THE ART CENTER
THE CREATIVE ARTS CLASSROOM ENVIRONMENT
CHILDREN'S ARTWORK & EXPERIENCES
As seen below, this is a sample of a child's artwork. This is a
scratch art piece, and is created by using oil pastels as a
medium. The child would have to first colour a A3 drawing
block with as many colours as they want to, before going over
the art piece in black oil pastels, and scratching the picture out
with a toothpick. The process is slightly long, and it can be
done across two days if needed.
The children found it extremely interesting to see the colourful
background appear as they scratch out their different
landscapes!
ABOUT THE CLASSROOM
An arts classroom should include bright,
vibrant colours. This stimulates creativity and
gives an inviting atmosphere.
How does this classroom inspire
children?
CHILDREN'S ARTWORK ARE
DISPLAYED
This shows the children that they did a good job on
every on every their art pieces. They increase the
children's self esteem (Shore, n.d.) , and encourage
them to take pride in what they have done, at the same
time create a sense of belonging as they personalize
the classroom (Kuhnert, 2014).
Such art display inspire children , as it affirms their
ideas, thoughts and imagination (Kuhnert , 2014). Thus
allowing them to get ideas from friends' work or be
encouraged to explore new material that they havent
tried before.
VARIETY OF MATERIALS PROVIDED
This is to ensure that their is sufficient materials for
everyone, and that children are provided with enough
materials, which can hold their interests and allow
them to explore new methods or objects to create art
(Nurturing Early Learners, 2013).
This inspires children as they are "given the flexibility
to choose what they wish to create, how they want to
make it and what it will look like" (NEL, 2013).
Additionally, this encourages creativity and diversity
in artworks as they are not restricted by limited
materials.
What can parents do?
An activity that you can do with your child to increase
their visual and aesthetics appreciation is to bring them
out, be it the park or a museum exhibition. After the trip,
get them to use shapes to create an object that stood
out to them, that they saw on the trip. The environment
around us consists of many learning areas and serve as
inspiration to their art pieces.
By Chan Si Ning