KS1 - Art Teachers Advice needed pls...

[LoveRoses]

DS is in YR and is very keen on Art. Being 0% (or very nearly 0% ) Art inclined, was wondering what I could do to support/encourage him...

Give me Maths, Science, English (reading/writing/spelling etc)any day and I'll know what to do - but Art is a grey area to me.

I've had a look at the NC for KS1 Art but the infomation there isn't very helpful (at least not to me). Additionally, I don't think his school follows the NC...

Are there any:

1. Recommended Art books / links I could use to support DS?
2. Children's Art clubs in London
3. Art forums for kids I could get some information from?

At the moment, DS enjoys drawing, colouring, making things at school e.g hats, cards, etc

Suggestions most welcome...

Sorry - omitted to mention that DS is in YR1.

By LoveRoses Tue 16-Mar-10 15:17:54

At the moment, DS enjoys drawing, colouring, making things at school e.g hats, cards, etc

Suggestions most welcome...

I would just let him enjoy what he's doing and provide extra opportunities for him to experiment at home. Making it more formal may spoil his pleasure and he doesn't really need it yet.

your local art supply shop may run activities or at least they may know of something.

make the most of tate modern among others! i remember they had activities there, you could try the website?

Carry on as you are, art is really about creativity. You could get him doing things in the style of (so using techniques used by artists, such as pointillism or the other thing beginning with p that van Gogh utilised. I was doing a teaching course once and we had an art lecture which went over doing the above with children and this was for KS1. That is both interesting and educational.

kids.tate.org.uk/
Tate site is great for all sorts of things - that's a link to the children's part.

keep it fun and not formal.
give him different paints/pastels/pencils/papers/brushes/straws to blow paint down/air drying clay etc to play around with

my dd ( same age) likes some of the usborne art books which give more ideas about how you might use different materials like eg bubble wrap to produce different effects/look at how to break what you see down into basic shapes in order to draw them...she just dips in and out of them when she feels like it

and this is a lovely interactive website she enjoys, where you can create pictures in the style of various artists and all sorts of other great stuff

oops here

Speaking as an artist, i'd suggest utilising your living in London and getting him out to see loads of art. Many galleries run 'art cart' or similar - usually free on Saturday mornings. At home have a ready supply of paper and pencils - encouragement and interest are far more important than glue and bendy straws etc - most adults will try to over suggest things and stifle the child's original creative intentions. My DC's will use approximately anything to make stuff with if they want to but we don't have a massive stash of art materials and they happily mostly just get on with it. Also, entering art competitions is exciting for children.

WOW!!

These are really cool sites!!

pollywollydoodle - The interactive Art activities (esp. the NGA Kids Jungle) is FAB - just been having a go at it myself . DS would definitely love to try out some of those activities...

IAmTheEasterBunny - loved the Tate Kids Games stuff there...

MathsMadMummy - Thanks for that link too...that's 1 Easter holiday activity sorted out then for dc

And to everyone else, thanks a Zillion for your suggestions - really appreciate these...I'd been living in the dark ages...

Artydeb - yeah, you're right about encouraging ds....over the last half term, our local library held a couple of free art sessions for kids - and a dinosaur drawing competition...

ds son was really taken in by the Art & Craft activity/session... 'Twas tough getting him to leave...

The 'art cart' galleries on Sat mornings sounds interesting - will google that to find out more...thanks