Monthly Archives: February 2013

{Art Together} Getting Started

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I’ve talked about why the opportunity for process-based art is so important for kids (part 1, part 2, part 3) and about how making time and space for a family art habit was so valuable for not just my children, but for myself. Unsurprisingly, process-based creativity is important for adults, too. But I hear, and read, a lot of adults who just don’t know where to begin. What kind of paper? What kind of paints? What do we do with them? And most of all, “I can’t draw. I can’t paint. I can’t teach my kids art.”

Family sketching at deCordova Sculpture Park.

Family sketching at deCordova Sculpture Park.

If you have endured the typical education that marginalized the arts; if you were discouraged early on from pursuing anything creative; if you internalized the idea that art “wasn’t for you;” or if you’ve simply never had an interest…if any of these reasons, or others, have left you lacking in confidence that you can start an art habit with your children as an adult, I’m going to argue that you can. I received no encouragement in art from any teacher from kindergarten through high school, at which point I was told not to take anything more than the one semester of art required to graduate, because the Bs I received in art would lower my GPA. Somehow, despite that, I persevered in thinking of myself as a creative person, and when I found myself pursuing a second Bachelor’s degree, I decided to take advantage of the fact that I was already paying tuition and take an art class too.

In retrospect, I was pretty brave to sign up for that class. I think I even recognized that at the time. I felt kind of inadequate, but determined. And that class’s professor encouraged me to the extent that I ended up minoring in art. In my drawing classes, I often had to work for three or four times longer than the other students to get the results I wanted, but I loved sinking into the activity, even though it was hard work for me. I remember spending the better part of an entire Saturday drawing a skeleton. It felt like minutes. I believe this was the first time in my life I experienced flow, finding such joy and meaningful concentration in hard work.

Drawing and painting irises in the yard.

Drawing and painting irises in the yard.

I’m telling you: You are capable enough right now to sit down and make art alongside your kids (even if you think you can’t). If it only takes one person’s encouragement and that person hasn’t shown up in your life yet, I will be that person for you, if you’ll let me. Make some space, make some time, because we’re going to make this a habit. I’ll be here every Wednesday. You can join in at any point—just remember to start where you are.

This week’s task is simple. Think about joining me and spread the word, if you feel moved to do so. Check out my (new) materials page, where I’ve shared some of my favorite art supplies to have on hand. These are not necessary to begin, so please don’t feel overwhelmed. I’ll be back next week with a simple activity to get us started (and I promise it uses at-hand, everyday materials). I hope to see you here again next week.

Do not fail, as you go on, to draw something every day, for no matter how little it is, it will be well worth while, and it will do you a world of good.
— Cennino Cennini

{PBL} Scattering

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There have been some seemingly one-off random things going on this week, but you never know where things will lead. My 4yo has been interested in bones for a while now, although I’m not sure I even posted anything about that interest here. Recently she’s developed an interest in coyotes, too, but that’s not necessarily a separate interest. We visited the local NWR visitor’s center a week or two ago to look at the bones they have on display–they have many, out and available to touch, and among them are many skulls.

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Coyotes have skulls too, you know. And skeletons. She was delighted to make this connection between her projects. (Yes, she identifies them as such. As a never-schooled preschooler, she signed on to this style of learning with full joy, quickly realizing the gravity the word “project” bestows upon her interests.)

Here she is drawing and then painting a picture of a coyote, using some reference pictures.

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This is such authentic work she is doing. She is working hard there, choosing to try to draw a coyote, noticing its colors and how many ears and legs it has, and where they are. She asked me where its nose was, and I showed her the snout and we talked about how the shape of the snout is one of the ways a coyote is distinguished from other dogs, and she worked at getting it right, at the same time understanding that she could make as many paintings as she wanted to try and get the coyote to look the way she wanted to.

This all makes me happy, not because my child is doing this but because I have created the space in which my child knows she can do this. She is not being kept distracted with “age-appropriate” busywork but instead allowed to choose her own work.

Also this week, all three of the kids made light straws.

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Someone on Twitter–I can’t remember who, unfortunately–posted a link to an article about diy.org. I checked out the site and sent the link to my 11yo because I thought he might find it interesting. He decided he wanted to make Light Straws, so he bookmarked the video instructions and wrote a supply list. All of us went to Radio Shack and tried to figure out which LEDs were super bright if none of them said super bright, and realized he’d spelled “ohm” incorrectly, but we managed to find everything we needed. I helped the 4yo but he and his brother made their own while we watched the video. Don’t they look super cool? And once they were made, they tinkered with the design, deciding they’d like the switch to work differently.

Later that day, my 4yo looked up at one of our light bulbs and excitedly announced that inside, it had wires that looked like the ones that connected to the LED in her light straw. My 8yo, who is building a pretend machine out of various block-type toys, is explaining how the “wires” should connect. All these scattering activities and interests…they connect in such interesting ways.

Animal Classification: Amphibians

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{Previous posts in this series: Animal Classification Booklet; Animal Classification: Mammals + Fish; Animal Classification: Birds.}

amphibian page, filled in

amphibian page, filled in

I find the common practice of discussing reptiles and amphibians together both annoying and mystifying. They are wholly separate groups of vertebrates. There is perhaps a superficial resemblance, in that some salamanders (amphibians) remind people of lizards (reptiles). That’s my best guess. They are nothing alike. Lumping them together only leads people to confuse the two groups. So of course I am addressing them separately for my co-op class.

Resources:
Amphibian/Reptile poster from Vertebrate Teaching Poster set, folded over so only amphibian portion is visible
Assorted books on amphibians
Life cycle of a frog sheets

Activity:
From Polliwog to Frog: Association of Zoos and Aquariums
Frog sounds, using an Identiflyer; you could probably also search for an app that would supply amphibian sounds

Handouts:
Word searches, found through Google

We began by talking about what we knew of amphibians, making sure to discuss the most important characteristic, their metamorphosis from aquatic creatures with gills as juveniles to adults that breathe with lungs and live on land. The session’s activity was craft-oriented, with coloring, cutting, and assembling; this is part of my desire to offer various types of activities. As with other classes, we discussed the information on the poster and wrote the group characteristics in the animal classification book.

In our final session (coming up), we’ll discuss reptiles and compare the characteristics of all five groups as a whole.

Animal Classification: Birds

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Bird page from booklet with characteristics filled in.

Bird page from booklet with characteristics filled in.

(This is the third in a series of sorts…the PDF of the animal classification booklet can be found here. Teaching plan for Mammals and Fish can be found here.)

Resources:
Bird poster from Vertebrate Teaching Poster set
Assorted books on birds–the kids really enjoyed DK Eyewitness Books: Bird

Activity:
Birds, Beaks, and Adaptation: PDF activity found at the teacher resources page of the National Park Service’s Mississippi (Minnesota) National River and Recreation Area.

Handout:
Bird word search–Googling will bring up many choices. One of my students asked for a word search to bring home each week so I am trying to accommodate!

For our third session, I began by asking the kids what they knew about birds. I realized after the fish class that I need to do lots less talking with this group. They are so eager to share what they know, and they know plenty. We went around the group and everyone shared something about birds–they lay eggs, they have feathers, they fly, they have beaks, etc–and we compared those things to mammals and fish. This was a great way to review the previous two groups we’ve covered, especially since it had been two weeks (instead of one) since we last met. I only put up the poster after we’d discussed what we knew of bird characteristics, and we checked if we’d missed anything, and we had! We’d all forgotten about warm-blooded or cold-blooded, so we reviewed that too and then talked about the groups of birds shown on the poster.

While the kids wrote in their booklets, I set up for the beak adaptation activity. Early finishers looked through the selection of bird books I’d brought. Some of the youngest kids aren’t reading yet, but I noticed older kids explaining and reading the information–I love these opportunities that naturally arise in a mixed-age group.

We had eight kids in class, so I separated them into four pairs for the beak adaptation activity. Each group was given one tool and a recording sheet, and they went around the room trying their “beak” at the different “habitats.” More than one tool will work for some items, so I told them this and asked them to find the beak that worked best. When they’d finished, they traded tools with other groups so they could try more out.

It’s impossible in an hour to cover everything about a group of animals! But focusing on one area (beaks) through a hands-on activity worked really well.