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Montessori Art in the Natural World: How to Teach Nature Journaling

This blog post is a part of a three-month series: Montessori Art in the Natural World: How to Teach Nature Journaling. 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 II

Nature journaling is a tool scientists and explorers use to record important field notes and observations. It can also serve as a way to record history. Sometimes we can’t disturb nature, but we can record the experience by carefully observing and taking specific notes. Students can improve their critical-thinking skills through nature journaling.

How-to Teach Nature Journaling to Montessori Kids

Nature journals are unique to each individual owner; they’re composed of what inspires the artist, or in this case, student. Usually, nature journals are a variety of artistic expressions based on the natural objects students see outdoors, including:

  • Observation notes
  • Descriptions of experiences
  • Simple diagrams 
  • Simple sketches

Benefits of Nature Journaling

Keeping a nature journal strengthens students’ observational skills. For instance, when a child knows they’ll have to draw or record specific characteristics of the natural world, they’ll put care into taking a closer look at their subjects as well as noticing and memorizing details.

Nature art journaling is specifically suited for teaching Montessori students about biomes. It requires students to focus on, analyze, and record different parts of a biome. Each page can be dedicated to a different part of the biome. Montessori nature activities like art journaling can help students become naturalists who are more aware of and feel more responsible for their ecological footprints on earth.

[For more details on creating an art journal and its benefits, read: Montessori Art in the Natural World: Kids Art Journaling, Part I]

Montessori Art in the Natural World: Kids Art Journaling

Where to Start: Teaching Nature Journaling

You don’t need very many materials to start nature journaling; it requires the same basic items you’d need to start general art journaling. For more information on the benefits of art journaling, and how to create an art/nature journal with your students, read last week’s post by clicking here. 

Once your students have a journal to work with, the next step is going outside; they can head out to the schoolyard, their backyards, or even a park or nature trail, depending on when and where they’re completing this Montessori nature activity. Instead of letting them wander, ask them to focus on and sketch one object for 5 to 8 minutes (this helps sharpen their observation skills). Then direct them to move on to another object and time them again. Once they’ve observed and drawn a few different specimens, head back into the classroom.

Before I take my students outside, I always remind them that they may only get a few minutes or even seconds to observe a specimen (especially animals and insects), so it’s important to observe and record details quickly. This will help them look up the correct information and do more research later; knowing how to observe and take notes can help put the pieces of the puzzle together once they’re back inside the classroom and can clean up their drawings.

It’s important to teach your students that nature journaling is about recording details—not creating perfect drawings. The key is to collect enough information quickly in pencil, with detailed observational notes. After they’re done observing and doing additional research, they can update their field notes and finalize their drawings with more details, colors, and descriptions. 

Naturalists, botanists, and book illustrators (artists) use this same observation and drawing techniques; they go outdoors to observe, and collect and record information, then, at a later time, they finish their journal pages with detailed sketches in color pencil or watercolor paint. They also fill in the gaps by doing further reading and research.

Montessori Nature Activity Journal Prompts

While I encourage you to do a few “trial runs,” and give your students the freedom to observe and record whatever interests them, eventually you want them to complete and create more focused nature observations.

Every time students go out to fill in their nature journals, I ask them to record:

  • The date
  • The start and end time of their observations 
  • The location where they’re observing
  • The atmosphere (dry, humid, etc.) and temperature
  • A description of the outside landscape
  • How they were feeling that day

You can also ask them to make observations using their sensory system. Ask them to record the answers to these questions:

  • What do you smell?
  • What do you hear?
  • What do you see?
  • How do things feel to the touch?

Other prompt ideas:

  • Recording a species, include:
    • General name of species
    • Size
    • Color
    • Unique features
    • Describe their actions
    • Any noticeable patterns or textures
  • Observe the seasons 
  • Observe feelings and experiences
  • Observe interesting non-living objects
  • Observe plants
  • Observe states of matter
  • Observe local micro-biomes 
  • Observe things in the sky, things in the grass, and/or things in the water

One Step Further: Montessori Nature Activity Outdoor Journal Checklist

How-to Teach Nature Journaling to Montessori Kids

Now that your students are ready to head outside with their nature journals, I want you to be prepared too! While nature journaling is a pretty independent activity, there are ways—besides just sharing the above prompts—that you can help guide them. This Outdoor Journal Checklist will make sure you have everything you need to keep your students on track and ensure they’re implementing both scientific and artistic principles during their expedition.

How-to Teach Nature Journaling to Montessori Kids

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.

To download the checklist for FREE, click here.

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

Exciting Lessons: Theme Art Activities with The Beautiful Natural World

All rights reserved © 2024, Nature of Art®

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 foreign language 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.

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Montessori Art in the Natural World: Kids Art Journaling

Montessori Art in the Natural World: Kids Art Journaling

In honor of the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, I’m excited to kick off a three-month blog series: Montessori Art in the Natural World! 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.

Montessori Art in the Natural World: Kids Art Journaling

The first part of this series—Kids Art Journaling, Part I—starts with explaining how one of the best ways to observe and record nature is through kids art journaling. Art journals can promote scientific exploration, support writing, allow for freedom of expression through creative artistic techniques. They also help students understand the elements and principles of design and the artistic process.

So let’s start with the basics.

Montessori Kids Art Journaling

What is art journaling?

Art journaling is a way of recording observations, ideas, learned topics, emotions, and self expression through illustrations, doodles, painted images, and collages, using a variety of art mediums. These artistic works are created and arranged in an art journal—a binded book of blank pages; art journals can vary in size and are similar to a self-reflective written diary.

For educators, art journaling can be an extension to other lessons you present. It can give students the chance to reflect on other subjects through an artistic lens, which can help them gain a deeper understanding of what they’ve learned.

It’s most important to note that art journaling can be done in any fashion, there’s no right or wrong way to create an art journal. The owner of the art journal is the curator of its life.

“If kids reflect on their days, they will become better problem-solvers of life.”
― Trevor Carss, author

What do my students need to start art journaling?

You really don’t need much for kids art journaling. The basic materials are simple: kids just need a blank paper, pencil, and eraser to start. You can then transition them into using more colorful mediums, such as crayons and colored pencils, and eventually paint and collage materials. The idea is to mix up the mediums students have access to; offering different materials to create with helps their brains make new connections to the concepts and subjects they’re learning.

If you want more information about how to create an art journal, read this post: The Value of Art Journaling for Kids, Montessori Activities

Montessori Art in the Natural World

How are art journals used for Montessori nature activities?

Integrating the study of the natural world into art journaling can give children their own unique learning experience. Art journaling provides a dynamic spatial intellectual understanding that is wired by their sensory inputs through critical observations, notations, writing skills, and storytelling.

Montessori Art, Natural World: Kids Art Journaling, activities

Where to Start: Head Outdoors for Montessori Nature Activities

Bounded art journals are really exciting for kids! They love having a special place where they can keep all their artwork, thoughts, and observations! BUT, you don’t have to have or do anything fancy to start with—truly, the first step to nature art journaling is to go outside!

Set aside some time for your students to head outdoors and just observe the natural world around them. It can be a backyard, school yard, garden, local park, local trail, or even a city street, so long as there are aspects of nature for them to see. Going outside is even more essential these days, since kids spend so much time in front of screens. Spending just a few minutes outside each day is so important for helping children connect with nature!

how to teach montessori art activities

One Step Further: Watch My FREE Mini Course

So many teachers want to teach their Montessori students art, but they don’t know where to start. They’re not sure what their students are capable of, how to present lessons, or even what items to make available. That’s why I love art journaling—it makes art open-ended and easily accessible (to students and teachers). 

Teaching students art doesn’t need to be intimidating though. Understanding how students learn art makes it easier for you to teach them and help them develop their skills. If you would like to learn more how to nurture children in the visual arts, now’s your chance! Register for my FREE mini digital course, Phases of Art Development. You’ll learn how art making can help students develop their creativity, fine-motor skills, and focus. More importantly, I share what types of projects students at every age are capable of completing safely, and without making a mess.

Best of all—it’s free! To sign up for the course, click here.

A Short Cut Just for You

early childhoood montessori art

I’ve created a ton of resources on how to bring both nature and art into your classroom; if you’re unsure of where to start and want a guide to help you introduce art to your Montessori students, I’d recommend my books: Early Childhood Art: Visual Arts Teaching Guide and Introducing Visual Arts to the Montessori Classroom.

Together, they provide everything you need to know to be able to teach your own Montessori students about art. They’re filled with tips and tricks for setting up an art environment, using proper art materials and mediums, and planning age-level-appropriate art lessons.

how to teach kids montessori art lessons

I know the value of art in the Montessori classroom, especially when it embraces and celebrates nature!

Click here to get your copy of my Early Childhood Art guide!

And click here to get Introducing Visual Arts to The Montessori Classrooms as a digital copy or paperback.

All rights reserved © 2024, Nature of Art®

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 foreign language 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.

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Montessori Art: Mandala Activity for Stress Relief

Montessori Art: Mandala Activity for Stress Relief

Mandalas are a geometric design pattern that offer several mental and emotional benefits. Mandala, which means “circle” in Sanskrit, is a sacred symbol that is used for meditation, prayer, healing, relaxation, and art therapy for both adults and children—especially when used in a Montessori art mandala activity.

In Hindu and Buddhist cultures, the circular design of mandalas represents the idea that everything in life is connected and the infiniteness of the universe.  Mandalas can also symbolize a personal spiritual journey for each individual viewer.

While there are several types of mandalas, the three most common are: the teaching, healing, and sand mandalas.

  • Each shape, line, and color in a teaching mandala represents different aspects of Buddhism. Monks learn to create these mandalas during their monastic education.
  • A healing mandala is an intuitive design made for the purposes of meditation, focus, and concentration.
  • Sand mandalas are unique in that both their creation and destruction have symbolic meanings. Multi-colored sand is placed in concentric circles, working from the outer part of the design to the center.
Montessori Art: Mandala Activity

Many clinical studies have shown that mandalas can be used to boost the immune system, reduce stress, ease depression, alleviate pain, lower blood pressure and promote healthy sleep.

Designing and coloring mandalas can help your students (or you) focus their attention. That’s why they’re a great exercise for helping kids calm down when they’re stressed. Here are some other benefits of mandalas:

  • They create a feeling of balance
  • They bring peace and tranquility
  • They strengthen fine-motor skills through repetitive movement
  • Looking at them produces a sense of calmness
  • They help with focus and concentration
  • They encourage mindfulness
  • They calm the nervous system
  • Working on them opens pathways to allow creativity to flow
  • The different color schemes in mandalas can be therapeutic
Montessori Art: Mandala Activity for Stress Relief

Mandalas have been recognized by psychology as a therapy tool. The Swiss psychologist Carl Jung believed that mandalas are representations of our minds and that we project our thoughts and feelings onto how we perceive and interpret mandals. And different branches of psychology recognize different benefits of mandalas; for example, transpersonal psychology uses mandalas as an exercise for connections and behavioral psychology uses them to improve memory, attention, and coordination.

The intricate design of mandalas can be intimidating, but children don’t need to be artists to reap the many benefits of mandalas.

Montessori Art: Mandala Activity using nature

Where to Start: Montessori Art Mandala Coloring Activity

Your students can use natural or found objects to make their own mandalas—which doesn’t require any drawing at all. Or, you can download a blank mandala (or purchase a mandala coloring book—there are plenty for sale online) and have your students color them. You can also use Montessori insets to create simple mandala designs to color. 

Making the conscious effort to embrace mandalas and to introduce Montessori art mandala activities in your classroom are the first steps to helping your students feel calmer, more mindful, and less stressed.

One Step Further: Watch My ‘Combating Stress with Art’ Webinar for FREE

Again, even just the action of coloring a mandala can offer your students tremendous mental and emotional health benefits. A few weeks ago, I co-hosted a webinar titled ‘Combating Stress with Art’ with Montessori teacher Kristen Richter, about using mandalas to combat stress, and encouraged the attendees—Montessori parents and teachers—to color mandalas as we went through the information.

The webinar teaches about the emotional literacy cycle and types of stress kids face, as well as a deeper dive into how simple art techniques like doodling or coloring mandalas can help alleviate stress.

Montessori Art: Mandala Activity for Stress Relief

You can download and watch the Combating Stress with Art replay, by clicking here!

A Short Cut Just for You

A Montessori art mandala activity isn’t the only way to help students work through difficult emotions like stress. If you’re looking for more art lessons to teach your students, check out my Kids Art at Home Lesson Bundle! I created it as an introduction to Montessori art; it includes lessons from each of the five visual arts domains, so you can give your students a well-rounded art foundation.

how to teach kids art lessons digital download

The bundle also includes materials lists and resources so you can feel confident knowing your students will get the most out of each lesson. On top of that, I’ve just added a very special Nature Art Mandala lesson for a limited time. It applies many of the mandala benefits described in this blog, while giving students the opportunity to be in and explore their natural surroundings—which also promotes stress-relief! 
To purchase the Kids Art at Home Lesson Bundle, click here.

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Teach Your Kids Art At Home: Art Lessons Download Bundle

Whether you’re a teacher trying to continue to teach your students via computer or a parent who is looking for a way to keep their learning moving forward, coming up with fun and easy educational activities can be a challenge. Giving them a break from all the online learning they’re doing is so important! That’s why I’ve created this at home art lessons download subscription — to keep your kids learning, while getting out their energy and having some art fun!

Why teach children art?

As parents, we want the best for our children. We want them to grow up to be intelligent, capable, brilliant individuals, and art is a wonderful bridge that can help them get there.

Art offers several benefits to children, including:

  • Helping kids develop and refine their fine-motor skills
  • Getting kids to think creatively and problem solve
  • Strengthening their emotional literacy and self-esteem
  • Providing a place for kids to express their emotions and creativity
  • Giving them an outlet to quietly burn off some energy

When you’re not equipped or don’t have the experience to teach art, it’s overwhelming and the temptation is to just give your kids some markers and hope they don’t use your walls or floor as a canvas. I’d urge you to resist that temptation!

There are two important reasons you want your children to do guided art lessons and activities: 

  1. It encourages them to develop new skills and can add an extra layer to how they learn other subjects. (This is especially key when they’re learning from home and may need extra help remembering lessons and connecting dots.)
  2. It can ease your anxiety and give you peace of mind. When your kids are given a certain, specific art activity to complete—but it’s important to note the process is key, not the outcome—they’ll focus their energy and attention on what they are creating, leaving you with some time to focus on what you need to get done. This is where an at-home art lessons download comes in to help!

So many parents have been thrown into the role of teacher without a choice. And that’s just leading to stress! You have to balance not just being a parent, but also teacher, caregiver, entertainer, and maybe even chef—all while trying to get your own work done at the same time.

Yes, you love the time you have with your family, but sometimes a little peace and quiet is necessary. Plus you want to help your child embrace their creativity and independence, and you don’t want to stick them in front of a screen the whole day.

Where to Start: Pull Out the Right Art Supplies

Handing a marker to your five-year-old and hoping for the best isn’t the way to go about this. You want to make sure whatever art supply you’re allowing your child to explore is appropriate for their age. Regardless of how old they are, all of your children’s art supplies should be kid-safe and non-toxic. (If you’re unsure about the safety of your art supplies, I’d recommend buying items you know will be okay for your kids; all the art materials on Nature of Art for Kids are vetted and tested, so they’re safe and appropriate for kids to use).

One Step Further: Download My Kids’ Art Language Cheat Sheet

Once you’ve gotten your kids to start creating art, the next step is to help them learn to describe their artistic process and finished project. That’s why I’ve made an art language cheat sheet as a FREE resource to help you start using art vocabulary. You might not realize it, but you’re probably already using some of the Elements and Principles of Design vocabulary words (such as “color,” “line,” and “texture”) already!

When you start by giving your kids the right supplies, you won’t have to worry about them making a mess or coming to you every five minutes asking for help.

Download my Art Language Cheat Sheet for a list of art language terms. I’ve included definitions for each term as well, so you’ll feel more confident using them, knowing you’re using them correctly.

A Short Cut Just for You: At-Home Art Lessons Download

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.

All rights reserved © 2024, Nature of Art®

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 foreign language 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.

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Virtual Montessori Lessons & Art Activities

Virtual Montessori Lessons & Art Activities

Supporting Virtual Lessons at Home During Coronavirus School Closures

There has been an unprecedented number of school closures across the globe right now, and many schools and teachers have found themselves unprepared to teach their students virtually. I don’t think anyone really anticipated things getting this bad; but now that we’re faced with this reality, it’s important that we continue our students’ education—while keeping their new learning environments in mind. For that reason, I’ve put together some virtual Montessori lessons and art activities you can give you students to work on while schools are closed.

It’s important for students to maintain some regularity even though their daily routines have been turned upside down because of school closures. A routine helps kids establish constructive habits, grow in their independence, and may even reduce stress during chaotic times. So while your students (and maybe even you) might initially think of school closures as a surprise vacation, it’s essential that they continue to work on lessons, projects, and activities during the week.

Virtual Montessori Lessons & Art Activities, kids

Where to Start: Provide Fun Virtual Montessori Lessons that Focus on Art

Art, in particular, is a great way for students to add schoolwork or lessons to their day without sacrificing any of the fun that comes from being out of school. It’s an exciting and engaging creative outlet that allows them to work independently. Art is also therapeutic; so it can help students work through some of the anxiety or confusion they’re feeling because of all the COVID-19 news coverage.

What’s great about art at home is that you don’t have to be an artist yourself to teach these simple virtual Montessori lessons—kids can do most of the exploration completely on their own. (You may have noticed, I spend a lot of time on these blogs trying to explain to you that kids don’t need detailed how-to lessons, art at this age is almost all discovery-based.) What they need from you—or in this case, their parents—is an area to work in, basic art supplies to work with, and a quick explanation of how these materials work and expectations of containing mess. 

(I posted a blog last week about supporting parents with virtual Montessori lessons and how to even start putting together a virtual lesson—in light of the quick turnaround of school closures because of the coronavirus—you can read that by clicking here.)

One way to keep students entertained while schooling from home is with virtual art museum tours! Many of the world’s most famous museums offer virtual tours. So students can explore art exhibits and see paintings and sculptures from legendary artists without ever having to leave their homes! These virtual tours also support the Coming of Humans area of Montessori philosophy.

So take a look at the lessons you had lined up for next month and pair those themes with a museum virtual tour. These tours are really fun and informative and usually geared toward educating—so it does all the heavy lifting for the parents! And they will really appreciate the opportunity to get their kids to sit down and quietly focus on something engaging for a bit. 

Here are my eight favorite virtual museum tours that are currently available online. (I’ve been to a couple of these museums in person, and I can tell you, the virtual tour lives up to the experience!)

  • Guggenheim Museum, New York – features artworks from the Impressionist, Post-Impressionist, Modern, and Contemporary eras
  • Musée d’Orsay, Paris – a collection of artworks by Monet, Cézanne, Gauguin, and many other French artists
  • Museu de Arte de São Paulo (MASP), São Paulo – Brazil’s first modern art museum
  • National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. – two different exhibits; one of which highlights American fashion from 1740-1895, and the other which features artworks from Dutch Baroque painter Johannes Vermeer
  • National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul – features contemporary and modern art from Korean artists, as well as artists from across the world
  • Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam – artworks from the Dutch Golden Age, including works from Vermeer and Rembrandt
  • Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam – features 200+ paintings and 500+ drawings by the artist
  • The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles – offers a huge collection of paintings, drawings, sculptures, and photographs

One Step Further: Download My Easy Montessori Art Activities 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.

Virtual Montessori Lessons & Art Activities, elementary

A Short Cut Just for You

The Montessori Art Activities cheat sheet is a way to inspire actual art lessons for your students. If you want a shortcut—a totally done-for-you lesson—that you can download and send out to students and their parents, then this Warm to Cool Butterfly Art Lesson is perfect! Simply purchase and download; then send the instructions and template to your students’ parents. It’s as easy as that. No extra work required! The only things students need at home are basic art supplies: crayons, color pencils, or any type of paint medium.

Virtual Montessori Lessons & Art Activities, spramani elaun curriculum

Buy Done-For-You Art Curriculum Now!

If you want a full year of simple, stress-free, exciting, and fun art lessons for your Montessori students, check out my Kids Color Theory, Kids Painting, and Clay Modeling curriculums! Each sequence within the curriculums is a step-by-step guide that includes Montessori direct and indirect aims, a materials list, and demonstration instructions. They can be combined to teach your students several different visual art domains, or you can stretch out a single curriculum throughout the year.

All rights reserved © 2024, Nature of Art®

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 foreign language 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.

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Ultimate Guide to Montessori Painting

Ultimate Guide to Montessori Painting

How to Set Up an Environment and Lessons That Inspire Montessori Students to Paint 

Painting is one of the most creative, fun (and sometimes messy) forms of visual art. If you look at the most basic concept of painting, anyone can do it. From simple finger painting to multi-layered brushstrokes, painting can be experienced by little artists of any age or level. My objective with this ultimate guide is to give you all the tools and information you need to create Montessori painting lessons and activities for your students. 

The resources included in this Ultimate Guide should be beneficial to Montessori teachers of early childhood (3-6), lower elementary, upper elementary students, and even Montessori-at-home parents. 

Ultimate Guide to Montessori Painting, lesson

Montessori Painting

One of the most common domains of art, especially visual art, is painting. Children love playing with paint; it’s a very tactile medium. However, it’s important to remember that children lack the ability to paint realistic images in the beginning years, but they can still enjoy the creative process and learn basic brushstrokes to build lines, shapes, and textures to eventually make great imagery. Students in early childhood and elementary grades should be exposed to painting lessons and activities on a regular basis to improve their artistic skills and strengthen their art literacy as they age.

What is painting?

Painting is the action of making brush strokes marks with a paintbrush, hands, sponges, paint rollers, or stampers. Brushstrokes are made with a liquid pigment, called paint.

Ultimate Guide to Montessori Painting, early childhood

How Montessori Painting Lessons Benefit Children

Children can develop and strengthen their fine-motor control by learning to make brush strokes with their hands and by holding paintbrushes. By showing young students how to use a paintbrush, you’re helping them reach critical milestones that are directly related to other areas of childhood development.

Painting Builds Vocabulary (Art Language)

Montessori painting activities teach young students how to communicate what they see in their artworks and how to describe their personal artistic process. More than likely, their inquisitive little minds will start making connections (such as, “if I use this color paint and this paintbrush, I can make something that looks like this”). They’ll also start asking questions (such as, “what color is this?” or “why did this do this?”). Read more about art language here.

Where to Start: Montessori Painting Tips

Let Children Explore First

Don’t try introducing young children to painting through lessons; if they’ve never painted before, just let them explore and discover what paint is naturally. If you’re uncomfortable giving them a potentially messy medium without any guidance, then you can take the lead by dipping a paintbrush into paint and painting alongside them; kids love to mimic the actions of adults! 

Ultimate Guide to Montessori Painting, elementary lessons
Keep Painting Lessons Simple

Give your students painting projects that are process-based and open-ended. This means your students do not have to follow directions to get an expected, specific result. Process-based activities give children freedom to explore the various paint mediums and design their own artworks in any way they desire.

Ultimate Guide to Montessori Painting, how to
Start with Few Options

Give your students just a few color options at first—maybe even limit it to one color. Too many options can be overstimulating, and cause them to lose focus (which could lead to messes). 

Minimize Messes by Making Materials Mini

If you don’t want large messes, shrink down the paints and paintbrushes. Use the smallest available size of paintbrush and put paint into small containers (as opposed to giving students the entire bottle). This is one of the major tricks I share in my book Kids Painting. 

Ultimate Guide to Montessori Painting, what materials should I buy
Focus on Brushstrokes

Once your students have a grasp on how paints work and can control their movements a bit, move your focus to teaching brushstrokes. Read this article for tips on teaching kids how to create brushstrokes. 

Use Painting to Teach Color Theory

One great way to teach color theory concepts is through painting! Start by giving your students a single color to paint with, but create different tones and hues for them to use. For example, start with a dark green, then add drops of white paint to it to make lighter and lighter shades.

Ultimate Guide to Montessori Painting, how to teach kids
Choose the Right (Safe) Paints

Only use paints that are safe, non-toxic, and intended for young children. If products carry a non-toxic seal or claims the product “conforms to ASTM D 4236,” that means all of the potentially hazardous components of the art product have been evaluated by a qualified toxicologist and clearly labeled on the product packaging. Most adult fine artist supplies don’t have this seal, so be very careful when purchasing. 

The surface your students are using will determine the best paint for their project. For example, acrylic paint has the sticking power to help it adhere to canvas; watercolor paints need a thicker, more absorbent paper; finger paints and tempera paints will work on most regular paper.

what paints do I use, Ultimate Guide to Montessori Painting

Here are some other paints to consider:

[Visit Nature of Art for Kids for more non-toxic, eco-friendly, kid-safe painting supplies!]

Tip: Using watercolor paints, which can be diluted to near transparency, makes it easy to manage stains; start with these until you and your class get more familiar with painting and its clean-up.

Ultimate Guide to Montessori Painting
Dress for a Mess

Young kids lack fine-motor skills to keep paint on in the palettes and on their paper, so be prepared for some mess. It takes many years for kids to stop making frequent spills. Anytime kids are painting make sure they’re wearing “paint clothes,” or old large t-shirts, a smock, or some other type of cover up. Even if the bottle says paint is washable, it can still soil clothing. Plus, there’s no real guarantee that the pigment is not going to stain…trust me! 

Designate a Painting Area

Before painting starts, designate a painting area for the kids to work. Make sure they know that this is where paint will be set-up, activities will be completed, and the materials will stay. Never let kids get lazy about this rule! Remind them that this is the only place where painting is allowed. If necessary, put down tarps, rugs, or towels in this area to keep floors clean during any painting activities.

One Step Further: Download My Painting Materials Checklist and Check Out This Montessori Painting Lesson

Ultimate Guide to Montessori Painting, checklist

Now you have a basic understanding of how to set up a painting area, what kind of painting activities your students can do, and an idea of what paints to use. Before you start teaching painting in your Montessori classroom, make sure you download this FREE Painting Materials Checklist; it has all the materials you need to be able to confidently and successfully teach your students! Click here to download the checklist.

Ultimate Guide to Montessori Painting, free art lesson

As a bonus, you can also check out this FREE Northern Lights painting lesson demonstration. This art project uses two paint techniques: wax resist and wet-on-wet. This project is best for elementary students, but can be adapted to be suitable for younger ages as well. Watch the video by clicking here!

A Short Cut Just for You

I’ve actually created an online training that delves deeper into teaching young students how to paint. Painting Key Lessons 101 gives you the foundation for demonstrating and presenting painting lessons in your Montessori classroom, even if you don’t feel like you have the skills or experience. In the 1.5-hour video training, I also cover the types of paints that are best for children, and how to set up lessons so they’re integrated with other subjects and allow kids work independently. It truly is a shortcut to becoming an expert in teaching your students how to paint; AND, even better, you can earn 1.5 CPD hours once you complete the training and complete a quick survey! To enroll and get started, click here. 

Ultimate Guide to Montessori Painting, online how to teach kids
Ultimate Guide to Montessori Painting, books to order

If you want more information, instruction, and tips for teaching kids how to paint, check out my book, Kids Painting. It includes everything you need to know about how young children learn how to paint, and gives you lists of kid-friendly paint supplies, art project/lesson ideas, and ways to set up your classroom to provide inspiration and avoid messes. To purchase Kids Painting, click here.

All rights reserved © 2024, Nature of Art®

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 foreign language 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.

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Valentine’s Day Crafts for Teaching Kids Empathy

Usually, when I’m gearing up for Valentine’s Day crafts to share with parents and teachers, I focus on sharing beautiful and fun cards and crafts for children to make for their loved ones and classmates. However, this year, I wanted to dig a little deeper, and share some expressive Valentine art projects that can help students strengthen their emotional intelligence, and open up classroom discussions to talk about and teach empathy.

In a world where school bullying, cyber bullying, verbal abuse, harassment, anger, and even suicide rates among teens, are on the rise, I think empathy is extremely important for children to learn. And I think teachers are the best mentors and examples to help students understand and practice emotional intelligence and empathy.

Because Valentine’s Day is dedicated to love, I figured it’s the perfect time to teach children how to love each other—in a way that’s not focused on romance, of course. And I think, in teaching kids to be empathetic, we can teach them to love themselves and identify their own feelings as they look to understand the feelings of others. These types of lessons can also bring light to how their actions impact other students’ emotions. Valentine’s Day crafts can be structured to take advantage of all the talk about love and feelings, which prepares them for more complex conversations about empathy. 

What is empathy?

Empathy is the ability to be aware of, understand, and/or imagine how someone else is feeling in a particular situation—and then respond with care. It’s actually a very complex skill to achieve, but again, it’s a very important one. 

When a child is empathetic, that means they can:

  • Understand that they are a unique individual, with their own thoughts and feelings,
  • Acknowledge that other people may have different thoughts and feelings that their own,
  • Notice facial cues and associate a relevant feeling or emotion to those expressions,
  • Look at a situation and imagine how both they, and someone, else might feel in that moment, and,
  • Think of and act on an appropriate response to that particular situation.

An example of empathy that you can share with students is:

If you notice that your friend is upset If you see your friend upset because they skinned their knee, and you understand they’re in pain, so you give them a hug and help them find a teacher who can help. Or… You see your friend get excited because they’re very proud of the way their art project came out, so you feel happy too, and give them a hug and a high five.

Importance of Empathy

The UN’s World Happiness report ranked Finland, Norway, Denmark, Iceland, and Switzerland as the world’s happiest countries; the United States came in at 18 on that list. In Denmark, emotional intelligence is a mandatory part of the national curriculum, and it’s taught from elementary to high school grades. Many teachers wholeheartedly believe that the reason they continuously rank so high for World Happiness is because of their mandatory empathy studies. 

Of course, there are extreme negative outcomes that can come from children raised without empathy—including traits like narcissism, impulsiveness, and even psychopathy. People without empathy can’t identify with other people’s feelings and are less likely to help in dire situations. For example, there was a story in the news back in 2017, about a group of Florida teens who used their phones to record a man who was drowning, rather than attempting to help him or even calling him help; this shows a serious, devastating lack of empathy.

In fact, I’m so passionate about teaching empathy and emotional intelligence—especially through art—that I’ll actually be co-hosting a workshop on the subject this coming March, at one of the largest educational conferences in North America. Below, you’ll read some of the ideas I’ll be teaching during my class—Using Art for Emotional Literacy.

Where to Start: Valentine’s Day Crafts That Teach Empathy

Neuroscientists today all agree that our left and right brain are both equipped to learn emotional cues, directly affecting our response of empathy towards others. As a teacher, you can start raising awareness of emotional intelligence and impact your classroom and students by introducing simple empathy art projects during the school year. While these crafts have a Valentine’s Day theme, you can adjust them a bit to work any time of year.

Valentine’s Day Empathy Projects

  • Personal Valentine’s Day Card – Have kids make themselves a crafted paper card and list reasons why they matter and what makes them unique and special. This can be a wonderful keepsake they can refer to when then need to be reminded that they are loved. (Check out this blog for a potato-stamp card craft.)
  • Art Reflective Journal – Students will start by creating their own art journal, which they can use to answer prompts each week. If you theme prompts to be about feelings and emotions, or give them specific situations to respond to (hopefully empathetically), you’ll be helping them develop their emotional intelligence. 
  • Valentine’s Cards for the Community – Ask your students to make Valentine’s Day cards which they can give out to a worthy cause within your community. You can then drop them off to nursing home residents, patients in hospitals, people living shelters, or first responders. 
  • Collaborative Mural –  Using the whole classroom’s creative input, create a mural with an empathetic or love-related theme. As a collaborative effort, have your students work together to paint or color the mural; then hang it in the classroom or somewhere in your school for them to admire and hopefully remind them of the beautiful things that can happen when they work together. 
Spramani Elaun – Birch Aquarium at Scripps Institution of Oceanography | aquarium.ucsd.edu

Article resources:

Valentine’s Day Art Projects: Potato Stamp Cards
Montessori Early Childhood Art

One Step Further: Download My Art Language Cheat Sheet

Believe it or not, art is a fantastic way to introduce empathy to your students! It helps students view ideas and art mediums through different perspectives, which helps them practice seeing the different perspectives of their classmates and others. And using art terms is an important component of that; for example, you don’t use words like “good” or “bad” to describe art, instead, you use neutral terms, which helps to remind children that, again, there are different ways to look at things and one specific way isn’t always going to be correct.

Download my Beginner Art Language Cheat Sheet for a list of art language terms you can begin using in your classroom. It includes definitions for each term, so you’ll feel more confident knowing you’re using them correctly. 

To download the Art Language cheat sheet, click here.

A Short Cut Just for You

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.

All rights reserved © 2024, Nature of Art®

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 foreign language 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.

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The Ultimate Guide for Creating Montessori Art Lessons

Ultimate Montessori Art Lesson Guide, elementary schools

The Ultimate Montessori Art Lesson Guide is the perfect resource for Montessori teachers who want to learn how to prepare art lessons that keep students engaged and that follow art literacy standards.

If you are new to Montessori art—or even just art in general—it may feel overwhelming to try and teach a room full of students anything about art. I get that… but in many ways, art lesson planning is no different than any of your lesson plans for other Montessori subjects.

My objective in this ultimate guide is to clear the confusion on preparing effective art lesson plans, and save you time and stress from worrying about creating art lessons that don’t support independent creative art making or art literacy.

Ultimate Montessori Art Lesson Guide

The resources included in this Ultimate Guide offer insights for Montessori teachers of early childhood (3-6), lower elementary, upper elementary students, and even Montessori-at-home parents. I created this guide to give you tips and ideas for creating art lessons—that are exciting, engaging, and promote independent working—for your Montessori students.

What is a Montessori art lesson?

Before we even start with tips, I think it’s important to understand exactly what comprises and defines a Montessori art lesson. It’s a sequence of visual-arts related instructions that are broken down into steps; they should be done using the proper art mediums and tools in a way that highlights an artist technique and supports art literacy standards. Art lessons can (and should) also be integrated into Montessori core subjects.

The truth is, preparing a Montessori art lesson is more about organizing the steps to giving students exploratory experiences related to their current learning. If you’re planning these properly, you really don’t have to worry about figuring out new ideas to teach for every single lesson. 

Ultimate Montessori Art Lesson Guide, early childhood

By reviewing the Ultimate Montessori Art Lesson Guide, it will become easier for you to understand art lesson planning ideas, and ensure the right key features are included in the lessons you present to your students.

You’ll be surprised at how quickly you can implement these ideas in your classroom!

Where to Start: Read Through These Montessori Art Lesson Resources

There’s a treasure trove of Montessori and art-teaching resources on the internet, but going through each of them and finding ones that quality, and actually relative to your classroom, can be overwhelming, confusing, and even exhausted. The pages below offer actionable, practical information, based on the cumulation of all my years of experience as an art teacher and Montessori art teacher trainer. 

Ultimate Montessori Art Lesson Guide, resources

Though you can jump around between the different links, I recommend you read through these seven resources in the order they’re numbered. Once you feel like you have the basic concepts of creating art lessons, I’d encourage you to continue your Montessori art journey by learning more about my proprietary art teaching method, creative techniques for each visual art domain, and building a Montessori art curriculum for the school year. I have several Montessori art and visual art books, plus, teacher workshops and trainings to help you gain a deeper understanding and confidence in teaching art to your students!

Ultimate Montessori Art Lesson Guide

Ultimate Montessori Art Lesson Guide

1. 5 Ways to Integrate Art Activities into Montessori Great Lessons

When you combine the concepts of art and the Great Lessons, you can seamlessly support your students learning without any disconnection!

2. Building a Montessori Art Lesson Calendar to Keep Students Busy Every Month

If you take some time to plan out your calendar, presenting art lessons will be so much easier for you during the school year. The best part of all this? There’s a simple, stress-free way to break it down, this blog shares how.

3. 5 NEW Ways to Tackle Montessori Art Projects

This article is a little inspiration for tackling art lessons, activities, and projects. Because, sometimes, you need a different way of looking at things to come up with fun, creative art lessons for your students. 

4. Montessori Art Lesson Planning How-To

Without the proper art training, it’s difficult to know what a great art lesson should actually cover and include. This post sets the foundation to help you choose lessons, set up for activities, and create a schedule for the year.

5. Montessori Art Activities | Big Bang Art Lessons

There are so many different art activities you can present to your students that incorporate the lessons about the Big Bang. Combining art activities with science is the perfect way for students to explore their imaginations and support traditional learning methods.

6. Montessori Art Lesson Planning: My Beautiful (Disastrous) Trip to Bali

Teaching art in Bali was, hands down, the most beautiful art trip I’ve taken this year, but that doesn’t mean everything went exactly as planned. Hopefully you will read about my experience and understand a few ways to work through difficult lessons—and maybe even learn from my mistakes! 

7. Montessori Art Lesson Plan Cheat Sheet

One of the most important factors when it comes to lesson planning is staying organized. Download this FREE, handy, three-step cheat sheet and refer to it when you start planning your next art lesson.

Ultimate Montessori Art Lesson Guide, teachers
montessori art guide

One Step Further: Register for My FREE Online Mini-Course

I’ll be honest, creating a Montessori art lesson is one of the most challenging parts about teaching art to your students. However, challenging does not mean impossible!

If you can understand how young children learn art—because it’s often slightly different than with other subjects—creating lessons becomes infinitely easier! It’s the key to keeping your students interested in and excited about your demonstrations and keep the mess down to a minimum. And I’ve developed a FREE digital mini-course—the Phases of Art Development—to help you do just that!

It’s an online course that explains how art making helps kids develop their creativity, fine-motor skills, and focus. Not only will it help you teach your students, but I make it easier on you by giving you a type of Montessori art lesson guide with examples of projects your students will enjoy creating.

Best of all—it’s free! To sign up for the course, click here.

A Short Cut Just for You – Montessori Art Teaching Book

All rights reserved © 2024, Nature of Art®

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 foreign language 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.

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Montessori Color Mixing Activity: Exploring One Color at a Time

Color is one of the foundational components of art making. It helps children talk about their art, as well as explore more uniquely, since they can eventually learn to create any hue imaginable. That’s why I want to take the time to talk about the importance of giving students the opportunity to experiment with color—however, it’s important to start simply. When you’re doing a Montessori color mixing activity with your students, you should start off by giving them fewer color choices when they first begin to explore different color pigments.

One of the main reasons I like to isolate colors is because it gives children the opportunity to observe different color values, such as light, medium, and dark. In my experience when you give kids a full palette of color choices or introduce several colors at one time, their senses will pick up on all the different colors available to them and they’ll get so excited to use them all, that they won’t spend enough time observing each hue and their values separately.

Montessori Color Mixing Activity: Exploring One Color at a Time, art lessons for kids

I give more details about color play in my book, Kids Color Theory, and explain how color play is actually a form of scientific exploration that allows children to witness hands-on. That’s because color theory, in general, is all about exploration, observation, and experimentation. 

Working this way—through experimentation—is a great way to introduce the elements and principles of design to children.

Montessori Color Mixing Activity

When children have the chance to work with fewer colors, they have deeper reflective thoughts and are able to form an essential understanding of spatial awareness in art. By experiencing a single color at a time through specially set up Montessori color mixing activities, children will notice different degrees of hues with a sharper eye and even learn to appreciate and be more selective with colors as they progress in their art literacy. It helps them develop a more aesthetic eye for color choices in their designs and artworks. Children will naturally develop color harmony in their artworks.

Color Mixing Activity, One Color at a Time

Where to Start: Set Up a Montessori Color Mixing Activity

Watercolor Play is a simple, natural, and exciting way for students to start exploring color. I’ve laid out the how-to and steps in a previous blog post, you can read that here. It teaches them how color behaves and mixes, which are things all artists need to learn, without getting too technical just yet.

Montessori Color Mixing Activity: Exploring One Color at a Time

Starting out with one color at a time, and give them the tools and materials (buckets, cups, bowls, paper, sponges, droppers, paintbrushes, etc.) to mix non-toxic, liquid paint. As they add more water to the paint, they’ll be able to see the value change from dark, deep, rich, to lighter and more transparent. This will help them learn valuable color theory concepts.

When I teach brushstrokes for the first time, I also isolate distraction by offering one color to work with at first. This helps students focus on the movements rather than all the color choices.

Once I feel my students have spent a good amount of time discovering primary colors, and cool and warm tones separately, I then offer palettes with more colors options.

One Step Further: Download My Montessori Color Set-up Video

Understanding the actual set up and purpose of color mixing—especially when you’re only using one color at a time—is relatively easy. As a Montessori teacher, I’m sure you’ve noticed that when more options are offered to students, the less focus they become. In this FREE Montessori color set-up activity video download, I show you how to set up a color mixing station for students to get hands-on experience in color tones and values. 

Montessori Color Mixing Activity: Exploring One Color at a Time

Bonus Activity

Here’s another fun tip: I love placing out different natural elements so students can see different color tones in nature. For example, slices of lemon show the different color value of yellow, and a handful of leaves will show how vibrant and varied the color green can be. Natural elements like flowers, leaves, seeds, berries, and fruits are perfect for children to understand where pigments, tones, and hues derive. 

A Short Cut Just for You

montessori art early childhood

I explore the importance and how-to of color theory in my book, Kids Color Theory. I share the reasons kids should be able to identify primary pigments and secondary color, as well as how to create art and color mixing Montessori environments to allow kids to thrive as little artists. Plus, I even give you 11 color-mixing lessons to make your life so much easier! You can purchase the book here.

Montessori Color Mixing Activity: Exploring One Color at a Time

Of course, understanding the principles of color theory is just the first part; to be able to share that knowledge with your students involves creating fun, exciting, and effective art activities. My book includes 11 art lessons, but I’ve created an entire curriculum that revolves around this essential art concept. Kids Color Theory Practice & Process Curriculum has more than three dozen color theory lessons for early childhood, lower elementary, and upper elementary Montessori students. And every lesson is laid out, step-by-step, so all you have to do is read up and follow the instructions! To purchase Color Theory Curriculum for your classroom, click here.

All rights reserved © 2024, Nature of Art®

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 foreign language 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.

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Ultimate Montessori Art Collaging Guide

Ultimate Montessori Art Collaging Guide

How to Create Montessori Art Collaging Lessons

Collaging is the process of selecting, assembling, and pasting materials down into a unique arrangement. It’s a way for artists to take many different ideas and art mediums and put them together into a beautiful work of art. It’s a great way for students to express their creativity too, which is why I think Montessori art collaging lessons should be taught in the classroom. 

The word collage actually derives from “la colle,” which means glue in French. The art of collage making goes all the way back to the 1800s; even famous artists like Pablo Picassco and Georges Braque incorporated it into their works. Today’s collage artists astound us with treasures like antiques, special handcrafted papers, and upcycled toys; it’s an art form that’s transformed into the most unimaginable spectacular of materials. 

Ultimate Montessori Art Collaging Guide, kids activities

Collaging can honestly be done with any type of material, from paper, natural elements, and fabrics, to recycled objects, like buttons, tiny beads, sequins, and other kinds of man-made embellishments. Even textured materials like foil, glass, wire, and burlap can be used. There’s really nothing that can’t be collaged!

Artists of the past and present have cleverly designed so many interesting collages using some of the most unusual materials and textures, so there’s no shortage of inspiration when it comes to this art form. It’s an ideal craft to introduce children to because collages are intuitive arrangements; they’re the perfect artful playground for kids to craft in.

I’m excited to write this blog because I know the importance of children working independently, building their fine-motor skills, and strengthening the small muscles in their hands, but I’m even more excited to give students a crafting experience that gives them the freedom to experiment, assemble objects, and design interesting textured artworks, with almost no effort or stress. Collaging gives children the opportunity to be creative, independent, and original.

Benefits of Teaching Art Collaging to Montessori Students

Collage crafting can lead your students into creating more complex crafts and projects that require developed coordination. Four of the direct benefits of collaging are:

  1. Learning to cut with scissors, which builds finger and hand strength
  2. Building implied memory with the repeated movements of gluing the elements
  3. Introducing the Elements and Principles of Design, including line, shape, form, texture, color, and symmetrical balance ideas
  4. Conjuring up creative thoughts, ideas, and arrangements

Teaching children how to choose pieces of material to arrange into composition whether through a planned idea or simply through process-based learning is exciting for children. When they discover the power of glue—and all its possibilities—their imaginations and creations become endless.

Montessori Art Collaging ideas for kids art projects

Gluing and pasting are essential art practices that leads to more advanced craft skills. Crafting is a visual art domain that develops three-dimensional spatial awareness. By experimenting with arranging materials into multiple layouts (using different shapes, sizes, proportions, colors, values, textures, etc.) students learn the Elements and Principles of Design concepts. They can play with symmetrical balance, patterns, and create abstract designs or realistic imagery—collaging has no rules! Children can be as playful and experimental as they choose.

Ultimate Montessori Art Collaging Guide, activites children

Collaging is Sensorial & Tactile

Collaging is highly sensorial because it involves touching and feeling the textures of materials being used to create. It’s a wonderful way for children to experience crafts; the different textures of materials can be both exciting and calming. Plus, when kids work directly with their hands, it can have a calming effect, since they become focused on the feeling and application of each piece their working on. In fact, in many cases, children will select items solely based on the satisfaction of the tactile feeling rather than the visual aesthetics. This is why I consider collaging a very intuitive craft.

The other reason collaging is sensory focused is because it gives students the freedom to use their tactile sense (feeling) to select by their own art pieces. Children love having the choice of selecting their own mediums. Putting collaging objects in different baskets and containers keeps things organized while allowing children the enjoyment of feeling and selecting the items they want to use. If you are a fan of the idea of loose items arranged in the classroom, then you can use this concept to set-up an art collaging invitation for your Montessori students. 

Ultimate Montessori Art Collaging Guide

Where to Start: Simple Montessori Art Collaging Projects First

I know Montessori classrooms introduce a gluing station as a practical life activity. But, collaging is so much more than just practicing glue motions. It’s an art Montessori students at every level will love to explore.

I recommend starting simple, using just one material with the goal of practicing the idea of gluing and pasting down. Start with a small, firm cardboard around 5” x 5”, and small pieces of paper with sides ranging from .5” to 1”; these sizes are easy to work with and paste for little hands. I also recommend starting with thin paper that’s easy to cut or tear, like tissue paper or magazine pages. The idea is to keep it lightweight so it’s easy to glue, cut, and arrange. You can have students paste the papers as they are or allow them to cut the papers into other shapes using scissors. 

When students first practice collaging, they shouldn’t focus on creating anything realistic; don’t have them try to copy a template or prompt, instead, let them work free form. Let kids feel and be intuitive in what they decide to arrange. Just make sure you walk through the process and have finished examples for them to see so they can understand the goal of activity. 

Work process-based first—especially with early childhood and lower elementary students—then move into themed ideas with specific examples once they have the chance to explore and experiment. You can provide inspiration and examples, but leave the layout and composition arrangement up to the student.

kids collage ideas and materials to use

Montessori Art Collaging Tips

Best Adhesive

There really is no right way to collage; it’s all up to the artist. Introduce multiple gluing methods—glue sticks, craft glue with a popsicle stick, decoupage, etc.—and allow students to use whatever they gravitate to and feel more comfortable working with. 

Keeping Parts and Pieces Organized

As a collage artist myself and working with a number of professional collage artists, I’ve learned the importance of keeping materials organized and easily accessible. It prevents the creative process from being interrupted and minimizes messes and clean up. I’ve seen Montessori gluing boxes on the market, and while they can keep materials tidy, they are not necessary; instead, use baskets, trays, caddies, drawer organizers, or small boxes to organize and display collaging materials, including scissors and glue.

For the most part, I don’t recommend children work inside trays. If you’re worried about glue messes, use newspaper or a plastic tarp to cover the table surface. You can even keep wipes and sponges nearby to help keep students’ hands clean from glue. However, kids love sticky hands—it’s all part of the tactile experience. I remember loving to play with the glue on my hands myself as young artist!

Interesting Collaging Materials

While you should start with very simple materials at first, slowly graduate your students to more interesting and diverse collaging items. Such as:

  • Bottle caps
  • Bubble wrap
  • Cardboard strips
  • Corrugated paper
  • Cotton balls
  • Crepe paper
  • Fabric
  • Feathers
  • Foil
  • Gift wrap
  • Magazines
  • Paper
  • Small emebishhemnts (sequins, string, buttons, seeds, etc)
  • Stickers
  • Tissue

One Step Further: Sign Up for My FREE Online Mini-Course

Collaging is just one example of an art activity Montessori students will love, but there’s an infinite amount of art projects they can create! If you want to give them limitless options, you have to first understand what they’re capable of learning. I’ve developed a FREE online mini-course to teach you exactly how children learn art—based on their plane of development. That way you can present and demonstrate really fun art projects to them without you stressing or them getting bored or making a mess!

Sign-up to receive video course & Montessori art teaching e-newsletter.

The Phases of Art Development is a quick digital course that explains how art making can help students develop their creativity, fine-motor skills, and focus. More importantly, I share what types of projects students at every age are capable of completing safely, and without making a mess.

Best of all—it’s free! To sign up for the course, click here.

Montessori Art Collaging: Lower Elementary

All rights reserved © 2024, Nature of Art®

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 foreign language 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.