Even though I’m definitely drawing/painting-challenged, art appreciation is one of my favorite subjects to teach. Montessori education has wonderful ideas and resources for helping children develop an appreciation of art from the earliest age.
Montessori principles encourage parents to expose children to fine art from birth on. Dr. Montessori wanted parents and teachers to provide famous artists’ works hung at eye level for the child to learn a natural appreciation of art. A Montessori home or classroom is specially prepared to bring order and beauty into the child’s environment as well as give opportunities for children to enjoy their own individual art expression.
Disclosure: This post contains some affiliate links (at no cost to you).
Montessori Ideas on Art Appreciation
Art and Montessori from Birth to Age 12 from Michael Olaf
Why Should Children Study Art? from Montessori for Everyone
Studying Artists and Their Works in the Montessori Classroom from North American Montessori Center
Montessori Mama on Making and Teaching Art at The Artful Parent
Celma Perry on “Art Appreciation in the Montessori Early Childhood Classroom”
Free artist cards from Montessori Materials
Child-Size Masterpieces by Aline D. Wolf (available for purchase … the art appreciation materials I used in my Montessori school and my family used and loved)
“Child-Size Masterpieces for Art Appreciation”
Emotions in Art Lessons (Photo from Montessori Workjobs)
Montessori Art Appreciation (free emotions in art cards) from Montessori Workjobs
Michelangelo Art Book (Image from Montessori Print Shop)
Artist Cards and Books (available for purchase) from Montessori Print Shop. Free Picasso Art Book from Montessori Print Shop.
Artist Cards (available for purchase) from Montessori for Everyone
Art Appreciation Materials (available for purchase) from Montessori Services
Free Downloads: Montessori Art Cards and Art Appreciation from Affordable Montessori Homeschool Resources and Free Downloads
Montessori-Inspired Art Appreciation Activities
A Montessori Approach to Homeschool Art(what my family did)
Study of Claude Monet (Photo by Julie at Nurturing Learning)
Art Appreciation Posts from Nurturing Learning (Photo from Artists and Art – Claude Monet)
Art Appreciation at Home (Photo from The Montessori Child at Home)
Art at Home from The Montessori Child at Home
Famous Artist Study – Miro (Photo from Inspired Montessori and Arts at Dundee Montessori)
Famous Artist posts from Inspired Montessori and Arts at Dundee Montessori
Picasso Study (Photo from 123 Homeschool 4 Me)
Picasso and Famous Artist: Monet from 123 Homeschool 4 Me
Artist Baskets from Montessori Mama
Artist Posts from Little Acorns
Art Appreciation in a Montessori Classroom from Montessori Plus School
Updates:
See Art Appreciation and Creation for Kids for lots of extension activities.
See Art Appreciation Activities from Montessori By Mom for more activities. (Montessori By Mom Art Appreciation Toolbox)
See Art Postcards – Montessori Art Appreciation for a Variety of Ages
See Montessori Art History Resources for Preschool Through Elementary
Have you prepared an environment and/or activities for teaching art appreciation?
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Thanks for featuring our Picasso! It was a fun project. Another really cool project was our tissue paper Monet – it is so pretty it is haning on our walls =-)
Beth
My pleasure, Beth! I love what you’re doing with your art appreciation studies. The Monet project is great, too! 🙂
Thanks so much for all of the great resources, and for linking back to my World’s Greatest Artist study! Love all that you’ve done with it!
Erica @ http://www.confessionsofahomeschooler.com
Thanks for your kind comment, Erica! And thanks for so generously sharing your wonderful study! 🙂
As a painter (as a hobby!) I really wish more people today had an appreciation for good art – I am bringing mine up with as much exposure to different arts and music as possible!
Thanks for your comment, Bobby! It’s awesome that you’re exposing your children to the arts! 🙂
I love how you bring all these wonderful resources together in one place! Thanks so much! On a related topic, I have a 2-part post on drawing in the elementary classroom here: http://mont-elementary.blogspot.com/
Thanks again for being such a great resource!
Thanks for your kind comment, Beth! And thanks for sharing your posts … great information! 🙂
Thanks for this post. We have been using Child Size Masterpieces, which a lot of Montessori stores sell, but Little Miss went through all of the ones at her level in one week. So that leaves me short art appreciation supplies (she really isn’t ready for the next level). In general I’m feeling like we’re in a bit of an art slump, so this post was perfect timing!
Thanks so much, Maureen! I’m glad it helped! 🙂
Love the video of Celma, who trained me!
For more Famous Artists please visit my 5 posts on the subject.
Thanks, Carolyn! And thanks so much for letting me know about your famous artist posts. I’ll be adding them to my post! 🙂
Thank you for sharing all of these resources! I just took my kids to the art museum on the weekend and we are now working through some art projects. I’ll definitely be referring to some of these resources. Thanks for linking up to the Afterschool Blog Hop!
Thanks, Julie! It’s great that you took your kids to the art museum … makes art projects so much more meaningful! 🙂
You’ve done yet another fantastic job… putting all these resources and links and downloads together! Art is so important to our kids including special needs kids like mine! I will add a link to your post in my art blog post!(BTW thanks for including a link to me!)
Thanks so much for your kind comment, Lisa! I love what you do with your son and on your sites. Thanks for linking to me, too! 🙂
Oh Deb, I just love the work you do with our children…….I absolutely LOVE the Miro inspired picture….I was brought up on the famous artists having art teachers as parents but it was Miro who I resonated with at an early age. I believe this artist had a real influence on my art today. Thank you for reminding me….off to delve into some old books my parents gifted me so many years ago…joy!
Thanks so much for your kind comment, Marghanita! The Miro-inspired picture is great, isn’t it?! How wonderful that you had such a rich art background as a child! Have a great weekend! 🙂
You might look at Charlotte Mason’s method of teaching art history and appreciation to children. It becomes a natural part of the day. We used prints from the Natioal Gallery and ones we borrowed from the Art Museum’s teacher resource center.
What a fabulous resource! I know this will come in handy while working with my daughter’s for years to come. Thank you for linking this post to Discover & Explore.
What an amazing resource – so many great ideas! I’ll be featuring your post Tuesday. Thanks for sharing at Discover & Explore this past week and I hope you’ll be back this week to share with our Zoo & Wild Animal theme.
Wow, Deb! What a great resource this post is. Pinning to my Art for Kid’s board, and to the CBC Parent’s Kid’s Art board. Thanks so much for sharing it with me today. I’m loving the new look over here! Just wanted you to know a couple of your links appear to be “broken”. They have a line stroked through them. Not sure if you were aware or not.