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Erupting with Artistry
1 March 08Your big kid is erupting with artistry! This is the time in which most five to seven year olds take new command of expressive media such as music, dance, block building, and storytelling. After years of practice and more practice, your child can begin to intentionally manipulate materials to create his own ideas. Art gives him the opportunity to represent how he feels, thinks, and visualises.
At this age your big kid has a varied repertoire of music and is able to compose and arrange music within specified guidelines. He can create realistic art with recognisable subjects and more detailed settings, and recognise that art can tell a story. The movements of children this age show mature form and an increased ability to balance and coordinate actions, as their dramatic play is pre-planned, elaborate and sustained. He can perform simple plays, do pantomime and perform puppet shows.
As well as using art, your big kid knows that music and movement go hand in hand. They show us through free-form dancing, incessant whirling and twirling, movement with colourful scarves or streamers, and the like. He may sing to himself while putting together a puzzle, or compose music to accompany a puppet show or play.
The activity below invites your big kid to let his hands do the “dancing,” exploring a crayon ballet and leaving a colourful trail on the “dance floor” (the paper). There is no right or wrong in this open-ended activity and the focus is on enjoying the process and perhaps being surprised by the art that results.
You'll need:
· blank paper (several large sheets of either white paper, or another colour on which the crayons will show)
· crayons (and/or magic markers, paint and paint brushes, finger paints)
· music (live or recorded)
Directions:
1. Invite your child simply to colour (or paint) along with the music.
2. Before starting the music, suggest different techniques to use (up-and-down strokes, side-to-side strokes, dots, dabs, circles, curves, x's, etc.), leading your child in trying these gestures first without crayons.
3. Play the music and invite your child to enjoy a "crayon ballet."
4. Repeat!