Montessori art curriculum, how to choose for students

Montessori art curriculum teaches children The Elements and Principles of Design. Across various art domains such as painting, drawing, and crafting. Montessori art curriculum introduces different elements like line, shape, form, and texture. As children grasp the rich artistic language of the elements and principles of design, they learn how to observe and communicate what they see in their artworks, as well as how to describe their process.

Another crucial skill children gain from Montessori art activities in their curriculum is the ability to use their imagination, plan, and problem solve. These activities nurture a child’s imagination and problem-solving abilities. Incorporating Montessori art activities cultivates independent, creative thinkers for the 21st century.

Hi, I’m an artist, homeschool parent, Montessori art trainer and art curriculum developer for children. I’ve spent the last few decades teaching thousands of children through my art studio. Like you, when I first started out I didn’t know where to start teaching even though I went to fine art school! I didn’t know what art lessons to start children with, what area to focus on, or how to teach the art standards. Plus I couldn’t find any Montessori stand alone sequential art curriculum that scaffold correctly. In this post I want to help you understand how to decide on Montessori curriculum, and how to choose the right one for students. I will provide links to where to order Montessori curriculum and choose the right one for your classroom.

Montessori art curriculum how to choose the right one for students by spramani elaun

When I first started out teaching Montessori Students I became stressed and overwhelmed, I usually had to backtrack art lessons. I would later find out my students needed to understand a step better before we moved to the next step. I bought tons of art books, researched libraries and the web for hundreds of hours looking for Montessori art curriculum ideas. My deepest desire was that my students had joyful creative fun learning. In the beginning I taught too advance. I made things harder than they needed to be, and without realizing I took away creative choices.

montessori art training, art teacher spramani elaun — *Montessori art curriculum how to choose the right one for students*!

After a lot of observation and understanding the child’s sensory system things changed in my teaching. Over time my art curriculum came all together. With an invitation to teach at a Montessori school with a hundred students all in different grades, with limited time. I made the decision to give the same art lesson to all the grades, using the exact lesson. I gave them the same exact demonstration and isolated movement. I followed up with letting my students create what ever they wanted afterwards.

Montessori student painting with curriculum developed by spramani Elaun

I could not believe the results… every single student engaged from start to finish! I’ve explored this art curriculum with studio practice with huge success. Even my adult learners loved learning this way. I accomplished this by making my lessons more digestible to understand. And even created lessons to flow with common Montessori Great Lessons.

Montessori clay modeling art curriculum for early childhood and elementary. spramani elaun how to homeschool art

5 Important Montessori Art Curriculum Things I Learned Over Time:

All children need to learn isolated movements first.
You need to focus on easy step instructions that match the plane they are in.
Montessori guides should plan demos around each new concept.
Each lessons should build onto the next skill set you are teaching.
All foundational key lessons can be taught to both planes of development.

I have tested these curriculums with small to large groups of children of all ages. I now offer proper scaffold sequential organized art lessons in all areas. My curriculums focus on isolated foundational skills sets. I now offer my art curriculum for sale for parent and school guides.

Montessori art activities, art curriculum and lesson plans for guides

If you are a Montessori guide or parent you don’t have to figure all this out on your own!

No need to jump online to get a bunch of lessons that don’t scaffold leading you to overwhelmed or stress! I created easy to follow curriculum you can purchase. Plus you don’t have to be an artist yourself to follow these lessons!

Order sequential art curriculum, any time printed or digital from a Montessori art expert!

Montessori professional development by spramani elaun, international art teacher trainer

Buy the right Montessori Art Curriculum For Children, Painting & Drawing:

Drawing Curriculum For Elementary Grades

Drawing Curriculum For 3-6 years (Early Childhood)

Clay Modeling Curriculum For Children

Painting Curriculum For Children

Color Mixing Curriculum For Children

DOWNLOAD FREE Color Mixing Art Lesson

Homeschooling Art | Before You Plan Art Activties: Identify Your Desired Outcomes

June 3, 2023June 3, 2023

Choice and Self-Pacing in Montessori Classrooms

early childhood montessori boy drawing, self pace activity

In a Montessori classroom, children have the freedom to explore their interests. Montessori children learn at their own pace. Montessori education has been transforming parents, educators and students over a century. In this blog I will focus on why the Montessori method emphasies choice and self-pacing. And how it leads to more engaged and confident students.

The Montessori Philosophy: A Brief Overview

Developed by Dr. Maria Montessori, the Montessori method is a child-centered educational approach. Montessori education focuses on nurturing the whole child. This includes cognitive, emotions, physical and socially. By hands-on, experiential learning in a carefully prepared environment. Guides and facilitators rather than traditional teachers. One of the core principles of Montessori education is allowing children to choose. Students have the freedom to choose activities that interest them and work at their own pace.

montessori student working independently at table with clay

The Importance of Choice and Self-Pacing in Montessori Classrooms

1. Fostering Intrinsic Motivation

When children have the freedom to choose activities they develop a natural curiosity. This intrinsic motivation is a powerful driving force, leading to more engaged learning. The student takes ownership of their education. Intrinsic motivation also promotes love for lifelong learning. A Child will develop a genuine interest in acquiring knowledge and skills.

2. Encouraging Self-Confidence and Independence

As children make decisions about their learning, they build a sense of independence. They trust their instincts, and follow their passions. Taking responsibility for their own growth. This prepares them for future success by fostering resilience, adaptability, and problem-solving skills.

3. Catering to Individual Learning Styles and Needs

Each child is unique, with different learning styles, strengths, and needs. Montessori children work at their own pace. Montessori education acknowledges and embraces these differences. This ensures that every child has the opportunity to progress at a speed that suits them. It also enables teachers to provide personalized support, further enhancing the learning experience.

4. Cultivating a Collaborative Learning Environment

In a Montessori classroom, children often work in mixed-age groups. This encourages collaboration and peer learning. They can learn from one another, share ideas, and develop essential social skills. This collaborative environment fosters empathy, communication, and respect. Qualities that are vital for success in an interconneced communities.

The Lasting Impact of Choice and Self-Pacing on Learners

The Montessori approach’s emphasis on choice and self-pacing has many long-term benefits. Fostering intrinsic motivation, self-confidence, and independence, children develop strong foundations. This effects their lifelong learning and personal growth. They become adaptable, resourceful, and innovative thinkers. Montessori children grow to be able to take on challenges of today’s complex world.

The Montessori method’s focus on choice and self-pacing. Which sets it apart from traditional educational models. Creating an empowering and engaging learning environment. By embracing each child’s unique interests, learning styles, and needs. Montessori education cultivates confident, motivated, and well-rounded individuals. Preparing them to thrive in all aspects of life.

Want to learn more about Montessori Education:

Families & Montessori Education American Montessori Society

Association Montessori Internationale

Montessori Foundation Families

PREPARING A MONTESSORI ART ENVIRONMENT AT HOME

Montessori Art Guide – BUY NOW ONLINE

February 14, 2019January 14, 2021

Early Childhood (Toddler) Montessori Art Teaching Methods

Sensory Cognitive Child Art Method, Montessori

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, following the International Standards for the Arts Education & Sensory Visual Arts method that aligns with a child’s growth™.

Montessori Early Childhood 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 Early Childhood Montessori students.

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

Get more information on how to bring art lessons into the Montessori classroom by reading Introducing Visual Arts into the Montessori Classroom (paperback book).

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

Early Childhood (Toddler) Montessori Art Teaching Methods

Early Childhood, Toddler Art Teaching: 15 months to 3 years

For young children, art making is an exploratory- and discovery-based experience. Students in the Montessori art first plane do not yet understand the placement of visual arts, and are in a very curious state about mediums. At this age, children should explore art mediums without any expected outcome.

Learning Through Process-Based Art

The best instruction method to introducing art lessons is through process-based art. Process-based art is about the experience and the process; it’s not focused on the child’s final piece of artwork or whether it resembles art adults can recognize, but rather, it’s about exploring and using their own imagination.

When teaching by process art, you should give a brief introductory instruction on how mediums work and can be used. Give a few examples so kids can see different techniques for using the mediums.

That’s it though!

From there, allow Early Childhood students to explore their own techniques and ideas. Assure them that there is no right or wrong way to use the medium to create their artwork. Let them go back and add to previous projects and (reasonably) experiment with unique ways to finish their project using the medium you’ve introduced. Remember, process-based art is all about experimenting and discovering!

Developing Fine-Motor Skills

An important thing you want to focus on is giving children tasks that encourage fine-motor skill development. Creating art helps develop both large and small muscles, which improves young students’ controlled movements. Be sure to provide plenty of opportunities to practice these skills.

Typically, children who are in preschool to kindergarten have little to no finger or hand strength capabilities. It’s important to understand how fine-motor development plays a huge role in a child’s daily life—dressing themselves, tying their own shoes, eating without assistance, writing, even playing outdoors. They also help with healthy cognitive processing at early ages.

By providing specific activities in your Montessori art classroom, you can actually help young students develop and refine their small motor muscles. I will usually start young students off with clay modeling, paint brush stroking, and activities using safety scissors—each of these help them strengthen their fine motor skills more quickly.

Early Childhood Art Activities & Mediums

Here are some great Montessori early childhood art projects for your students who are at a toddler age up through primary grades. These types of art activities will help develop their fine motor control and small muscles in fingers and hands. (You can find non-toxic, kid-friendly art supplies needed for these art activities at Nature of Art for Kids.)

Doodling: crayons, color pencils, tempera sticks, etc.
Painting: watercolor paints, tempera paints, finger paints, homemade veggie dyes, etc.
Color Theory Play: watercolor painting, dropper painting, squeeze bottle painting, etc.
Clay Modeling: earth clay, homemade play dough, pressing sculptures, beeswax forming, etc.
Simple Crafts: cutting paper, weaving string, glueing, building with giant/jumbo Legos, large popsicle-stick structures, etc. (I recommend holding off on any crafts involving small parts until after your students are older than 3.)

A Short Cut Just for You: Buy Early Childhood Guide

Having the right art material for your early childhood classroom is just the first step. If you want more information on how to use each material, how to set up an art shelf with the materials, and how to teach lessons that actually help early childhood students learn art (YES, they can learn art at that early of an age!) then I have some good news for you!

I’m currently selling my brand new, Early Childhood Art Guide. It includes everything you need to know to successfully bring art lessons into your early childhood classroom—without the stress. I go into more detail about art materials (such as how to use them and where to find them), give you step-by-step art presentations, and a ton of other valuable information that makes teaching art and setting up your shelf so much easier. And, right now, you can order yours today!, so don’t miss out!

Early Childhood Art Guide

Visual Arts Teaching Guide
for 13 Months – 6 Years Old

This book includes:
✅ My proprietary art teaching method
✅ The proper and complete list of art materials
✅ A guide for staging and setting up a successful art environment
✅ Tips and art lesson ideas for early childhood
✅ A convenient three-ring binder presentation

Buy Guide Now!

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.

January 10, 2019February 1, 2020

The Value of Art Journaling for Kids, Montessori Activities

I’ve shared with you the importance of stimulating positive art talk in your Montessori classroom. It’s one of the easiest ways to get students interested in art. Once they’ve been allowed to explore their creativity through visual art, chances are, they’re going to be hooked and want to learn so much more. I’ve see it happen so many times! One of the best ways to keep them captivated, allow them to explore even more, and track their progress is through art journaling.

What I love about art journaling is that there’s no minimum talent or skill required—students of any age can benefit. All you really need is a journal, some simple art materials, and the willingness to get creative and have some fun.

What is Art Journaling?

An art journal is a book kept by artists as a visual—sometimes verbal—log of their thoughts, ideas, and creations. Art journaling the same concept as a written journal, but it combines writing with art and visual aspects. It’s a way for children to record their ideas and observations or respond to information they’ve learned with simple drawings and basic written descriptions.

It also gives them a space to explore. With art journaling, anything goes! Every style, medium, and technique can be used.

Art making is also powerful and therapeutic. Journaling gives students a healthy outlet to express their feelings and work through their emotions. For example, communicating through doodles can be much easier for children than talking.

How Art Journals Works

There’s no right or wrong way to do art journaling because they are personal to each artist! Students can use it to try out new techniques, document what happened to them that day or week, or artistically express the different emotions or issues they’re experiencing.

Students can keep their art journals with them or you can store them in a specific place on your art shelf or in a cabinet where they can grab them when they’re feeling creative. They can use the art supplies you put out on your art shelf to fill in the pages of their journal.

For the most part, journaling is an independent project and doesn’t require any lessons to complete. However, if you want to, you can provide simple prompts to inspire them; some examples may be: elaborate doodling, depicting poems, illustrating specific emotions, and creating patterned pages.

Make & Decorate Your Own Art Journal

Making an art journal is simple, all you really need is the journal itself—preferably filled with blank, un-lined pages.

Composition notebooks—although lined—usually cost about $1 or $2 each, and bulk pasts can be even cheaper. But I know purchasing a journal for each child in your class can still add up…so I’m offering you two solutions to cut down on costs.

1. Ask parents to donate journals. You’ll be surprised at how many parents will be willing to donate a few notebooks for your classroom.

2. Create a mini art journal out of plain paper:

Take 4 sheets of 8 1/2 x 11 plain white copy paper
Cut sheets in half (8 1/2 x 5 1/2), then fold in half into a mini booklet
Bind loose pages with a rubber band or stitch together (along the fold)
Stitching Instructions: get a thumb tack and press to make 3 holes along the fold; bind pages using a simple string stitch (watch video below).

Once you have your journal figured out, give students the opportunity to decorate their notebooks. If they’ll be using their own individual books make sure they put their names on them. Then put out a few basic art supplies (markers, stickers, glue, scissors, colored paper, beads, ribbons, etc.) and let them have fun. These will more than likely be the same supplies they’ll use to decorate the inside of their journals as well.

If your students choose to share their art journals with you, make sure you offer them supportive and nurturing language.

You never know…creating and encouraging your students to keep art journals might inspire you to start one yourself!

Learn more about teaching kids art lessons

Want more information on the types of techniques your students can handle or ideas for art projects outside of journals? Sign up for my absolutely FREE mini course, Phases of Art Development Guides & Art Project Ideas. It’s a quick guide to what your students are capable of and what to teach them at each age. They’re bite-sized videos that have proven helpful to many other Montessori teachers and they’ll give you a solid foundation to begin teaching art in your classroom!

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.

Of course, if you want to stay up-to-date on more teaching tips and art project ideas, make sure you sign up for my newsletter!

September 20, 2018September 10, 2023

Building a Montessori Art Calendar to Keep Students Busy Every Month

Building Out an Art Calendar to Keep Your Students Busy with Something New Every Month

By Spramani Elaun

“Teaching” art can seem overwhelming, and creating an art calendar to keep your students busy with art all year long can seem impossible. The beginning of a new school year is both exciting but stressful for that very reason. While you’re mapping out all your projects and lessons for the year, art can sometimes take a backseat.

But I don’t want that to be the case for you or for your students! All it takes is some simple planning to get you going. I promise you, if you take some time to plan out your calendar, art lessons will flow better and 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.

In my course, Art Teaching Blueprint, I go over in detail how to create an art schedule (and the specific resources and materials you may need!) but here’s the basic idea to it.

Building Your Calendar

You’re going to start by counting up the number of teachable weeks in the school year. That may mean excluding the first two weeks of the year (when you’re still getting your class situated), weeks where you’re off for the holidays, and the last couple weeks of school (when you’re likely busy with testing). This number can vary depending on your schedule.

Now, you’re going to follow this formula:

# of teachable weeks / 5 domains = # of lessons per domain

You might be asking, what’s a domain? The way I’ve developed my art training is by breaking down visual art into five different categories, or domains. Here is an example of two:

- Drawing

- Painting

Let’s say you’ve counted 30 teachable weeks for the year, that would mean:

30 / 5 = 6 lessons for each domain

Knowing you only have to teach six lessons on drawing, six on painting, and so on already makes your calendar seem a bit more manageable, right?

Don’t worry, I won’t leave you here. This formula is just the basis for your calendar, you now need to fill it out with more specific lessons, or themes.

Inspiration for Your Calendar

What you decide to teach for your lessons is completely up to you, but here are some tips and monthly theme inspiration to help you finish filling in your calendar.

I’d suggest trying to integrate art projects with the lessons you’re already planning on teaching, like the Great Lessons, astronomy, physical science, etc. With this information, decide which domain makes sense for each topic. For example, if you’re learning about dinosaurs, put clay on your art shelf for students to create their own tyrannosaurus; or let them experiment with watercolors as they learn about the cosmos.

You might also want to think about holidays or special events as you map out your lessons. For instance, Earth Day is in April, so your lessons that month can focus on nature and the earth.

Here are a few other themes for each month to get you started.

Monthly Theme Ideas:

September

The Big Bang
Cosmic Education
If you haven’t already, make sure you sign up for my FREE mini-course—I share a lesson on cosmic rock painting

October

World Peace
Fall Leaves

November

Outdoor Nature Crafts (leaves, rocks, sticks, natural paints)

December

Cultural Geography
Think about crafts from different cultures around the world, like Japanese origami, skull paintings from Mexico, etc.

January

Winter Snowflakes
Students can cut out snowflakes from pieces of paper, or paint a sheet full of them—each with its unique shape and design.

February

Zoology (like dinosaurs, birds, insects, etc.)

March

Geography
Students can create maps of places they’re learning about in other lessons this week.)

April

Botany (seeds, plants, trees, etc.)

May

Astronomy

Summer

Beach or Ocean

Hopefully this is enough to get you started!

There are SO many ways to organize your lessons, and that’s the fun part of all this!

You can teach each lesson in succession (six straight weeks of drawing, followed by six straight weeks of painting, etc.) or rotate each lesson throughout the year.

I cover a few specific ways in Art Teaching Blueprint, and even give you a few sample calendars to follow.

So if this still feels overwhelming, make sure you check out my art certification, to enroll or email me directly at info@Spramani.com with any questions.

I’ll also be sharing a specific art project each month on the blog, so make sure you’re signed up for my newsletter for even more ideas throughout the year.