Art is one of the many "languages" children use to express their feelings and convey their understanding of the world. Sometimes children draw pictures to illustrate their stories or to show an experience they have had. At other times they may paint or draw from observation.
Art activities have long been a staple of the early childhood classroom. Drawing, painting, modeling with dough, cutting, gluing are activities that bring pleasure to most young children. Art engages children in creative thinking and develops self-expression. Children learn how to solve problems and experiement with materials.
The children created the beautiful cloth by spray painting liqud watercolors on a sheet hung over the fence on our playground. They discovered that by standing away from the sheet the paint covered large spaces and made little dots. When they came close to the sheet they could make lines and deeper shades. The colors on the sheets bled and combined, forming new colors for the children above.
When the children in our class played with goop (colored glue and liquid starch) one child figures out how to make a ball. He showed another child at the table how he did it. A third child experimented with the properties of his "goop ball" by dropping it back in a puddle of the material and watching as in recombined.
