School-Age: Masterpiece Art

This week my theme was inspired by a newer juvenile nonfiction book that discussed art styles and a variety of famous artists.

1. Reading
My inspiration was the book "Masterpiece Mix" by Roxie Munro. An artist talks about how she creates a blank canvas and what her favorite art styles are. On each page are illustrations of famous art masterpieces and, in the back of the book, Munro shares a little information about each of the artists she featured in the book.

2. Brain Break
Our brain break did not require much preparation this week! We did a short game of Simon Says to get the kids up and moving around.


3. Discussion
I set aside several copies of the book and handed them out to the kids to look at in groups. We went over the different art styles that the narrator of the book talked about - still life, landscapes, figure studies, portraits, etc. - and I showed them pictures of the real art featured in the book. I asked them to find the art on the pages of the book so it was a bit of a seek-and-find game for them.

Then, I briefly shared a little information about a few of the artists that were mentioned several times in the book. I showed a picture of the artist and what art of theirs was featured in the book.


4. Craft
I found two different art styles that would be easy for the kids to try: Still Life and Impressionism (Monet style)

Still Life:
The kids could try their hand at creating a still life watercolor painting. We set out the watercolor paints and some paper. I also set up a few puppets, in full library fashion, in the middle of the table that they could paint a still life picture of.

Here are a few examples my teens made:

Impressionism:
I found many different crafts featuring Monet's garden setting with the bridge for kids online. I wanted to do something similar with craft supplies we already had on-hand. I printed off images of a bridge and a gazebo that the kids could have in their gardens if they would like. 

To make my sample art piece I cut off the excess paper off of the gazebo/bridge, glued the gazebo/bridge down to a piece of cardstock, and then used bleeding art tissue paper to add color to my garden. 

If you've never used bleeding art tissue paper before it is super neat! All you do is add water with spray bottles and the color runs. It can be slightly messy but the clean-up is not terrible.

Here's my example and Ms. Carol's example:

Notes:
I love weeks like this when we do a few stations of crafts! The kids have a blast and I feel like they get to explore different facets of creativity all in one day!