"we need 18 more glitters"

just art teacher stuff~theory. curriculum. policy. philosophy. ideas. bad jokes.

[sleepyartteacher]

when the girl wants glitter for her playdough burger you give her glitter for her playdough burger!

[sleepyartteacher]

pumpkin tinkering 

[sleepyartteacher]

pumpkin tinkering <3 

[sleepyartteacher]

[sleepyartteacher]

[sleepyartteacher]

Treat Students Like Human Beings

As we head back to class, it's time to reconsider the dehumanizing parts of school.

“Mehta says it came as a disappointment that so many people treated his theory as radical“ 

[emilyvalenza]

[sleepyartteacher]

summer sensory and process art ☀️🌈🌱

20lbs of dyed, minty green rice!

of course the kids made a sensory bin out of the hand washing bucket 💜💜💜

[sleepyartteacher]

LOOK AT THOSE FINE MOTOR SKILLS!!!!! 

i luv paper punchers so much and the kids ask for them almost every week

[sleepyartteacher]

come on, finger strength! come on, dual brain coordination! come on, creativity! come on, peer collaboration! come on, palm power! come on, negative space! come on, problem solving!come on, wrist agility!!!!!!! <3 

[sleepyartteacher]

what most grown ups see: “awww that’s so cute. omg what a mess though. it’s good for kids to get time to play as a break from learning”

what preschool teachers see:

high order thinking- physical science, observing material properties, cause and effect, creating and following a process, planning, focus

fine motor skills- tripod grasp (hand muscles necessary for writing), hand-eye coordination, controlled wrist movement when flipping

aesthetic and sculptural devices- form, concept, balance, dramatic symbolism, just general artistic awesomeness

lol

luv how this artist spent quite a while exploring the kinetic sand and experimenting with different processes and techniques. she stopped to consider the form and commented “it’s space ice cream!” then continued working with furrowed brows and a serious expression, telling other children, “i can’t play now i’m making ice cream for the astronauts to take with them when they are doctors on the spaceship”

stay true little space cook scientist, stay true~ ~ ~

[sleepyartteacher]

toddler tabletop material exploration

these artists are getting ready to switch from toddler to preschool classes.

in order to transition from dumping and pouring into focused hand and tool use, the teachers had a conversation about individual child paths and made careful decisions about how to set up the materials.

method:

teachers taped down plastic painter’s palettes onto ceramic coated butcher trays with thick scrapbook paper found at a local material recycling depot. they provided fine tools such as measuring spoons and paintbrushes. the materials available were tempera paints, cornstarch and glitter. after about 25 minutes of exploration, small colored tissue paper was introduced and used by the artists for a few minutes until they expressed that they were done.

what i love about this setup for older toddlers is they are not pressured into Creating a Work of Art™ but instead are given to opportunity to have an art experience. the paper is there to capture residual evidence of the skills, methods, and thinking strategies used. we are given a peek into their ever evolving process. in the final piece you can see layers of manipulation which are breathtakingly beautiful in their own right, but are happy accidents- not predetermined by a teacher.

(ps i do not own anything on this page and use of the trademark symbol is poetic)

[sleepyartteacher]

me: “behold these artists’ awe inspiring techniques, the way she carefully places the paint in spectacular globs. the way he experiments with materials, the way she accidentally mixes colors and then repeats the process, the way he brings it to a close with an expressive dash of glitter”

my friends: ”oh that’s the art and not the tablecloth?”

the funny thing is—it’s kind of both, hehe, but i still find it more stimulating than most of the stuff in museums #notsorry

[sleepyartteacher]

Día de los Muertos PRESCHOOL PAPEL PICADO!! 
papel picado is a traditional Mexican craft that can prove to be pretty intimidating and tricky for little hands. the parents have been busily snipping away creating decorations for the school altar, and today the children were so industrious and proud to be able to contribute to the decorations just like their parents.

i found that these lever punches and SUPER sharp combi punches, while all still beginner level, provided nice sublevels for scaffolding along with the added option for punching a folded piece (so essentially 2 pieces) of paper or just a single page.

it was so satisfying to see a flash of delight and a rush of confidence that came with their first punch! some children began using the easiest punch, lingered and tinkered for 30 minutes, and by the end were using the most challenging punch on a folded piece!

[sleepyartteacher]

this 4 yr old group group loved experimenting with colored water and expressing their observations.

“We need to mix the colors! They are far away from each other.”

“You have to bring them close to make one color”

“This is cool!”

“How can you have water that is two colors?!”

“I see three colors!!!!!”

“Hey! The rocks don’t stay up like the wood.” “But this wood piece floats and this one doesn’t. Why does this one go down? That’s funny.“ 

[sleepyartteacher]

super simple play dough and pipe cleaners play!

how easy is that? this exploration inspired a million shapes, textures, techniques, skills, ideas, and ways to have fun. 

some children created vertical sculptural pieces while others blurred the 2D/3D boundaries by using the dough to draw/construct/collage somewhat flat images with the pieces. 

some even used the pipe cleaners as styluses to make impressions on the dough! one student practiced the letter H in her dough and created an H with the pipe cleaners as well. 

during this play, a teacher noted that she had never seen a student use the tripod grip until he used his pipe cleaner to poke holes in his arepas de papa! i love those moments :) :) :) :)

[sleepyartteacher]

SUPER SOFT CONDITIONER AND CORNSTARCH DOUGH!

i mixed some food coloring into one cup of conditioner and then mixed that with 2 cups of cornstarch. the result was super stretchy, fluffy, lovely dough. 

the only thing about it was that it only stayed fluffy and soft for about a half hour. after being manipulated for a half hour, it turned crumbly but still moldable and resembled cloud dough. the kids loved it at all stages. 

again, i am super amazed at how adding a simple material such as popsicle sticks can inspire so many play techniques. 

[sleepyartteacher]

TODDLERS <3 DUMPING AND POURING

it’s their thing