How-to Talk to Toddlers About Montessori Art – By Spramani Elaun

It can feel a little overwhelming—maybe even silly—to try and introduce your toddler to montessori art concepts.

Some toddlers might still be learning how to talk and hold a spoon, so how are you supposed to have a full on art conversation?

Here’s the good news: How-to talk to toddlers about art making is not something you need to worry about.

You don’t have to use “art language,” proper terminology, or fancy words in order for your toddler to start appreciating and experiencing art making.

Art does have its own type of language, it’s called the ‘Elements and Principles of Design” but that’s way too advanced for toddlers to understand!

If you start using this strange art terminology, you’re going to lose your child’s attention, and likely get frustrated yourself.

When you talk to your toddler about montessori art—”Art Talk”—it’s really just describing what you see in artworks, like color, shape, and form, etc.

Before I get into how-to talk to Toddlers about montessori Art let me break that down an easy way your toddler will understand, I want you to have some basic knowledge.

How-to Talk to Toddlers About Montessori Art – By Spramani Elaun

The Basics: How-to Talk To Toddlers About Montessori Art

For a young child, exploring through art play is something natural.

Children gain a sense of their physical world by using each and all of their senses—seeing, smelling, tasting, touching, and hearing. This is how knowlege is first learned.

The enthusiasm a child feels while dipping a paintbrush into a paint palette, or creating brushstrokes across a blank paper is exciting!

It’s a curious mix of senses.

Learning montessori art is about discovery and exploration.

By allowing toddlers to explore art (without any expectations), is a natural way for you to introduce toddlers to art concepts.

Playing and experimenting can help them build confidence to start expressing art terms.

This type of art exploration can come in many art activities like: doodling, painting, color mixing, and clay modeling.

(For more detailed information on how to teach toddlers art, read this post.)

How-to Start talking To Toddlers About Montessori Art Images

OK, lets get started on how easy it is to talk to toddlers about art!

When you’re first introducing art talk to your toddler, keep things basic and simple. Start by describing what you see or what’s going on as you make art.

As your toddler starts exploring, art talk will become easier and easier.

More than likely, their inquisitive little brains will start making cognitive connections (like, “if I use this purple paint, with this paintbrush, it’ll come out like this”), and they’ll probably start asking questions (such as, “what color is this?” or “why did this do this?”).

You don’t necessarily need to use these exact terms, but let me share how simple this talk can be with toddlers.

Describe basic aspects of art:

Color
Shape
Texture
Line

Keep these concepts in mind as you talk to your toddler about art:

Examples of how-to talk sounds:

Here are some examples of how to start talking and describing what you see in montessori art activties: While reading story books you can point out colors like this:

“The bear is all brown, do you want to color something brown today?”

“Let’s cut out some shapes, like circles and squares, with scissors.”

“Hey, what about making some fun textures in our clay, watch me!”

“Let’s make squiggly and straight lines with crayons.”

“How many different colored lines can we draw together?”

“Let’s mix yellow and blue, what color did you make?”

Why Is It Important Toddlers Do Art Activities?

Toddler Art talk supports confience
Toddler art talk supports experimental curiosity
Toddler art talk can boost brainpower

Art talk—especially when it’s positive and encouraging—can be the foundation for building up your toddler’s creative confidence.

Remember that most artworks made by toddlers are just simply led by their own curiosity and art play.

For them, the point of art is just to have fun, and their finished pieces of art won’t look like anything realsitic.

If you encourage them and answer their questions, they’ll grow bolder in their exploration and will ultimately have the self-confidence to continue learning— even beyond art.

Art talk will stimulate your child’s imagination.

Art talk can boosts brainpower!

There’s a lot of neural wiring happening in the brain when children make art. Other branches of scientists like neuroscientists, science researchers, and art therapists, have also made connections to how early childhood art contributes to brainpower. Over my twenty years in process, studio-based observations, I have observed these same connections to how children get to improve their brains by creating artwork!

(For more detailed information on how art boost brain power, read this post.)

If you have any questions or get stumped on answering one of their art questions, please don’t hesitate to email me at info@Spramani.com

And for more ideas and tips for bringing art into your toddler’s life, sign up for my Montessori Art newsletter.

With practice you will get good at taling to toddlers about Montessori art.

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The proper and complete list of art materials

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October 24, 2019July 21, 2021

Montessori Art Direct and Indirect Aims

If you don’t come from an art background or haven’t had any art training, then introducing art lessons to your students might feel like unfamiliar territory. What makes it worse, is that there are no real guidelines or proper art literacy standards available in traditional Montessori training. I know how frustrating it can be to take something so foreign and bring it into your classroom with confidence. The secret is using Montessori concepts to merge the two together. Here’s how to create your own, effective Montessori art direct and indirect aims.

I’ve worked with Montessori teachers and in Montessori classrooms all over the world, and I also have a background in all types of visual art. It took years of observation and teaching art directly to students, but I’ve figured out a way for you—even if you have no art experience—to support art literacy in your Montessori classroom.

Montessori Art Direct and Indirect Aims, art lessons

I’m sure you know how important it is to support students in their own self discovery using their hands and senses within the classroom environment. This exploration process is similar to how artists discover and create with their own hands too. Our hands are the neural connection that feeds our brain information; they’re also the way we develop and hone our fine-motor skills.

So, as a Montessori teacher, how can you support students in the artistic process and inspire them to think creatively? Start with understanding how direct and indirect aims relate to artistic development and progression.

For an artist to create, they must move through the artistic process, which is the four actions an artist experiences while creating and producing artworks. It starts with self discovery through their hands, then designing with their imaginations, then constructing with materials, and finally, reflecting about their process through expression by using art language, creative writing, or community sharing.

Where to Start: Using Montessori Art Direct and Indirect Aims

So let’s compare these actions to Montessori’s method of direct and indirect aims to teaching as a guide.

Art Lesson: Direct Aims

In an artistic environment, your Montessori art direct aim can be to prepare the work space, explore different artist materials, and manage time for art creation—while following art standards. You can also demonstrate and isolate techniques that promote independent exploration, engagement, and how to work in a respectful, artful way within the classroom.

The Artistic Process: Indirect Aims

Indirect aims are accomplished by stepping back and allowing the artistic process’s four actions to unfold. Self discovery by sensory tactile spatial exploration with the eyes, hands and mind; improvisation and creative selection of the elements and principles of design; the hands-on construction of ideas; and finally, the opportunity to reflect on the process verbally or through writing. Indirect aims unfold during the artistic process. Creativity is the result of the process.

POSTED ONFEBRUARY 4, 2021 EDIT”MAKING ART STIMULATES KIDS’ BRAIN DEVELOPMENT”

Making Art Stimulates Kids’ Brain Development

I talk to so many adults and teachers who think art is just a frivolous subject, an activity to give kids to do to keep them quiet for an hour or so. Some might even know the value of art in that it encourages kids to think creatively and and work through complex emotions. Art benefits both their mental health and their fine motor skills too, but did you know art making stimulates kids’ brain development!? It goes beyond creative expression (although that’s important too) and actually has lasting positive effects on kids’ brains!

You may think that the art projects and lessons you’ve been doing in your Montessori classroom is just busy work—filling time and keeping kids busy, but there is a lot of behind-the-scenes action going on during each art activity that fuels students’ brain development. We know that when a child touches an object, information is sent through their sensory nerves to their brains. Visual art learning often happens through direct sensory interactions which stimulates learning in different ways than visual and audio learning.

These sensory experiences can help young students learn more, better understand different ideas and concepts, and art making stimulates kids’ brain development. Here are a few areas where art directly benefits kids’ brain development.

Gross Fine-Motor Skills

Visual arts provides kids with the opportunity to use their hands on a regular basis—holding pencils, pinching and sculpting clay, cutting with scissors, and making fluid brushstrokes all help kids build their hand muscles and strengthen their hand-eye coordination as well as fine motor movements.

Connection to Vocabulary and Communication

Visual arts help kids make connections across different subjects and ideas to be able to better understand things. So when kids explore different art activities, they’re actually learning how to communicate what they see in their artworks and how to describe the artistic process they use to create. In doing this, they unknowingly start making observations such as, “I see color,” “I see pink,” “I see a squiggly line,” “I see zigzags.” When they communicate those observations to you or each other, they begin to develop their art language and a greater vocabulary, which is a part of cognitive processing.

Stress Regulation

Creating art also helps children wire their brains to regulate stress. Art gives them the tools to learn how to calm themselves down. Tactile cognitive processing occurs when children create art; the neural networks in their brains fire up and signal their brain to focus solely on what they’re doing with their hands, blocking out outside thoughts and stimuli. What happens is, if kids are stressed out or upset about something and they’re making art, they can’t focus on that. Art involves active learning, meaning they have to focus on what they’re doing immediately, which takes away the upsetting, stressful things that are happening in their environment.

Implicit Memory

Another area of brain development art fuels is Implicit memory. When kids learn repeated movements, they’re strengthening their Implicit memory and are actually storing this new information. The next time that they go about making an art, their Implicit memory kicks in and their hand movements will come naturally—the actions are wired into their memories. That means they don’t have to consciously think about every minute action; they will see a paintbrush, and instinctively know to pick it up, dip it into the palette or water, and start creating. The sensory information of seeing the paintbrush and then holding it in their hand immediately sends that information to their brain, triggering an action. Building this Implicit memory helps develop more skills down the road; they’ll have this Implicit memory already stored in their brains and can then focus on the next steps or deeper ideas.

Spatial Intelligence

Spatial intelligence is learned through creating with forms in space. When children make art, they become aware of the spatial relationships among objects in the realm of their own experiences. This gives them the ability to visualize and manipulate elements, rotate objects, and distinguish depth and balance—which is critical in early childhood brain development. It’s important to note that spatial intelligence is something that cannot be taught unless kids are actually doing an activity; art gives them the experience of seeing how things interact and happen dynamically or statically.

Where to Start: Lesson Plans to Ensure Art Stimulates Kids’ Brain Development

Here’s some great news: students will automatically start getting all these benefits any time they create art! That means you don’t have to have any fancy art mediums or materials or complicated lesson plans. You can do simple activities to make sure art stimulates kids’ brain development. The more art lessons and activities you plan for your Montessori students, the more they’ll deepen their neural networks and build on all these developmental skills. Any art lesson, especially those that involve process-based or exploratory learning, will benefit kids’ brain development.

One Step Further: Watch My Training, ‘How-to Teach Art Montessori Art Lessons Using Storybooks’

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!

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March 14, 2019January 14, 2021

Upper Elementary Montessori Art Teach Method

I’ve spent years and years researching and observing how children learn art, and what I’ve found is that children are able to grasp different artistic skills at different planes. In this new blog series, I’ll be sharing my insight on the art teaching methods that work for each age group of Montessori students.

Children of all ages can be taught visual arts and be guided through the artistic process. Each developmental phase requires different teaching styles and approaches.

Below you’ll find a general arts literacy guide for Montessori Early Childhood ages following the International Standards for the Arts Education & Sensory Visual Arts method that aligns with a child’s growth.

Montessori Upper Elementary Art Teaching Methods Resources

If you would like to understand more about which types of art projects children can work on, register for my free video course, Phases of Arts Development, which discusses teaching methods for Lower Elementary Montessori students (ages 7-9).

You can learn about Art Literacy Standards and the benefits of visual arts by reading Defining Visual Arts (paperback book).

If you would like to understand more about the phases of art development, register for this free mini digital course

Upper Elementary, Ages 10-12, Montessori Visual Arts Teaching Curriculum

Students in upper L can go through the artistic process, conjure up their own ideas and see them through to completion. They’re able to do reflective work, bringing meaning to their creations and making connections to artworks in their community.

Children in this phase of art development should have different opportunities to explore different artist techniques. They can now work independently and follow guided instructions. Projects can be spread out over the course of a few days and should include a variety of concepts, such as line, shape, value, form, texture, color, symmetry, 3D and composition.

Continue to help students develop their art literacy by using art language in the classroom.

You can also continue to teach student Montessori art lessons through a combination of process-based art, creative mode, and simple copy mode.

Strengthen and Develop Upper Elementary Students’ Art Skills

By the time students are in upper elementary, they’re extremely competent when it comes to their fine-motor skills; in large part, this is due to the day-to-day activities they’re completing as part of their Montessori curriculum. Their muscles—both large and small—have been developed through school work and art creating, which gives them improved control over their movements. This means drawing and painting can be done in more detail.

At this age, students still need lots of exploratory sessions and opportunities to experiment with different mediums and techniques. Children are now drawing and painting with a 2D perspective, and can be introduced to simple 3D concepts—like value, shading, and basic three-point perspective ideas—as well. Again, keep lessons simple, easy to follow, and easy to understand.

Some upper elementary students might also be interested in learning realistic drawing and painting skills. However, not all children at this level will be developmentally ready for these types of advanced concepts.

Provide connections to The Elements and Principles of Design, introduction to three dimension 1 point perspective ideas, value shading, and composition relationships.

Upper Elementary Montessori Art Activities & Mediums

Here are some great Montessori Upper Elementary art projects for your students who are 10 – 12 ages in the elementary grades. These types of art activities will help develop their fine motor control and small muscles in fingers and hands while teaching the Elements & Principles of Design. (You can find non-toxic, kid-friendly art supplies needed for these art activities at Nature of Art for Kids.)

Drawing: crayons, color pencils, graphite pencil, and oil pastels, soft pastels etc.
Painting: watercolor paints, acrylic paints, watercolor crayons, watercolor pencils etc.
Color Theory: primary to secondary color mixing, tints & Shades, dropper color mixing, etc.
Clay Modeling: earth clay, non-harden plasticine clay, air-dry modeling clay, polymer bake clay
Crafts: Paper folding, origami, nature and paper collage, mosaic arrangement, sewing, wool felting, string weaving, nature crafting, 3D constructing etc.

Learn more about how to teach a in a Montessori curriculum by registering for my FREE mini digital course, Phases of Art Development Video. I get more into detail on upper elementary Montessori art lessons and provide fun and exciting art project ideas.

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.

December 6, 2018February 1, 2020

Setting Up Your Montessori Classroom Art Space

By Spramani Elaun

Inspiring children to be creative is my business! I’ve spent more than 20 years observing how they learn and teaching them visual art. In my experience, one of the most essential components of students exploring and learning art is their environment. Luckily, it’s actually so easy to set up your Montessori classroom art space!

If you’ve been following this blog, then you know I believe every Montessori classroom should have an inspiration gallery and an art shelf, so I bet you’re wondering what else you could possibly need. I can go on and on about all the things you can use to set up an art space, but to keep it simple, I’ll just share the five basic necessities with you. (Of course, you can dive deeper and learn about all the fun, unique, colorful, exciting things that you can add to your classroom by reading my books Introducing Visual Arts to The Montessori Classroom and Defining Visual Arts.)

The most important thing to understand is that making a space for art means making space to get creative and have fun. Now, when I say that, I know a lot of teachers think fun means mess. While that’s the case sometimes, if you set up a designated space for making art, it’ll contain the mess, while still giving students the freedom to create as they please.

Setting Up an Art Space

Kids need an art space to doodle, draw, write, paint, craft, sew, knit, cut, glue, build, construct, and play with clay. For kids to make these types of art projects successfully, they need the proper space. Here are the five basic necessities for creating a place for art in your classroom.

1. Rugs & Floor Coverings

Spills are inevitable, so it’s important to consider the flooring of your art space. If your classroom has wood, tile, or linoleum floors then spills will be an easy, worry-free clean up. However you may still want to a rug to lay out that will protect your floors—especially if your floor is carpet.

Rugs come in many sizes and can be inexpensive or pricey. If you don’t want to invest in a rug, then you can use a drop cloth or tarp while your students are working, and then fold it up and put it away when they’re done.

2. Table

Table size will not affect your students’ ability to be creative, but the sturdiness of it will. I’ve witnessed kids create beautiful works of art on a surface as large as their lap, so don’t feel like you need a huge, glorious art table in your classroom.

When I’m hosting events and teaching art classes I’m usually setting up on the fly and rely on a small (but sturdy!), cheap, portable fold-up tables. These are great—not just for my events but in the classroom as well—because you can set them up when you need to and not be limited to a full-time art table since they can be folded up and tucked out of the way when not in use.

3. Chairs

Along with a sturdy table, kids need a sturdy chair or stool to sit on safely. A bench or folding chair can work just fine, as will pulling a chair from elsewhere in your classroom. Having a table and chairs available makes invites a child to create and lets them know art should be made in that specific place (containing any mess to that space as well).

4. Light Source

I’ve spent many years observing children making artworks, and the ways in which they visually perceive their work is key to developing their artistic skills. That’s why a good, bright light source is important—it helps them identify pigments and color hues. Natural sunlight is the best, but a lamp light source can work just as well.

5. Art Supply Storage

Every art space should have a place where art supplies are stored. I’ve found that children can be overly stimulated or even get bored if they’re given total access to every art supply in your classroom. The best way to keep them excited and engaged with art is to keep rotating the materials that are available to them. You can use jars, baskets, or closed plastic containers to separate different types of art supply and store them away from the art space when necessary.

Creating your Montessori classroom art space doesn’t need to be fancy or complicated; it’s really not that different from the areas you have set aside for other lessons.

If this has you inspired and eager to start teaching art in your classroom, you should definitely sign up for my online training, Art Teaching Blueprint. It’s a quick, seven-week course that takes everything I’ve learned about teaching art to students and breaks it down into 43 short, easily-digestible videos. It’ll help you build a foundation for teaching a quality visual arts program in your school or classroom. I’m so excited to offer this course to you and I really think it’ll empower you and give you invaluable teaching skills. You can click here to register.

November 8, 2018May 12, 2021

Defining Art Literacy & Standards in the Montessori Classroom

I’ve learned from experience that if you’re like most Montessori teachers, you’re probably not trained in art. It can seem daunting—or maybe even unimportant—to teach art in the Montessori classroom. But the truth is, teaching visual arts and art literacy to students can have a huge impact on their education.

I get deep into all of this in my new book, Defining Visual Arts. I go over the standards for visual arts, how to understand artistic technique and process, and the art projects and mediums that are best for children. It’s really a quick guide to teaching art in your classroom.

Defining Art Literacy & Standards in the Montessori Classroom

Why Teach Visual Arts?

In my book, I also explain why it’s so beneficial for students to have art lessons as part of their Montessori education. Here are just a few of those reasons you should be teaching it.

Art offers a unique form of communication

Student learn diverse ways to communicate their emotions, ideas, and even other subjects they’ve learned in the classroom.

Art encourages critical and creative thinking

How do you express an idea like peace through watercolors? Through art, students get the chance to think creatively as they express themselves through different mediums and projects.

Art offers a tool for societal, historical, and cultural understanding

Art can be connected back to many different Montessori subjects, from science to literature to history. Experiencing art from other time periods or cultures can give students a different perspective on the other subjects they’re learning.

Art cultivates enjoyment and wellbeing

Being able to express themselves in a way that is neither “right” nor “wrong” allows students to find self-confidence and enhances their overall wellbeing. Plus, playing with paints, clay, and crafting materials is enjoyable and exciting for most students.

Art in the classroom leads to greater art literacy

Art literacy provides a standard for students to discover the artistic process. While art is usually considered to be subjective, having art literacy sort of evens the playing field for how students learn the subject.

What is Art Literacy?

To put it simply, art literacy is the knowledge and understanding required to participate authentically in the arts. It provides students with the opportunity to work through the artistic process, as a part of their education and using visual arts standards.

What are the Visual Arts Standards?

The standards we use to teach visual arts were created after extensive studies and surveys of professional artists—from musicians to sculptors. Researchers observed and analyzed the way art is created, from visualization and ideation to a finished form. All these findings were evaluated and placed into a matrix called The Artistic Process, which consists of four actions: investigate, imagine, construct, reflect.

These visual art standards can be used by teachers all over the country to develop curriculum and evaluate artistic progression in their students. The National Coalition for Core Arts Standards (NCCAS) is one of the prominent organizations leading the efforts to unify art standards across the U.S.

As helpful as these standards are, they do not provide guidelines or instruction for how learning in the arts should be delivered. They give teachers the four basic art process actions children should experience while creating artwork. Deciding on the medium (such as crayons or clay), areas of focus (drawing or painting), and technique are all up to you. This is where it gets a little daunting, right?

Don’t freak out!

I’ve done years of research on the development of art understanding and abilities in children, and I’ve tailored my experience and learning to be useful and applicable in the Montessori classroom.

I don’t want you to feel overwhelmed. Even if you don’t have an arts background, you can still teach visual arts! In Defining Visual Arts, I break down the subject into five simple domains, and walk you through the mediums and techniques to use in each one. You can purchase a copy of the book online for the ultimate guide on giving your students art literacy and bring art into your classroom!