Art Learning Center

By: Taylor Warner and Felisha Copeland

Materials For each art category the teacher should

provide at least 3 to 5 choices of nontoxic materials in the following 5 categories:

Paint Drawing Collage 3-D Art Tools

Paint (ex. finger paint, watercolor paints, tempura paints, painting easels, assorted brushes and paper)

Drawing (ex. Crayons, colored pencils, assorted paper, markers, chalk)

Collage (ex. magazine pieces, felt shapes/ remnants, glue, different colors and sizes of paper, glitter)

3-D art (ex. Play dough, clay, pipe cleaners, pieces of wood)

Tools (ex. Safe scissors, stencils, sponges, paint rollers, stapler, tape dispenser with tape)

Notations Infants: Art not required for children under 12 months

of age Toddlers: Large non-toxic crayons, Large paper taped

to a surface, non-toxic finger paint, and large non-toxic chalk and a chalk board

Special Needs: clay and play dough for children with visual impairments, putting pencils or paintbrushes into a foam ball to help children with physical disabilities hold them

Cultural Differences: During holidays have multiple cultural activities (Ex. During December make Christmas, Kwanza and Hanukah activities. For Halloween also do day of the dead masks. For children with a single parent have an alternative or adapted activity for mothers/fathers day)

DiversityIn order to represent diversity within the Art center, the following could be done:

Have art materials that represent different skin tones

Skills and AbilitiesHaving daily access to Art center materials allow children to develop new abilities and skills, including:

Develop fine motor skills, which are necessary for learning to write

Develop their own creative expression

ECERS pg. 199

Teacher’s Role Teachers may see their students adding

more features to their drawing. Role: provide more art materials that will

benefit their drawing.

Toddlers may express their feelings while painting or drawing.

Role: encourage them to express how they feel by letting them paint with music.

Teacher’s Role continued

It is important that teachers keep a close eye on toddlers because at this age they are prone to putting materials in their mouths.

Teachers make sure that children’s art work is eye level so that it can be accessible.

Domain: Fine ArtsDomain 3; Strand 4 Visual Arts Gains control in grasping simple art tools Ex. A child holding a crayon making an

attempt to scribble: teachers are to communicate back to the child

what he or she is doing (“you made big lines with a blue crayon”)

Providing opportunities to paint with familiar objects like cotton balls or crumpled paper (D3 pg 118).

Domain: Fine Arts Domain 10 ; Strand 4 Visual Arts Understand and develop the vocabulary to

share opinions about artistic creations and experiences

Ex. Comment on a work of art by discussing colors, lines, shapes, textures, patterns and/or space found within the work

Integrating natural discussions of art elements into daily conversation (D10 pg 119)