Friday, January 28, 2011

Art Curriculum in the Classroom


This week, I received a call from another elementary school looking for Art Appreciation Presentation material.  I recommended that they look at my Art In the Classroom blog and the many links on the sidebar. After hanging up the phone, it occurred to me that I should probably hop over to the blog and check to make sure all the links were working. (Sad to say, the blog is in need of some much needed lovin’. Admittedly, if I could spend all day writing on the blog, I would.) All the links worked and it appears some have been updated since I first added the links. An amazing abundance of Art Appreciation curriculum is available for teachers and educators to use in the classroom – many created by world-class art museums.

Here are a few of the resources available:

This afternoon, after teaching my after-school art class, I had a wonderful discussion with the school principal. The conversation started because I mentioned that, in the twelve years of my teaching art appreciation classes, every class has been filled with insightful, enthusiastic, amazing students. Then, she told me the students didn’t have art at the school – as part of their regular day. What? No art in the school? It was my understanding that Illinois had a state mandate of half an hour per week - shocking in itself and why I started teaching art appreciation. She said that the teachers try to add art lessons that, more often than not, tend to be craft projects. With that being said, the above art curriculum links are a necessity in the schools.

And, of course, here are some new interesting nonfiction books to add to the classroom:

Laban Carrick Hill (Author)
Bryan Collier (Illustrator)
Little, Brown Books for Young Readers (September 2010)
2011 Caldecott Honor Book

Linda L. Osmundson
Pelican Publishing (January 2011)

Don Brown
Houghton Mifflin Books for Children (October 2007)
I love the Portraits of the Presidents at the National Portrait Gallery.

I have to show off the beautiful drawing that one of my students made for me after she finished the class assignment.    ♥


4 comments:

marlene targ brill said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
marlene targ brill said...

marlene targ brill said...
As an amateur artist, art-lover, and someone sustained by art in school, I found this an important post. But let's not forget the ladies. Another resource is the National Gallery of Women in the Arts, http://www.nmwa.org/, which contains female artists representing every art form and every age, something missing from most museums and curricula.

Michelle Cusolito said...

Thanks for the great book suggestions. Just reserved them from my library.

http://michellecusolito.blogspot.com/

Anna M. Lewis said...

Marlene,
Thanks so much for that link. We're headed to Washington DC this summer & have to visit that museum.

Michelle,
Fantastic that you ordered those books!

Thanks for commenting!