Art

Every child is an artist.  The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up.  Pablo Picasso

PK1 gets an art class at her once a week co-op, but we do things off and on here at home too. Their favorite is when I dump a bunch of supplies out and just let them go. They also love painting.  But here are a couple actual projects I documented.  I want them to be familiar with different famous artists and I thought we might study one each week (insert gales of laughter).  I think we only did 3 this year, but 3 is better than nothing.  I start with this series of books.  It helps kids identify the characteristics of a particular artist's work:

And then get a bunch of other books about the artist..including postcards or an old calendar for examples:

Then you try to paint in the style of the artist.  This is Monet's Water Lillies.  We did these on days when Gram was able to join us when she had a day off of school.

Here is the one we did for Georgia O'Keefe:

Then occasionally we will do a more crafty art project.  This kit, which included everything you need to make sock puppets, was given to us by Cousin Karen.  It turned out to be a HUGE success. The kids even made up a theme song that starts off every puppet show they produce.  It goes like this "we are the sock puppets...we like to sing sing sing.  we like to play play play.  we like to do almost an -y - thing!"