Ten Reasons Why Art Is Good For Kids
by Mark Wagner © 2011
1) Art Teaches Problem Solving. Making art demonstrates that there can be multiple solutions to the same problem. Art expands our experience and encourages open-ended thinking that creates an environment of questions rather than answers.
2) Art Prepares Kids for the Future. Creative, open-minded people are highly desired in all career paths.
Art and creative education increases the future quality
of the local and global community. Being creative is a lifelong skill that can be used in everyday situations.
3) Art Generates a Love of Learning and Openness to New Ideas. Art develops a willingness to explore what has not existed before. Art teaches risk-taking and being open to possibilities. Art allows one to grow from making mistakes. Kids whose creativity is nurtured are curious and inspired to learn more.
4) Art is Big Business. At the core of the multi-billion dollar film and video game industry are artists creating images and stories. Every commercial product is designed by artists from chairs to cars, space stations to iPods. A Van Gogh painting sold for $83 million.
5) Art Develops the Whole Brain. Art strengthens focus and increases attention, develops hand-eye co-ordination, requires practice and strategic thinking, and involves interacting with the material world through different tools and art mediums.
6) Art Improves Performance. Art builds self-esteem, increases motivation and student attendance, improves grades and communications, nurtures teamwork, and strengthens our relationship to the environment.
7) Art Facilitates Emotional Intelligence. Art supports the expression of complex feelings that help kids feel better about themselves and helps them understand others by “seeing” what they have expressed and created. Art supports personal meaning in life, discovering joy in one’s own self, often being surprised, and then eliciting it in others.
8) Art Builds Community. Art reaches across racial stereotypes, religious barriers, and socio-economic levels and prejudices. Seeing other cultures creative expression allows everyone to be more connected and less isolated. Art creates a sense of belonging: We can see how we are all related.
9) Art Awakens the Senses. Art opens the heart and mind to possibilities and fuels the imagination. Art is a process of learning to create ourselves and experience the world in new ways. Arts support the bigger picture view of life: beauty, symbols, spirituality, storytelling, and helps us step out of time allowing one to be present in the moment. Art keeps the magic alive.
10) Art is Eternal. Creativity and self-expression has always been essential to our humanity. Our earliest creative expressions were recorded in petroglyphs, cave paintings, and ancient sculptures. One of the first things kids do is play, draw, and use their imaginations.
Please follow the art room blog. There is a link on the Holy Spirit School Web page. It is in the staff area next to my name. It will give you the same agenda and will also include pictures of projects and students with their work!
Grade K- Apple color, shape, cutting and gluing practice.
Grade 1- Clown Fish Drawings
Grade 2- Glue on Black Chalk Drawing and illustrating the “Homework Machine”
Grade 3- Koi fish drawings
Grade 4- Koi fish drawings
Grade 5- Day of the Dead Reverse Glass Paintings
Grade 6- Pastel Owls
Grade 7- Jumping Jacks Animation Drawings and making our own Sketch Books Students need a cereal box)
Grade 8- Altered Books and Name Checkers
All 8th graders need to bring a hardbound book to art class for an altered book project. A thicker novel, text or cookbook will work well. Books are available at Goodwill for $1.99. Text books are very heavy but do work well. No church song books or Bibles please. All books will be permanently altered (ruined) and will no longer be usable for the original purpose. We will be cutting, gluing, painting, etc. in the book, much like a scrap book. Books need to be in the art room by September 9th.
Students in grades 4 AND 7 need to bring an empty cereal box to school for an art project. 4th grade is starting this project on 9-5-13.
Students in grade 5 need to bring in a fist size rock and $1.00 in an envelope marked with their name. This is for 2 different projects.
Ambassadors will meet from 7:40-8:25 Wednesday, September 11th. 8th grade Ambassadors should bring their white binders
Mrs. Chapel
