montessori teacher Archives

July 16, 2020January 31, 2024

5 Montessori Rocks and Minerals Art Lessons

This blog post is a part of a three-month series: Montessori Art in the Natural World: Kids Nature Journal Color Lessons. 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. These Montessori rocks and minerals art lessons encourage your students to use natural rocks in their art projects and learn more about nature, rocks, and our world’s lands!

5 Montessori Rocks and Minerals Art Lessons

The natural rock cycle can be an interesting topic for Montessori students to learn; when you bring ideas from the Coming of the Universe and the Earth Great Lessons and combine them with rock art lessons—your students will really become engaged! You might even see them paying more attention to and investigating rock formations in the natural world.

It doesn’t matter what grade level you are teaching, rock art lessons can be fun for all Montessori students. I often work with rocks in my art studio and art programing classes, and have done many of these activities with children of all ages—sometimes even adults! You can use these art lessons to help introduce subjects like igneous rocks, sedimentary rocks, metamorphic rocks, or fossils; you can even use these rock art activities to help build fine-motor skills for early childhood students through rock arranging.

Here are five different ways to integrate art making with rock lessons in all areas of visual arts.

Montessori Rocks and Minerals Art Lessons:

Rock painting
Natural art arrangements
Designing biomes
Sketching rocks
Making pigments from rocks

Painting on Rocks

Rock painting with acrylic paint is one of my all-time favorite art projects and kids love it too! This lesson can teach so many skills, such as brushstrokes, color mixing, creating textures, and making lines. Rocks are a wonderful surface to use as a canvas, plus, they’re 100% sustainable and can be found in any environment.

Natural Art Rock Arrangements

Arranging rocks into concentric designs is a fun way to teach kids about balance and develop their concentration skills. It also gets kids outdoors and sparks discussions about different types of rocks and how to select specimens for arrangements. With these types of Montessori rocks and minerals art lessons, I try to focus on collecting, sorting, and organizing the natural objects. While kids are organizing and arranging, they’ll also learn about key art elements like symmetry and balance.

Designing Biomes with Rocks

Letting children design their own biomes with rocks they’ve collected is a great way to teach them about diverse natural biomes. You can even teach students about the Coming of Human Beings, and how humans have migrated to and from different biomes throughout history. There are many biomes children can design using rocks: rivers, mountains, caves, savannahs, and forests, etc.

5 Montessori Rocks and Minerals Art Lessons, spramani elaun art teacher

Sketching Rocks Shadows

Drawing is an important skill all students—especially at elementary ages—should have. I often use rocks to teach 3-D perspectives, identifying color value, and how to create shadows in drawings and paintings. Rocks can usually be found in every type of outdoor landscape and can be captured in outdoor nature journal sketching. Start this activity by collecting rocks locally; then you can have students make sketch marks in the shapes of the rocks they’re observing. The next step would be to have your students observe how light placement (like the sun in the sky) casts shadows, and have them include the shadows in their sketches.

5 Montessori Rocks and Minerals Art Lessons, art teacher spramani

Making Pigments from Rocks and Minerals

Explaining to students how natural pigments can be made from minerals and rocks is a wonderful way to teach them to observe color in nature and connect how art and colors are made. Natural dyes and pigments can come from a wide variety of nature objects, including rocks! One of simplest ways to teach kids about rock composition is to have them make paint from grounded rock minerals; for details and instructions on how to do this, check out this blog:

How to Make Paint, Inks & Dyes from Nature

Where to Start: Setting Up a Rock Painting Table

Again, painting rocks is one of my favorite activities to do with Montessori kids! The activity itself allows kids to be independent and creative, and the finished project is just so fun and colorful! It’s very simple to do, the majority of “work” just involves setting up a space for students to work.

You will need:

Kid-safe acrylic paint
Paint palette
Paint brushes
Napkins
Water jar
Rocks – river rocks are best because of their flat surface, but stones of any shape will work

How to do it:

Wash rocks in water and wipe clean (this ensures the paint sticks); completely dry rocks before painting
Prepare and fill a palette with a variety of paint colors
Set out paint brushes (a variety of brush sizes allows kids to create whatever brush stroke they desire)
Paint one layer of color at a time; set aside to dry before painting the next color
Once students finish their desired image, set rocks out to dry; rocks dry best when left in direct sunlight

One Step Further: Montessori Nature Activity Outdoor Journal Checklist

Here’s a bonus nature art activity for you! While your students are out collecting rocks outside, have them take out their nature journals and record their observations. (For information and instructions on how to create a nature art journal, click here.)

Nature journaling is a relatively independent activity, but you should still guide your students to make sure they’re following scientific principles and standards. This Nature Journal Checklist will help you make sure your students are including data that helps them implement both scientific and artistic principles during their expedition.

To download the checklist for FREE, click here.

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 or collect nature objects for crafting.

A Short Cut Just for You: Buy Painting Step-by-Step Curriculum

spramani elaun paint curriculum for kids

One of the reasons I really like painting on rocks is because it opens up a whole world of painting for kids. A rock is such an interesting and unique canvas; once they start painting there, they’ll want to learn even more techniques. Before kids explore all the different ways to paint, it’s important that they learn proper paint brush and brushstroke techniques to help them develop their painting skills.

My Kids Painting Practice & Process Curriculum has 57 master lessons that take kids from setting up a paint station and holding a brush all the way to creating beautiful nature landscapes and painting different types of animals! Each lesson is featured as part of a sequence and includes all the information—materials, demonstration technique, and direct and indirect aims—you need to properly present the activity to your students.

To purchase the curriculum, click here.

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.

July 11, 2019January 29, 2020

My 2019 Summer Reading Book List

Summer is the perfect time to catch up on some reading and dig into those books that have been sitting on our shelves, right? You can hole up on your couch or head out to the beach and just spend the entire day reading—completely guilt free! So, in celebration of our chance to flip through hundreds and hundreds of pages in the next couple months, here’s my 2019 summer reading list to kick things off!

If any of these books intrigue you (or if you’ve already read one), or if you have another book that you absolutely love, let me know in the comments or on Facebook! I’ll be posting what you share on social next week!

Now, let’s all get to reading! 🙂

1. Girl, Stop Apologizing by Rachel Hollis

This is a follow up to the NYT bestseller Girl, Wash Your Face. I love it because it’s a fun, witty, empowering motivational book that urges us women to stop apologizing for our desires, goals, and aspirations. More than that, she presents strategies for pursuing our visions and building our confidence.

2. The Secret Lives of Color by Kassia St Clair

The Secret Lives of Color tells the unusual stories of 75 fascinating shades, dyes, and hues. There’s a brown shade that changed the way battles were fought, a very particular hue that defined Picasso’s blue period, and ideas like “scarlet women” and “imperial purple”—you’ll be surprised by what a prominent role color plays into human culture and history. It’s so fascinating!

My 2019 Summer Reading Book List

3. Let’s Make Ramen!: A Comic Book Cookbook by Hugh Amano and Sarah Becan

My latest food obsession has been with ramen. I’m super lucky to be living in San Diego and surrounded by a ton of amazing places! As much as I appreciate eating ramen, I also appreciate this super creative and fun cookbook idea! Not only is it beautifully illustrated, it also includes actual recipes you can try at home.

4. It All Comes Back to You by Beth Duke

This fictional piece creatively alternates chapters between Veronica “Ronni” Johnson, licensed practical nurse and aspiring writer, and Violet, a woman living in an assisted living home. When Violet passes, she leaves Ronni a generous gift, as long as she writes a book about her life within one year. It’s warm, sad, funny, uplifting, and playful enough for a great summer read.

My 2019 Summer Reading Book List

My 2019 Summer Reading List for teachers

5. Educated: A Memoir by Tara Westover

This is an unforgettable memoir about a young girl who goes on a quest for an education. Born to survivalist family in the mountains of Idaho, Tara was never given a proper education. When she sees that her brother was able to get into college, she leaves her family, steps into a real classroom for the first time at age 17, and goes on to earn a PhD from Cambridge University. Oprah Magazine calls it a “coming-of-age memoir” and I think it really shows the beauty and importance of education.

6. Rules for Visiting: A Novel by Jessica Francis Kane

Rules for Visiting is all about a woman’s journey to reconnect with friends. May Attaway realizes she’s become more and more secluded—surrounded by plants and oblivious to the outside world—but once she’s granted a long leave from work, she decides to reconnect with four of her once-close friends, going beyond the digital, seemingly-perfect smokescreen of social media and into their very real, sometimes messy, lives.

My 2019 Summer Reading List modern decor

7. Bohemian Modern by Emily Henson

I’m a bit of a bohemian at heart and I love pulling together beautiful inspirational home decor ideas. This book brings those two joys together perfectly, exploring all the elements that make a home eclectic and colorful.

Designer Spramani Elaun loves the hohemian modern look — Bohemian Modern Look

Get Artsy With a Cute Summer Tote Bag!

Yolanda Fe Designs

By the way, if you need a tote to carry all your books around with you this summer, check out these gorgeous ones by Yolanda Fe Designs! Yolanda is a good friend of mine—we go way back!—and I’m so excited that she’s now painting and sharing her artworks in such a cute, fashionable way. It’s a stylish way to help support an artist, and perfect for toting your summer reads to the beach, park, or BBQ.

I share this reading list (updated each year, of course) on my blog and in my newsletter just once a year, and load it with the books I’m reading or fell in love with over the past few months. The rest of the year, I’m sharing valuable lessons on how to teach art and prepare art lessons in the Montessori classroom. So, if you haven’t already, make sure you sign-up for my Newsletter! That way you won’t miss a post and you’ll be able to teach art without any stress.

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 13, 2018February 1, 2020

5 Ways to Become an Art-Trained Montessori Teacher Over Winter Break

Usually when I tell Montessori teachers they can start teaching art in their classroom, they look at me like I’m crazy! So many of them tell me they have no training, they’re not creative, or they struggle with just drawing stick figures! Trust me though, you CAN become an art-trained Montessori teacher!

In fact, winter break is one of the best times to get started. Think about how excited your students will be to come back to school and find out you’ll be introducing art lessons to them. They’ll love it! Not only will it help develop their creativity and art literacy, but it helps them make connections between all the other subjects they’re learning—such as the Great Lessons.

So, now I’m sure you’re thinking, “Look, Spramani, I definitely want to become a better Montessori teacher, and it would be really cool to start providing visual arts in my classroom, but how can I become art trained in a matter of weeks? Winter break is only so long.”

I’ve done the hard work for you. After 20 years of observing the way kids learn art, I’ve created a simple way to teach art that works perfectly in the Montessori classroom. It really doesn’t require much leg work from you, and students get to explore the entire artistic process. Of course, you’ll have to sign up for my Art Teaching Blueprint and get all the info you need (I’ll touch on what the course is and why it’s so awesome further below), but here are five things to do to get you started to becoming art trained over winter break.

1. Buy Some Supplies

The first step to becoming art trained is setting yourself—as well as your classroom and students—up with the right tools and supplies. (I’ve broken down the essential art supplies every Montessori classroom needs in this blog post.) Starting with a stocked classroom gives you the foundation to explore the visual arts.

2. Set Up an Art Shelf

As you know, subject-based shelves are the basis of a successful Montessori classroom, so it only makes sense that you should set up an art shelf. You can read how to set up an art shelf in your classroom here. A proper art shelf supports art literacy and helps keep all your supplies organized in one easy-to-reach place for your students to access.

3. Build an Inspiration Gallery

Another way to get your classroom set up for teaching art is to create an inspiration gallery. It can give students a place to observe and talk about artwork, which can increase their art literacy, language, and self-esteem. While an inspiration gallery is a simple concept, there are some tricks to it. For instance, you don’t want to solely include fine art examples; it’s important to incorporate students’ own work too. (If you want to learn more about how inspiration galleries work, read this blog post.)

4. Pick Up a Book

montessori art how to — https://store.ecokidsart.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=IVATTMC-paperback

Once you’re all set with supplies, an art shelf, and an inspiration gallery, it’s time to start your training. You can give yourself a great base by doing some quick reading. I’ve written two visual art books that create a framework for learning the subject. Defining Visual Arts focuses on the latest standards and the most important projects, mediums, and techniques to teach. Introducing Visual Arts to The Montessori Classrooms gets a little more specific in providing solid guidance for teaching art in a Montessori environment. Either one—but of course, both—of these books are helpful in giving you the context for how children learn art and are a great option in kicking off your art training.

5. Register for my FREE teacher course: Phases of Art Development Guides & Art Project Ideas!

I created a free video course to teach Montessori teachers like you the phases of art development—or what art skills your students are capable of learning in each age range. The course also includes three bonus videos of art lessons, projects, and techniques to use in your classroom, no matter what grade you’re teaching. Best of all, you can go through this mini training in the comfort of your own home (while on winter break!).

You can do it, YOU can become an art-trained Montessori teacher. I believe in you and your students will thank you for taking the time to learn how to teach art in your classroom. If you have any questions or want to connect with other Montessori teachers who are going through my course, make sure you go like my Facebook page.