A Leaf Can Be Second Time 'Round

While yesterday's A leaf Can Be lesson was a great success I decided to go in a different direction. Tuesday I teach Art's Enrichment; a preschool Music, Movement and Art class for preschool aged children.

Today I collected some leaves on my way into class. As you can see in the time lapse video we painted our leaves in fall colours and stamped the painted leaves onto black and blue construction paper. We also made use of oil pastels to make some leaf rubbings.

The finished art was beautiful and varied, just like the artist's who made them. I don't run my art lessons very strictly; I like to allow my little artists the freedom to express themselves and explore the media. If I stuck to a strict lesson plan opportunities for young artists to explore different techniques would be lost. One of my students today created leaf shapes in negative space by applying the paint to the leaves on top of his art paper. The result was phenomenal and one that would not have happened if the artist was stopped and directed to follow my directions to the letter. As long as my students are respecting the space, their fellow artists and the materials I am more than happy to let them walk to the beat of their own drum.

I'll update this post later with finished art from the students.