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Upper Elementary Montessori Art Teach Method

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 Montessori Art Teach Method

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.

Upper Elementary Montessori Art

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.

All rights reserved © 2023, Nature of Art®

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.

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Early Childhood Montessori Art Teaching Method (3-6 Years)

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 ages 3-6, which follows the International Standards for the Arts Education & Sensory Visual Arts method that aligns with a child’s growth™.

Early Childhood Montessori

Montessori Early Childhood Art Teaching Methods Resources

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.

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.

art literacy standards, montessori

Early Childhood Art Teaching: 3 to 6 Years

For young children, art making is an exploratory- and discovery-based experience. Students in the Montessori first plane and who are aged 3 to 6 years are ready for simple art making tasks. They’re now able to make connections to their own imagination.

Learning Through Process-Based Art

The best instruction method to introducing art lessons is through process-based art, creative-mode, and copy-mode, with the goal of building implicit memory.

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. Children who are 3-6 years of age are very curious about art mediums and their results. They’re also quick learners. Montessori early childhood art lessons should allow students to explore art mediums without any expected outcome. Give students opportunities to focus on experimentation.

By providing specific activities in your Montessori art classroom, you can actually help young students develop and refine their small motor muscles. Creating art helps develop both large and small muscles, which improves young students’ controlled movements. 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.

montessori art standards

Continuing with Creative-Mode

Creative-mode is how children first learn to create art. It is the basis of process-based art learning. In creative mode, you should 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 Copy-Mode

Copy-mode refers to a systematic, step-by-step art instruction. But in early childhood, you don’t want to yet introduce copy what you see in the image-type lessons. At this stage, children love to mimic easy task the see adults do, such as sweeping, cleaning, sewing, painting, cutting, and gardening. Bring this into your art lessons, and allow them to copy your movements.

Introduce copy-mode by having students copy a simple design (one that only involves one to two steps). Once they have the basic design complete, let them continue on in creative-mode and finish their projects however they want.


Montessori 3 to 6 ages art

Early Childhood Art Activities & Mediums

Here are some great Montessori Early Childhood art projects for your students who are ages 3 to 6. These types of art activities will help develop their fine motor control and small muscles in fingers and hands; they also allow room to utilize creative-mode and copy-mode during activities. (You can find non-toxic, kid-friendly art supplies needed for these art projects 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, non-hardening plastine clay, etc.
  • Simple Crafts: cutting paper, weaving string, glueing, building with blocks, large popsicle-stick structures, etc.

A Short Cut Just for You

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!

Montessori early childhood

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!

All rights reserved © 2023, Nature of Art®

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.

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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.

montessori art early childhood toddler

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!

Montessori early childhood

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!

All rights reserved © 2023, Nature of Art®

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.