Dear Teachers,
My neighbor’s child goes to a preschool and is always bringing home cute art – craft items and coloring pages. I think I know the answer to this but am asking anyway: Why doesn’t my child bring home lots of art?
Would love to put some art up at home
Dear Art at Home,
First it will help to define some terms. Art is freeform, full of interpretations and flows from a child’s creativity using the materials they choose with results linked to the child’s satisfaction. Crafts are activities using prepared pieces with prescribed steps and a single desired outcome. Which do you want your child to do at school?
I once worked in a preschool where there was parental pressure for the children to come home each day with a product (craft or worksheet) to show that learning had taken place. At the outset I, too, was asked to cut out a myriad of pieces that the children put together within 3 minutes in a prescribed way resulting in 15 identical “works of art.” There was nothing artful about them; merely a challenging time for my 4 year-old class to comply before returning to their play. Within a year, the frustrated staff had evolved to provide developmentally appropriate hands-on activities that did not focus on an end product. The children were happier enjoying the process of creating and became more able to talk about their work and what it meant to them rather than repeating the assembly steps. The parents soon understood that learning was taking place despite the lack of identical daily products.
Early childhood programs following current research offer self-initiated and open-ended activities with an array of interesting materials for the children to use in their creative process. The columns below show what we do – and do not do.
| Santa Fe Teachers Will:
|
Santa Fe Teachers Will Not: |
|
Demonstrate use of Materials “Try going back and forth with the brush. |
Make a sample to follow “Make it look like this, please.” |
| Ask open-ended questions ideas
“What can you do with that paper?” |
Give step by step instructions
“This part goes first then that one.” |
| Offer a choice
“Would you like to try painting now, Mabry?” |
Require participation
“Mabry, it’s your turn now. Come on.” |
| Stay nearby to encourage/extend their vision
What color do you need for that?” |
Choose materials for a child
“All the pieces you need are in that pile.” |
| Reward effort
“You’ve worked a long time on that. I can see how proud you are of your work.” |
Ask them continue or alter their work
“Keep working. You’re not done. You still Have pieces left. I’ll help you finish it.”
|
| Acknowledgment of their unique perspective
“That’s interesting. Please tell me about it.” |
Judge against the sample
“That looks perfect. They match. Good.” |
I understand your feelings: it is nice to have something to hang on your refrigerator as your child paints, cuts or draws. Their work is meaningful to them and it needs to be shared with their families. For winter holidays and Mother’s and Father’s Day we try to provide a keepsake picture or item to take home for gift giving. We also keep some of their work as documentation of their progress in an individual portfolio. You may ask to see it at any time and some teachers share it with families during scheduled conference times. We also understand that sometimes children prefer to take something home rather than display it.
Oddly enough, we have had the opposite problem, too: parents throwing out “free” art in the classroom, in front of their child. This deflates and devalues a child’s budding skills and artistic abilities when they see it go unappreciated by their families. Each sliver of paper and stroke of the paintbrush has a story – and it is our job to encourage them to tell it.
