When I first visit a Montessori school and meet with Montessori teachers—especially those in Plane 1 and early childhood—so many of them dismiss the idea of teaching young children art.
They’re right and wrong about this. That may sound confusing, but stay with me!
When it comes to teaching art to toddlers and students aged 3-6, you really don’t actually have to teach them anything. Why not? Kids need to experience the process art making before they can “learn about” art.
I’ve worked closely with young children for nearly 20 years, and I’ve observed how children exercise their creativity and build their imagination through art. Art is extremely valuable to the healthy development of a creative child, and it all starts with the concept of process art.
It can be confusing for teachers to understand and identify process-based art if they haven’t had their own experience with it. My goal for this blog post is to help you get some clarity on what process art means for early childhood students. Here’s what process focused art experiences should look like in the Montessori classroom.
What is Process-Based Art?
Process art is all about the process; the focus is on experiencing art—that’s it. With process art, you’re not worrying about what a finished artwork is going to look like. Young students are not yet ready to make realistic pictures or aesthetically pleasing finished artworks; they’ll be able to learn more advanced skills later in their adolescent years, at this age, they’re simply at a stage of exploration.
Discovery and experimentation are key to process art making for toddler and early childhood kids. Their learning and development of problem solving skills come from spending time making process art.
When you give young students the opportunity to discover, explore, and make mistakes, unique and creative artworks will start to flow out of them. When kids get to freely play and express themselves, they’re gaining the ability to think creatively. Process art also strengthens their fine motor skills, spatial intelligence, and cognitive thinking.
For early childhood students, it’s far more important to go through the artistic process through process-based art making projects—it’s how kids truly learn.
Teaching Process-Based Art
Process-based art is all about giving students room to explore their own art-making techniques. However, there should be a light, very simplistic introductory instructions on how mediums can work or be used. (This helps mitigate any messes and empowers children with the confidence to create.) I recommend showing early childhood students how mediums might turn out and the different techniques that can be achieved with each.
When teaching process art making, encourage students to experiment. Inspire them to be unique and original. Make sure they know that any type of exploration is great, and there is no wrong way to use mediums and attempt whatever they choose to create.
With process-based art, time is irrelevant, meaning they can go back and add to an older project during a different art-making session.
Most Common Process-Based Art Mistakes
As well-intentioned as teachers may be when it comes to art instruction, if teaching process-based art is new to them, they’re prone to making a few mistakes. Here are five some dos and don’ts for giving your students process art experiences.
- Don’t introduce art lessons as step-by-step instructions (this is known as copy mode, and can be shared with students at an older age). Instead, do give children the freedom to create outside of specific instruction.
- Don’t tell children that their project has a right way and wrong way to be created. Do encourage them to explore and assure them that anything they make is accepted.
- Don’t expect a child’s finished art to look the same as a sample, or even be a recognizable image. Do remember that in early childhood, students are still grasping artistic mediums and techniques; what they create will be completely unique to their imagination.
- Don’t discourage a student from exploring mediums in ways you haven’t introduced. Do give them space to experiment and be unique.
- Don’t feel compelled to correct a child or guide them to fix their project to look more like the example. Do remember that process art is about the process, not the finished product.
Free Mini Digital Video Course!
I hope this help gives you a understanding of how process-based art can work in the Montessori classroom. If you would like to learn more how to nurture children in the visual arts, register for my FREE mini digital course, Phases of Art Development Video.
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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.
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
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