Archive of Montessori and homeschool e-mail newsletters for parents, teachers, homeschool, toddler, preschool, elementary

Montessori Newsletter
Volume 6
Published by Montessori Homeschool

In This Issue . . .

Art Books
Masterpiece Postcard Reproductions for Montessori
New Montessori and Homeschool News
Teaching Art at Home for 3-9

Child-Sized Masterpieces for steps 1,2,3 of Mommy It's a Renoir (various levels)
by Aline D. Wolf

"This is an excellent set of books. I went ahead and got all of them.... Well worth the money."

Child Size Masterpieces for Steps 1, 2, 3 of Mommy It's a Renoir: Level 1 Easy
by Aline D. Wolf
"36 postcard-sized art reproductions to be cut put and used for matching, pairing, and grouping of paintings and or artists."--Nienhuis Books & Publications

Teaching Art at Home for 3-9
an adapted excerpt from
COSMIC EDUCATION by Ursula Thrush

   Visits to art galleries and museums [many now on-line!] and the use of original paintings or reproductions in the environment help foster an appreciation for art and give the child
new ideas for her own creations. Eventually try to show your child the originals of the
reproductions: have books around the environment with good reproductions linking the
picture with history and the clothing, transportation, homes (shelter), architecture, etc., of
the people at the time the painting was made. Take your child (age five and up) to galleries to look for pictures of similar subject matter which they can compare, and have similar groupings of postcard reproductions.
     Stories can also help develop the child’s imagination. She may externalize
(manifest) them in her play and artwork.
    To stimulate a variety of subjects for your older children (7-8) a suggestion box is
a good idea. In the box could be slips of paper with ideas to be created that would require
observation. For example: the face of an older person, the eyes of a happy person, a
self-portrait, a picture of a family member, or a pet. Observation is very much linked to
drawing. Until one starts to draw, one really does not observe to her fullest. Thus, an
adult who has never drawn will draw as a child.
    The natural development of children’s paintings up until about seven years of age
is universal. She usually begins by exploring with her materials in large round
uncontrolled movements. In the next stage, she starts to separate color, the brush
becomes more controlled, and she makes vertical and horizontal strolls, placing color
where she wants it.
    Pictorial representation creeps in by accident between the ages of three and
one-half and four. Choice of color is very revealing. After that age, the child begins to
paint and draw as a means of expression. Painting of people and things comes midway
between her language development and her writing, sometimes between the ages of four
and five. Quite often when a five year old begins to express herself in writing, she stops
painting for awhile.

Questions to consider:
1. What makes one appreciate a picture or painting?
2. How is this appreciation fostered at home?
3. What are the necessary skills for appreciation and execution consequently
developed?

Major elements to consider:
1. Design
2. Composition
3. Balance

Montessori elements in the environment
1. Sense of form and balance
a. prisms, cylinders, geometric cabinet, leaf cabinet, geometric solids,
metal insets
b. Materials that are first experienced by sight and by touch
c. Materials which train observation and memory which help the child to
recognize similarities and discriminate differences

Color
1. Color tablets for pairing and grading
2. Use of colored pencils and paints help child discover her own color sense

Handwork
1. Tracing maps, leaf shapes, geometric shapes help train the eye and hand

Perspective apparatus
1. Trains observation and memory
a. Botany: brings into focus many of the minute parts of growing things

Media: water color, tempera, oil, plaster and sand, clay, plasticene, mud

Texture: fabrics, rough and smooth boards, land and water forms, stereognostic materials

PRACTICAL LIFE EXERCISES IN ART

1. Wiping up paint from easel and floor after use.
2. Cleaning up after clay work.
3. Sweeping up after paper cutting.
4. Washing paint brushes.
5. Washing paint jars, mixing jars, art cloths, smocks, etc.
6. Sharpening pencils

MONTESSORI SENSORIAL MATERIALS for ART

1. Color tablets
2. Rough and smooth boards
3. Geometric cabinet
4. Metal insets
5. Classified art collection
6. Paintings on classroom walls
7. Leaf Cabinet

END

The late Ursula Thrush was the directress (and founder) of The Montessori School of the Golden Gate and Montessori Teacher Training Center in San Francisco, as well as the chair of the Peace Education Task Force of the Montessori Accreditation Council for Teacher Education. She has developed Peace 101 for classroom education. Her writings have been widely published in Montessori publications.

Postcard Reproductions for Montessori art curriculum
at Amazon.com! Child-Sized Masterpieces by Aline D. Wolf:
"This is an excellent set of books. I went ahead and got all of them. Basically this is a book for postcards of famous paintings. You cut them out and use them to help teach your younger children about art and artists and styles of art. You do this through a series of continually more challenging games.... Well worth the money. " (Amazon.com customer review.) More...

Level 1, Easy: "This book is book one of the postcard series for exposing your child to art. This book is just postcards of different artists and styles of art. There are multiples of some of these postcards that you can use for matching.... If you do nothing else except look at these postcards with your child, you have done a lot.... If you follow her easy to do 'program' of matching, buying and sorting postcard sized art, this book is a must. It sure beats trying to find your own postcards and mount them." (Amazon.com customer review.)
More...

    Level 2, Intermediate
    Level 3, Advanced
    Level 4, Artists Names
    Level 5, Famous Paintings

Best Art Books

Amazing Faces (You Can Draw Series), by Kim Gamble, ages 4-8
Visual Explanations : Images and Quantities, Evidence and Narrative by Edward R. Tufte
Art Activity Pack : Picasso (The Art Activity Pack Series) by Mila Boutan, ages 4-8
Art Around the World : Loo-Loo, Boo, and More Art You Can Do by Denis Roche, ages 4-8
The Button Blanket : An Activity Book, ages 6-10 (Northwest Coast Indian Discovery Kits) by Nan McNutt, Yasu Osawa (Illustrator), Barry Scow (Illustrator), Roger Fernandes, Susan Point

New Montessori and Homeschool News

At Home in America is a free publication by HOMESCHOOL ASSOCIATES with many great resources for homeschoolers, http://www.homeschoolassociates.com, 116 Third Avenue, Auburn, Maine 04210.

At-Home Mothering, a fantastic new magazine for "mothers at home and those who would like to be," published by At-Home Mother's Resource Center, Ltd. For one free copy email to: ahmrc@lisco.com; or write to: 406 E. Buchanan, Farifield, IA 52556. You will also receive their At-Home Motherhood Resource Catalog.

END