Art Lab for Little Kids: 52 Playful Projects for Preschoolers

by Susan Schwake, Rainer Schwake

Overview

Developed for the younger set (4-6 year olds) and targeting one of the most critical developmental periods for children, Art Lab for Little Kids is the perfect book for both parents and teachers who are seeking enriching and unique experiences to offer this age group.

As in Susan Schwake’s first book, Art Lab for Kids (Quarry Books, 2012), the Labs can be used as singular projects, or used to build up to a year of hands-on fine art experiences. Each Lab also features the work of a prominent artist for inspiration. The book begins with an introduction on materials and setting up a space for making art. The lessons that follow are open-ended to be explored over and over – with different results each time. They are geared for children being taught or guided by adults and are successful on all levels of experience and age. They do not result in “cookie cutter” end products, but are a method of learning something new each time they are used.

This motivational book stands out as a unique reference for creating fine art with children through finding the student’s own voice, marks and style and with playful lessons that result in significant skill building. Gorgeous photography shows different results from different people using the same lesson, exemplifying the way the lesson brings out each artist’s personal style. Art Lab for Little Kids is a fresh source of creative activities for families and community groups or will work as lesson plans for both experienced and new art teachers in home school, preschool, and kindergarten environments.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781610587662
Publisher:	Quarry Books
Publication date:	05/01/2013
Series:	Lab Series
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	36 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Susan Schwake is an artist, art educator, and curator. She actively exhibits her work in galleries around the United States and Europe and sells her work online and in her own gallery, artstream. Susan has been part of juried public art exhibitions, creating large-scale, site-specific works. Her passion for teaching and making art with others grew from a tiny seed of an idea in the fourth grade. Working in such diverse settings as schools, community centers, special needs nonprofits, summer camps, intergenerational facilities, libraries, and her own little art school, Susan has taught art to hundreds of people over the past twenty years. She created a permanent exhibition of children’s art, involving more than one hundred local children, that graces the walls of a new children’s room in her local library in 1997 and refreshed it in 2007 to celebrate its tenth anniversary. In 2000, she directed a similar project with four hundred people in an intergenerational setting for a new multi-agency facility, bringing the staff, families, and clients more closely together through the process of making art. She has enjoyed many residencies in public and private schools, with whole school projects, and in special needs groups and single classrooms. Since the release of her first book, Art Lab for Kids, Susan has offered workshops to parents and teachers and student teachers at universities, art studios, and schools. She enjoys sharing her methods and learning from others. In 2005, Susan began a blog called artesprit. Through the blog, she embraced writing and photographing her world, meeting many new artists and friends around the globe. She co-owns and is the curator for artstream studios in New Hampshire. She enjoys bringing compelling group shows of contemporary art to her corner of New England. She is happy to be working alongside her husband every day doing what she loves most. Follow her adventures.Blog: www.artesprit.blogspot.comWebsite: www.susanschwake.comGallery: www.artstreamstudios.com 

Editorial Reviews

"Art Lab for Little Kids author, susan Schwake, follows her wildly successful, Art Lab for Kids with another solid hit - a clear, simple guide to exploring art with small children that parents and teachers will delight in." - Rebecca Emberley, Best-selling children's book author and illustrator"

Based on the ideas and images of master artists, these art activities and experiences are developmentally appropriate, adventurous, imaginative, and thoroughly engaging while leading to the creation of artworks with meaning and significance. Art Lab for Little Kids is an important contribution to the literature of the often-overlooked field of visual arts education for preschool children." - Bill Haust, Professor Emeritus of Art Education, Plymouth State University"

Art Lab for Little Kids author, susan Schwake, follows her wildly successful, Art Lab for Kids with another solid hit - a clear, simple guide to exploring art with small children that parents and teachers will delight in." - Rebecca Emberley, Best-selling children's book author and illustrator"

Based on the ideas and images of master artists, these art activities and experiences are developmentally appropriate, adventurous, imaginative, and thoroughly engaging while leading to the creation of artworks with meaning and significance. Art Lab for Little Kids is an important contribution to the literature of the often-overlooked field of visual arts education for preschool children." - Bill Haust, Professor Emeritus of Art Education, Plymouth State University"

I love Susan's Art Lab series and reference them in the Art Studio often. They're easy to follow, full of images, and directed at open-ended exploration - exactly the kind of reference I need for my own busy home." - Meghan Burch, Art Studio Educator, The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art, Amherst, MA

From the Publisher