Art: Drawing Faces

 
A child’s drawing skills becomes more complex as their fine motor skills develop. After many drawing and scribbling experiences, as a child approaches the 3 or 4 year old mark, they begin to explore representation in their drawings. Their circular shapes become faces and first images of people.

 
I noticed my preschool son drawing people, with a head and a few other body parts. I was keen to take advantage of his interest in representation and engaged him in a conversation about his drawings.

 
Engaging children in conversation about their work allows them to think more deeply about their work and allows for more meaningful experimentation.

 
Using a mirror, I invited him to explore faces and its features. Together we discussed our physical characteristics: our eyes, ears, nose, mouth, chin, hair.

 
You can extend these discussions and build up your child’s vocabulary of a given physical characteristic. For example, when talking about eyes, incorporate these words where appropriate : blink; blue eyes; brown eyes; hazel eyes; green eyes; grey eyes; eyebrows; eyelashes; eyelids; wink. Or for mouth: chew; eat; lips; sing; smile; speak; talk; taste; teeth; tongue.

 
After our conversation about faces and using the mirror and himself as a reference, he began to draw faces with more defined facial features. Scribbles made their transition to representations.

 
It takes time and effort on our behalf, but investing in conversations with children about their work helps them realise and become aware of their potential and ability. Even those children who are reluctant to draw are usually very proud of their newly discovered skill.

 M: 4 years
June 2012

The post Art: Drawing Faces by Pauline appeared first on Lessons Learnt Journal.

When crafting with my children, my goal is to provide them a wide range of experiences.

I want them to know there is no wrong way to do craft.

It is building, expressing and observing. It’s about exploring materials and techniques, rather than to simply complete projects.

Gather the materials for your paper fort:

• Electrical tape, assorted colours;
• Scissors;
• Coloured prism board paper, assorted colours, cut into squares.

Explore:

• Make stripe cards by sticking electrical tape on the paper squares.
• Experiment with different lines. Try some diagonal, vertical or horizontal lines. Place them the same distance apart or varying distances. Try overlapping some lines.
• Try different colours and observe how background makes a difference. Which combinations have the best contrast? Let your child explain which colour combination is their favourite and why they chose it.

Build your paper craft fort:

• At each side of the square; cut a 1cm line in the middle.
• Using these small incisions, slide the cards into one another to build your paper fort.

 N & M: 4 years
June 2012

The post Paper Craft: Forts by Pauline appeared first on Lessons Learnt Journal.