I'm not sure K-3 students really have trouble expressing themselves. They
are full of imagination and can still tell an entire story within one
picture (you know the type - they show you their picture and start the story
"the dog lives here, and then he goes outside and sees this cat and he
chases it up the tree and then he sees the ball and chases after the ball
and the boy wants the ball because he is practicing to be a famous baseball
player and then .........." and the story goes on and on and is so much
deeper than the simple images on the page). What I have discovered is that
primary students need to work on small motor skills - cutting skills need to
be practiced, gluing with small dots rather than puddles, controling their
hand to draw what they want. You know the students are beginning to acquire
these skills when they automatically use small dots of glue, when they can
draw a circle and be happy with it rather than immediately flipping the
paper over and redrawing. At my primary building I do a lot of guided
drawing, cut paper projects, projects that require glue. I try to balance
some creativity projects within my program, but I see them for such a short
period of time. Around 5th grade is when I have to start pushing creativity
because the kids, as they begin to approach puberty, begin to want to blend
in and be the same as their peers, so I focus there on getting them to
express themselves.
The hurrying to get done is another skill that has to be worked on. If you
are coloring tell them exactly what they need to work on. Show them areas
that need to be colored more and show them an example of what it should look
like. Don't offer anything else for them to do while you are teaching them
the expected behaviors/work ethics. They will then have 2 choices - to work
on their project or to sit and wait until the rest of the class is finished.
Good luck!
~Michal
K-12 Kansas Art Teacher
http://www.geocities.com/theartkids
> This is my fourth year teaching art and I am thinking
> that maybe my kids (K-3) should be getting more out of
> art, I just don't feel that I am getting the point
> across about expressing themselves and the kids have a
> hard time taking ownership of their art and making it
> theirs. Maybe that is too much to expect from the
> little kiddos, but I have a growing number of kids
> that hurry to get done or else just do it for the sake
> of doing it -
>
> I saw a book in the Sax cataloge (i think it was Sax)
> that was called Teaching Meaning, not sure if its what
> I am looking for or not?
