painting Lessons
The best part about this project is that it’s so simple! Kids can have fun and their pumpkins will look fantastic no matter what! There aren’t any complicated instructions, just three steps.
Squeeze out just a quarter-size dollop of paint, you can add more as you go along
Demonstrate how to do simple strokes so children have an understanding of how to use the paintbrushes and other materials (like the water jars and napkins for cleaning their brushes)
Leave the rest to them!
Where to Start: Pumpkin Painting
It’s important to let your kids explore and work independently with this project. Process-based learning is especially important for Early Childhood and Lower Elementary students.
However, it is okay to give them inspiration. Here are a few ideas:
Purple paint for Dracula, monsters, or bats
Green paint for witches, goblins, or aliens
White paint for ghosts and spider webs
With older children, you can include black paint for spiders and bats
While this is a painting project, you can also put out other art materials for students to use, such as googly eyes, recycled scraps, and raw or dried veggies to make funny faces.
I see so many teachers overcomplicate painting lessons. It really is simple though! As long as children have the right painting materials, they will learn! If you want a free downloadable version of the paint materials listed above (plus a few more), get my Kids Painting Materials Checklist now by clicking here.
Order painting curriculum, 57 brushstroke lessons
Once you see how much your students love this project, you’re going to want to include even more painting activities in your classroom! Students should be given ample time to just discover and experiment, but structured lessons can help them really improve their skills and become better artists! My Kids Painting Practice & Process Curriculum has 57 master lessons that take kids from setting up a paint station and holding a brush all the way to creating beautiful nature landscapes and painting different types of animals! Each lesson is featured as part of a sequence and includes all the information—materials, demonstration technique, and direct and indirect aims—so you can simply follow the instructions and easily present the activity to your students.
Kids Painting Practice & Process Curriculum sets the foundation for their art education and will help them transform into little artists! To purchase the curriculum, click here.
No part of this blog may be used or be reproduced in any manner whatsoever including reproducing, publishing, performing, and making any adaptions of the work – including translation into another foreignlanguage without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. Nature of Art® Publishing P.O. Box 443 Solana Beach, California 92075.
This blog post is a part of a three-month series: Montessori Art in the Natural World. This series is about growing kids’ knowledge about the natural world by taking them outside their home or classroom and challenging them to create focused art, based on the nature around them. Every aspect of nature—seasons, layers of the earth’s soil, energy, rocks and minerals, fossils, landforms, water, flora, fauna, the atmosphere—can all be represented and expressed through art lessons including, nature crafting and crafting with natural objects.
Crafting With Natural Objects
There are so many fun ideas and engaging, hands-on ways to teach your Montessori students about nature through crafting with natural objects. It’s a wonderful gateway to introduce and connect kids to the natural world. Also, the outdoors offers an endless selection of natural objects that are just waiting to be found and designed into clever nature crafts.
These are a few commonly found, natural items that can be used for crafts:
Crafting with natural objects is a great segway to teach students part of the Coming of Humans Great Lesson!
So much of human history and culture revolves around crafting. Our ancestors used natural found objects for making important tools that helped them survive their day-to-day lives. They would collect stones and bones to use for grinding, scraping, mortars for cooking, and as weapons to protect their villages from attacks and predators. They used stones and seashells in gift-giving. In addition, seeds and feathers were often used in ceremonial activities. These nature crafting activities have been found across all cultures!
As society evolved, nature crafting evolved into a more leisure activity (although many people still used natural objects for daily tools too). Some nature crafts transcended both uses—being useful everyday items and also relaxing and calming to create! For example, in colonial times, the early settlers would craft candles from natural beeswax, make dolls from grass and reeds, and quilts were sewn together with naturally-woven materials. Crafting with natural objects was a normal event for so many generations. Unfortunately, many kids today have never been introduced to these types of nature crafts.
Many parents ask me the best ways to teach kids about nature and art and I always tell them to start crafting! Making crafts using only objects found in nature is an amazing way to have children slow down and become more present. This connects them not just to nature, but to our past and ancestors as well.
Take a look at ancient clothing and you can see natural objects—like bones, seeds, flowers, feathers, seashells and so much more—fastened and attached throughout the garments. Native American cultures used many objects found in nature to create elaborate headdresses too.
Crafting With Natural Found Objects | Montessori
Crafting with Natural Objects Helps Develop Fine-Motor Skills
Almost every crafting activity provides kids with excellent opportunities to develop their fine motor skills! Improving these skills is so important for kids to build their independence. Nature crafting activities like collecting (picking up) small natural objects, pasting, sewing, and cutting all require and strengthen fine-motor coordination.
Nature Crafts Can Teach Kids About Nature’s Limited Resources
Another great bonus of crafting with natural found objects is that they can teach kids important ideas and lessons about the limited natural resources of our world. It gives you a chance to teach students that although Mother Nature is plentiful when it comes to resources, today’s climate change and growing industrialism and commercialism mean we have to be diligent in protecting them. So, make sure you emphasize the need to gather the materials they find in nature responsibly. I love these types of crafts because they help our future leaders connect to nature and understand their role in protecting our environment and keeping our ecological systems balanced.
Where to Start: Crafting With Natural Objects Ideas for Montessori Students
Forging natural items and using them to create heirloom gifts and artworks is a great way for students to receive from all the benefits of crafting with found nature objects. They are learning history, strengthening their fine motor skills, and taking responsibility for our Earth.
Nature crafting activities for kids may include creating:
Here’s a bonus nature art activity for you! While your students are out collecting nature objects for crafting, have them take out their nature journals and record their observations. (For information and instructions on how to create a nature art journal, click here.)
Nature journaling is a relatively independent activity, but you should still guide your students to make sure they’re following scientific principles and standards. This Nature Journal Checklist will help you make sure your students are including data that helps them implement both scientific and artistic principles during their expedition.
Print it out or save it on your phone so you have it with you the next time you lead your students outside to journal or collect nature objects for crafting.
A Short Cut Just for You: Painting Curriculum For Kids
Along with crafting with natural objects, students can also use their found nature objects in painting lessons! My Kids Painting Practice & Process Curriculumhas 57 master lessons that take kids from setting up a paint station and holding a brush all the way to creating beautiful nature landscapes and painting different types of animals! And, each lesson is featured as part of a sequence and includes all the information—materials, demonstration technique, and direct and indirect aims. So, you can simply follow the instructions and easily present the activity to your students.
Kids Painting Practice & Process Curriculum sets the foundation for their art education and will help them transform into little artists! To purchase the curriculum, click here.
This blog post is a part of a three-month series: Montessori Art in the Natural World: Kids Nature Journal Color Lessons. This series is about growing kids’ knowledge about the natural world by taking them outside their home or classroom and challenging them to create focused art, based on the nature around them. Every aspect of nature—seasons, layers of the earth’s soil, energy, rocks and minerals, fossils, landforms, water, flora, fauna, the atmosphere—can all be represented and expressed through art lessons.
Nature Journaling – Part lll
One of the most relaxing and rewarding parts of being in nature is experiencing its colors and beauty. Nature can teach us a lot about the color theory aspects of art and nature journaling, in particular, is a great way to teach Montessori art lessons.
As an artist, art teacher, and naturalist, I find color so fascinating! Color inspires kids to gain new knowledge about the natural world. Nature journaling can be an amazing tool to lead outdoor exploration and discovery. Having your kids take their nature journals outdoors can enrich their learning experience and help them make a meaningful connection between science and art.
Kids nature journaling activities give educators many chances to teach the Elements and Principles of Design while integrating science methods, such as observation. You can actually teach multiple Montessori color lessons using just the basic nature journal materials, a guided outdoor activity, and engaging your students’ imaginations.
Understanding the Importance of Color in Art & Science
Color theory is a foundational area of visual arts studies. Understanding color and color theory is essential to developing art skills. All artists must learn how different colors complement each other; part of this means understanding the principles of the color wheel and creating mixtures of color values and intensities of different hues.
Beyond being an important part of art, color also plays a significant role in science! Did you know that Sir Isaac Newton not only discovered gravity, but he also observed how light bends as it passes through the prism—which was the first step in giving us what we now know as “ROY G BIV!” So, teaching kids about color is both artistically and scientifically important.
Using Kids Nature Journals to Teach Montessori Color Lessons
Color theory lessons can be easily integrated into nature journaling. Nature journals offer kids the opportunity to investigate and observe color while recording their nature and outdoor observations.
When they’re completing their nature journals, have students describe the colors they observe with written words, and also by choosing specific color mediums (such as crayons, colored pencils, and/or paint) to represent the objects they see. For instance, they might doodle leaves, tree bark, ponds, or the atmosphere, and then assign these observation notes with descriptive color words.
Examples:
“The tree had small, bright green leaves growing.”
“The bark on the tree had a cool feeling and looked dark brown.”
“A bird with reddish feathers flew by.”
Where to Start: Simple Nature Journal Color Prompts
It can be overwhelming to think about taking your class outside for an art lesson. Maybe the idea of rounding up your students and keeping them focused on lessons outside the classroom—when all they want to do is climb a tree or jump on fallen leaves—stresses you out. I get it and I’ve been there! Kids have minds of their own and once they’re outdoors, their playful instincts tend to take over. However, getting them to focus on Montessori color lessons can be done.
Keeping young students’ attention comes down to giving them something specific to focus on while they’re outside. Color can be found in outdoor environments in all different shades, hues, and tones:
The colors of a rainbow (ROY G BIV)
The natural pigments found in flowers and minerals
The iridescent colors of a butterfly wing
The color differences in males and females of a species
The green tones in different types of tree leaves
Color even plays a role in the survival of particular organisms in certain biomes! There are amazing teaching opportunities to point out how color is represented in the natural environment and different ecosystems. These kinds of observations can lead to fun and insightful scientific discussions in your classroom! Observing nature and recording natural color values are great ways to integrate science and art.
Here are some color topics you can explore with your Montessori students:
Using the prompts above will help give your students focus and purpose while they’re outdoors. While I focused on the importance of including color observations when students are recording in their nature journals, to make it a true scientific activity, students should include other datum and information as well.
This Outdoor Journal Checklist will help you guide your students and keep them on track to make sure they’re implementing both scientific and artistic principles during their expedition. You can print it out or save it on your phone so you have it with you the next time you lead your students outside to journal.
A Short Cut Just for You
I think nature journaling is the perfect way to introduce art to Montessori students, since it relies so heavily on natural and scientific observations. It opens to the door for so many more interesting art projects!
If you know that you want to bring art into your classroom but aren’t sure how to do it, check out my Theming Art & The Natural World
No part of this blog may be used or be reproduced in any manner whatsoever including reproducing, publishing, performing, and making any adaptions of the work – including translation into another foreignlanguage without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. Nature of Art® Publishing P.O. Box 443 Solana Beach, California 92075.
