montessori art lessons Archives – Page 3 of 3

November 29, 2018February 1, 2020

Teaching Montessori Art, Creative Making vs. Copy Making

By Spramani Elaun

In my twenty years of observing and teaching children of all ages to draw and paint, I’ve discovered the best ways for teaching art without stifling their creative spirit. My unique teaching method breaks down instruction into two balanced approaches: creative-mode and copy-mode.

When art instruction is balanced using these two methods, a child can develop skilled fine art motor movements, plus conceptualize original imaginative ideas. Understanding how to teach creative making and copy making is simple. I cover it in more detail in my book, Introducing Visual Arts to Montessori Classrooms, but here’s a quick guide to give you a foundation.

Creative Making

Creative mode is how children first learn to create art. In creative mode, you can introduce projects and demonstrate a medium, but refrain from giving students a point of reference or image to copy. The child creates art by exploring the medium and conjuring up their own creative images from their own imaginations, thoughts, and ideas.

Introducing Creative Making to Students

Creative making is all about giving students the freedom to explore. You can show kids examples of projects using similar mediums and technique but give them space to come up with their own ideas of images, colors, and even different techniques to finishing their artworks.

Young children should start their art experience in creative mode, then move on to copy mode learning and observations in the upper grades.

Copy Making

Copy mode refers to a systematic, step-by-step art instruction. When students are older they are able to learn to make art by mimicking or copying a visual image by following a series of steps, resulting in a similar finished project. In fine art adult classes, students learn to draw or paint by copying what they see an in image and studying its perspective renderings of line, form, light, value and composition.

Introducing Copy Making to Students

Start out by having kids copy a design step-by-step. For example, you can teach kids how to draw a butterfly in just three to four simple, systematic steps and most students will create similar butterfly shapes. You can then transition children into creative-mode thinking, by allowing them to color or paint their designs however they choose—tapping into their own individual creativity they harnessed at a younger age. The goal is to give kids the foundation to draw an outline of a basic butterfly shape (in copy mode) and the freedom to think creatively (in creative mode).

The Benefits of Creative Making & Copy Making

Copy-mode drawing can help develop muscles in students’ eyes, hands, and memories. Copying geometric or organic shapes can help students achieve similar shapes they might desire in their own creative drawings or designs. Limited copy-mode and step-by-step drawing lessons should be introduced to children in elementary grades.

Creative-mode supports children in developing ideas from their own imaginations. It gives kids free range to conjure up their own ideas; this also supports the artistic process. When children learn to create from their own ideas, they conceptualize original artworks through imagination, planning, and finally, constructing. These are the qualities of a creative innovator. Because young children have great imaginations, it’s ideal for children to being making art this way.

Teach by Balancing Both Methods of Instruction

For students to benefit the most, you should be balancing fun projects that utilize creative-making opportunities with occasional skill-building, copy-making techniques. Using both methods of instruction will support art literacy by guiding students through the artistic process. Children have the opportunity to create and imagine their own ideas and design, then explore and construct their art projects, and finally express what they create with words or written descriptions about their process.

If you require kids to follow too many step-by-step instructions and do not allow for any creative freedom, it can stifle their creativity or love for making art. Additionally, a child’s visual perception and fine-motor development develops slowly over childhood. Some children may not be developmentally or cognitively ready to copy at an early age and this can negatively affect their self-esteem and ability to think creatively on their own. Some copy-mode instruction can be introduced in early elementary, but should be directed more towards upper elementary grades.

All kids need artistic inspiration to serve as a springboard for drawing and painting ideas to get them started. You should always give kids some point of reference to copy initially, then allow their own ideas or designs to flourish. It’s really difficult for many kids to sit down and think of something to create off the top of their head without any guidance at all, especially if they do not have much practice in visual arts just yet. This is why it’s so essential for copy and creative making to work hand in hand! Simple copy-mode lessons can be used as inspiration. Just remember, copy making and step-by-step instructions should be options, not requirements.

If you would like to learn more about teaching art in your Montessori classroom, register for my next Art Teaching Blueprint training. I break down these concepts in simple, easily digestible lessons (that you can go through at your own pace) and help you start using these methods in your classroom. Trust me, so many Montessori teachers like you have been able to implement visual arts in their lessons and always come back to tell me how much their students love it and are benefiting from it. I want this for you and your students too! So, click here to register today.

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October 25, 2018February 1, 2020

5 Ways to Integrate Art Activities into Montessori Great Lessons

By Spramani Elaun

One of the most common questions Montessori teachers come to me with is, “How do I integrate art with my lessons?” When you combine the concepts of art and the Great Lessons, you can seamlessly support your students learning without any disconnection.

And by incorporating art with what students are already learning you’re helping to instill the concepts of those subjects by putting them into a new perspective. You’re also giving their art context in showing its relationship to other parts of their world, which can ultimately lead to an increase in their art literacy.

The Great Lessons in themselves are bold, exciting; they’re a way to awaken a child’s curiosity, imagination, and even creativity. There are really simple projects you can set up that help bring art into your everyday lessons, or specifically, your Great Lessons.

Students are used to learning new ideas through text and images, imagine how much more they’ll be able to understand and retain information when you tie in a multi-sensorial process like creating art. It’ll help your students learn on a deeper level. Having children create with a multitude of senses helps develop metacognitive reinforcement! I dive deeper into this in my books and new online training course, but here’s the gist:

When art lessons are integrated into the Great Lessons, you create new pathways to reach different learners in different ways, which maximizes your students’ learning on these topics. They learn to express diverse ideas through methods that can’t be done in most other academic subjects. Something I’ve discovered over the years of working directly with students is that they each have a unique way of demonstrating their true understanding. Art gives them a platform where there’s no wrong or right way to express themselves and their understanding. This is particularly why science today is backing STEAM education models!

You probably already have your calendar planned out for the year, so here are just a few simple ways to add in art and relate it to the Great Lessons.

First Great Lesson: Coming of the Universe and the Earth

With the first Great Lesson, you’re teaching students about astronomy, meteorology, chemistry, physics, geology, and geography. One of my favorite projects to teach is watercolor painting of galaxies. Students can create stunning images of galaxies and stars they see in their lessons, or let their imaginations loose and paint their own interpretations.

5 Ways to Integrate Art and the Great Lessons

Second Great Lesson: Coming of Life

The second Great Lesson covers topics like biology, botany, habitats, ancient life, and animals. I love incorporating nature with my projects whenever possible, so for me, botanical art is always exciting to teach! Make sure you check out my past blog post where I share ways to use fall leaves in projects for some ideas to use in your classroom.

Third Great Lesson: Coming of Human Beings

History, culture, social studies, and invention are all parts of the third Great Lesson. Earlier this year, I partnered with a fellow Montessori teacher (for grades 4-6), and we integrated art into a lesson on ancient civilizations. Children learned basic ideas about settlements and how government is formed. I brought in several art lessons moving children through the artistic process of brainstorming, sketching, and building a 3D model of a settlement—either ancient, modern, or imaginary. If you want to learn more about how to do this, make sure you register for my Art Teaching Blueprint online course, I provide a step-by-step process for this lesson and a ton of others.

Fourth Great Lesson: Communication and Writing

The fourth Great Lesson covers different forms of communication including reading, writing, language, and structure. As students learn about pictographs and hieroglyphics, they can draw them out or create their own and then explain in writing what they mean.

Fifth Great Lesson: Numbers

In the final Great Lesson, students learn about numbers, mathematics, geometry, and the applications of these topics. Using clay to mold and create shapes can illustrate geometrical concepts to students, such as similarities and angles.

This is just the tip of the iceberg! I get so excited about integrating visual art and the Great Lessons and have so many more easy and practical ways to do so in your classroom. There are two ways to get more info and ideas on this: 1) sign up for my newsletter to keep up with my blog, and 2) get dozens of ideas, all in one place, by registering for my course, Art Teaching Blueprint. I can’t wait to inspire more of your Montessori lessons!

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.

October 11, 2018February 1, 2020

4 Fall Leaf Ideas for Your Montessori Classroom

Idea #1: Leaf Crayon Rubbing

Check out the video above for full details, or follow the instructions below.

Simple Steps:

Place leaf facing down, vein side up.
Place white paper on top of leaf.
Hold paper and leaf firmly so they don’t move.
Take crayon and start rubbing over the leaf area.
The impression of your leaf should show up!

Idea #2: Leaf Pressing

Pressing leaves is a wonderful way to teach children how botanists preserve specimens. This activity can lead to many different types of art projects can down the road, such as leaf painting (see Idea #3, below). You can also let children come up with their own ideas of what to do with their pressed leaves once they’re done.

Simple Steps:

Gently wipe off any dirt from the leaf.
Place the leaf between newspaper sheets or in pages of a book.
Place a note card with the date collected and any information gathered about the leaf, in a safe place so that you can retrieve it once the leaf is pressed.
Pile a small stack of heavy books on top of the pages and press for 1 to 24 hours.

Idea #3: Leaf Painting

Allow your students to use leaves as a canvas and get creative with paint.

Simple Steps:

Press leaves first—they are easier to paint when flattened.
Select bright paint colors—acrylic, tempera, gauche, or craft paint will work best.
Paint leaf with paintbrush as desired.
Set aside to dry, then decorate note cards or other art projects with them.

Idea #4: Clay Leaf Fossils

A great way to show children how fossils are created is by compressing leaves into wet clay!

Simple Steps:

Roll out a flat slab of clay with a rolling pin. Use air dry model clay (which dries overnight), or white polymer clay (bakes to harden).
Place leaf, with veins facing down, onto the clay and firmly but gently press the compression by hand or with a rolling pin.
Carefully remove the leaf by pulling it by the stem.
Bake or leave to air dry.

Optional: paint fossil

The key to coming up with more engaging and exciting projects is understanding how kids learn and what would interest them. I’m launching an online course—The Art Teaching Blueprint—that teaches you everything you need to know about teaching art in a Montessori classroom and break it down into bite-sized videos so you can go through them at a pace that works for you. To get on the wait list and be notified when registration opens, click here!

montessori fall crafts fall leaf download

One Step Further: Download My Fall Leaf Inspiration Print

I personally think the fall season can give us hundreds of art activity and project ideas, but just to make it even easier on you (which, really, is such a joy because I get to share my love of both fall and art with you!), I’m giving you a FREE Fall Leaf Inspiration Print.

You can print it out and use it on your art shelf or hang it in your inspiration gallery to during the season, or let students fill it in with beautiful colors. It seems like a simple tool, right? But trust me, it’ll lead to so many amazing, creative artworks! Download the Fall Leaf Inspiration Print by clicking here.

A Short Cut Just for You

Of course, fall is just one season of the school year. If you want the tools to be able to come up with art activities all year long, you need the foundation of understanding how children are able to learn art. In my online course, Art Teaching Blueprint, I give you everything you need to easily start teaching art to your your Montessori students.

And fall registration for Art Teaching Blueprint is about to open!

I’ve been helping Montessori teachers all over the world bring art into their classroom for more than 20 years. And I’ve honed and perfected my own art teaching method, and have developed it to complement and support Montessori philosophy, so that you can start teaching art in your classroom too. From setting up a proper art environment and art shelf, to giving your students age-appropriate mediums to explore with, I cover everything a Montessori teacher needs to know.

I’m so excited to be opening up the course one more time for this year! You can sign up for the course starting November 1. But if you want a reminder, and to save your seat now, click here to join the waitlist!

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

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

October 4, 2018June 1, 2021

How to Plan a Montessori Art Field Trip

The Best Way to Plan a Visit to Local Museums with Your Montessori Students

By Spramani Elaun

Getting out of the classroom and visiting museums is essential for students to develop their art literacy. It also helps them grow in their understanding and appreciation of art. A Montessori art field trip can also be fun for both you and your students, if you know how to plan them correctly.

Art offers students a window for exploring the social, historical, and cultural context of works from their own county. I dive deeper in the importance of relating art to a greater context in my new book Defining Visual Arts, but museum visits are a key to implementing this concept.

Many Montessori teachers enjoy taking their students out to learn in new settings, many of them experience the issue of students not engaging with the art. They’re too busy on their phones, running around, or gabbing with friends. That’s because the way students learn doesn’t align with the way most art museums are set up.

While you can’t change a museum’s environment, you can change the way your students experience it. Here are 5 tips for planning a successful art trip with your Montessori students.

Tip #1: Introduce Museum Collections Before You Go

Explain what museum collections mean to our society, how we learn from them, and the significance they have to our broadening our perspectives and culture. Before you visit a museum, show them samples of different types of collections. For example, bones, insects, or gems from the Natural History Museum; plants from a Botanical Garden; or pottery and written relics from the Museum of Man. By sharing these examples before your class goes to a museum, your students will build up some excitement because they have an idea of how special this trip will be. You might even want to consider creating a lesson around a topic that’ll be featured at the museum. For instance, if you’re going to have older students view classical paintings, be sure they have experience and knowledge on the era. Or your lesson can be as simple as a 15-minute Q & A with your students the day before your trip.

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

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

Tip #2: Review Museum Restrictions

Explain and review museum restrictions and rules and why they’re important to follow. Teach kids museum observation skills: collecting information with their eyes, listening with their ears, and observing studying artifacts with their hands safely behind their backs. You can even do a run-through in your classroom before your field trip. Put out a few objects as a pretend collection in your classroom, then have students walk around with their hands behind their backs. Remind them of how precious many of the collections and items at the museum are, and why it’s important to observe them in this way.

Tip #3: Choose the Right Museums

Choose a museum with collections and ideas that relate to subjects your students will be learning. For example, if you’re focusing on botany then check out your local Botanical Gardens, if want to highlight what they’re learning in history then visit a history museum, if you’re studying the cosmos then take a trip to a planetarium, observatory, or science museum. Most large cities have historical societies and special collections that will most likely support one of the subjects you’re teaching in the classroom. I’m lucky I live near San Diego and Balboa Park, which has so many wonderful museums, like a train museum, quilt museum, butterfly sanctuary, and even farms with petting zoos. Trust me, if you do your research, you’ll find something that’ll engage your students and bring their learning to life.

Tip #4: Look for Interactive Exhibits

Finding a museum that’ll relate to students’ studies will automatically spark their interest to some degree, but you can take it a step further by going to a museum with kid-friendly, interactive exhibits. You might also want to look for places that allow kids to touch the displays, where talking is acceptable, and that provide an area for restless movement. A designated lunch area and outdoor space will also make the trip more enjoyable for your students.

You can also provide ways to kind of force your students to engage, such as giving them a scavenger hunt to complete, or ways to collect data like sketch book, journal, or camera.

museum field trip with montessori students

Tip #5: Plan for their Attention Spans

Ultimately, you have to set realistic expectations of what to count on from your students. Understand what their attention spans typically are and plan for breaks and activities throughout the day. For example, I know I can’t expect my students to make it through lengthy docent tours, so I tend to skip those. Instead, I’ll choose museums with hands-on activities, or create my own interesting exercises for them to do. When I take my older students on field trips, I prepare them with sketch pencils and journals for follow-up work that they can later fill out after they collect information about the different subjects they observed during their visit. The goal is to make your museum trips exciting for younger students and interesting for older students.

If you want more information on the best ways to teach art and make it exciting for your Montessori students (and you!) make sure you register for my online course, Art Teaching Blueprint! I give you all the tools, resources, and information you need to build the foundation for a quality visual arts program.