Imagine heart hands or a heart emoji in the title above, and you’ll have my theme for this month’s early childhood outreach. I do indeed “heart” art, whether that’s looking at art, creating it, or even just thinking about colors. For my outreach storytimes, we did all three this month!
Books
I chose a variety of art-themed books for storytime this month. Some are better for the 4-year-old classes; others are perfect for the toddler twos. Here are a few of my favorites:
- Nature is an Artist by Jennifer Lavallee
- My Forest is Green by Darren Lebeuf and Ashley Barron
- Andrew Drew and Drew by Barney Saltzberg
- Let’s Make Music by Alexandra Penfold and Suzanne Kaufman
- Lemons are Not Red by Laura Vaccaro Seeger
- One World Many Colors by Ben Lerwill and Alheteia Straathof
- My Words by Grant Snider
- Baby Bear Sees Blue by Ashley Wolff
- This Little Artist: An Art History Primer by Joan Holub and Daniel Roode
- It’s Okay by Shiow-Minn Tsai
Activities
Older classrooms
In the four-year-old classrooms, I read Nature is an Artist. The book shows many scenes in nature and how they translate into human artwork. Sunsets are paintings. Leaves and petals on the ground are collage. Fossils are like stamps. After we finished reading the book, I distributed a half sheet of paper and a marker to each preschooler and asked them to write and/or illustrate something they like to see outside. Each half-sheet had the words “I like to see…” We combined the pages into a book, using a cover I had made ahead of time. I then used their words to create our own song to the tune of “Apples and Bananas,” accompanied by my amateur playing of the ukulele. “I like to see, see, see, see…I like to see….rainbows and flowers…” and so on, all around the room. The children were now authors, illustrators, and songwriters!
Younger Classrooms
I brought sheets of “magic paper.” Using a product similar to this paper, the children painted using water. We discussed evaporation and watched as their marks faded from the paper. They enjoyed being creative but also loved the magic of watching their creations disappear. (We had originally purchased water painting paper in rolls, which are no longer available.)
The children also enjoyed going on a color hunt. We pretended we were on a photographic safari, so we had to be very quiet so as not to scare the colors away! They looked around the room for all the colors of the rainbow. Upon finding something blue, for example, they pointed to it and pretended to take a picture. “Click!”
All Ages Activities
Action rhymes and fingerplays rounded out the activities and encouraged movement. I used standards such as “Red, red is the color I see; if you’re wearing red, then show it to me… Stand up, turn around, clap your hands, and sit back down.” (numerous sources) This rhyme took great restraint on the part of the children as they all wanted to stand up, which was fine, of course! We did, however, practice waiting until a color they were wearing was actually mentioned, after I reassured everyone they’d have a chance. We practiced rhyming words with “Black, black, pat your _____” and “Brown, brown, touch the ______” as I did the motions to suggest the rhyme.
Handout
Do you heart art? What activities have you used in storytime to promote artistic expression? What are your favorite art-themed books? Please share in the comments below.
This blog post addresses the following ALSC Core Competencies: I. Commitment to Client Group, III. Programming Skills, and V. Outreach and Advocacy.