Nature-Of-Art-Kids

03/12/2024

🎄 🎨 🦉 Calm Art for Children During the Busy Holiday Season

I'm packing to head to Nashville tomorrow for a business trip, and it's going to be a busy month for me with holiday activities. While chatting with several other teachers, I realized everyone seems to be feeling a bit overwhelmed this season. I wanted to share some suggestions to help you create calm and enjoyable art experiences for you and your students during the holidays.

🚥Acknowledge the Holiday Overload

The holidays can become overwhelming for children—and for you! There's so much happening at home, in the community, and in schools. Our minds are often preoccupied with shopping, activities, and events. Some schools amplify the holiday excitement with even more treats and festivities. It can be a lot for everyone to handle.

🍂 Focus on Relaxing Arts and Crafts

Try prioritizing art projects that promote calmness and relaxation. Avoid turning arts and crafts into transactional activities where children feel pressured to make something "perfect" to give away to friends or family. Ideally, those moments of giving and sharing will happen naturally.

I understand that some teachers feel added pressure from administrators to produce holiday-themed crafts, but it's important to remember that art is about self-expression and overall well-being. It shouldn't feel rushed or obligatory. Encourage activities that give children space to explore and create with intention—something meaningful to them as individuals.

⛩️ Consider Diverse Traditions

Not every family celebrates the holidays the same way, so it’s a good idea to be inclusive in your classroom. If your school fosters a mix of cultural traditions, that’s wonderful! You can incorporate art lessons inspired by seasons or natural elements rather than focusing solely on holidays.

For example, create winter-themed projects like exploring animals that thrive during this season, or use materials found in nature. Even if you live in a warm region like San Diego, there’s inspiration everywhere. Here, we look for differences at the beach, like the unique items that wash up onshore.

📚 Share the World Through Books

Reading cultural books can be another inspiring way to bring the season to life. Look for children's books that highlight how different parts of the world celebrate holidays year-round. There are so many beautiful stories that explore various traditions, and they can form the foundation for creative art projects.

🥱 Align with the Season's Restful Nature

Winter is naturally a time for slowing down. Days are shorter, and many animals hibernate. I tend to follow nature's lead—I spend more time crafting, reading, and relaxing indoors. Encourage your students to use this season as an opportunity to pause and recharge as they explore artistic expression.

🎨 Revamp Your Classroom Art Space

Take some time to refresh and reorganize your art shelf to foster creativity. Add cultural books, include materials for diverse crafts, and leave plenty of space for tinkering and experimentation. Avoid narrowing the focus to red-and-green crafts. Instead, offer a wider palette of materials—colorful paper, beads, strings, glue, staplers, and painting supplies.

By this point in the year, your students probably have a good grasp of how to use the materials independently. If not, give simple demonstrations on new items you add to the space. A choice-based center where they can explore at their own pace is particularly helpful during this busy season.

🧶 Try Cozy, Creative Projects

One of my favorite holiday activities is painting wooden crafts. These wooden pieces come in all sorts of shapes—birds, butterflies, leaves, or other animals—and can be painted in any color the child chooses. Some children may want to take their projects home to display on a tree or mantel, but there's no pressure to do so.

Other calming ideas include paper folding, stitching, sewing, collaging, or even stapling materials to create something unique. These hands-on activities can bring a sense of peace and focus to the classroom.

🦦 Bringing It All Together

Set up several areas in your art center to cater to a variety of interests. While I usually advise focusing on just one artistic domain, like drawing or crafting, this time of year can be stressful for you as the teacher. A versatile, choice-based art center filled with process-focused opportunities can provide flexibility and fun for everyone.

💡 Looking for More Ideas?

If you'd like to dig deeper into these art literacy concepts, check out my elementary and early childhood art guides. I’m also hosting free webinars this December, packed with creative inspiration and practical tips! Order books at my website home page.

📺 Here’s what’s coming up in my webinar series:

- Process-Based Art for Early Childhood
- Homeschooling: What Art Lesson Should I Teach
- How to Create Montessori Art Album**
- Elementary/Middle School: Independent vs. Collaborative Art

I've turned those webinar topics into a neat bullet list for you. If there's anything else you need, feel free to ask!

Sign-ups are opening this week, so stay tuned for details.

I hope to see you there! go to my website and sign up on my art newsletter to get invited to these free webinars.
👉🏽👉🏽 www.Montessori-Art.com

Wishing you a peaceful,

Spramani

22/07/2024

Why I Use Small Papers for Drawing & Painting

My signature hack, which you can learn in all my books and curriculum, is to use small quarter-size papers for children. It might seem too small, but there are many amazing reasons why I have been doing this for years.

First, after working with thousands of children, I realized a large piece of paper is really hard to fill up.

The second thing is young children are not planning just quite yet, and they go through paper fast. Older artists plan more ideas out, but beginner artists are just exploring. So I like to slow them down.

Another important thing is that I only use quality types of paper. For painting paper, you can use thick uncoated card stock or watercolor paper.

This way you can give more quality paper by taking one large size and getting four parts out of it!

For drawing, you can use simple copy paper, the kind you use in your printer. 24 # bond uncoated. I quarter these from an 8.5 x 11 sheet and get 4.25 x 5.5.

You can also quarter doodling scrap paper to this size. Kids love rummaging through baskets of small papers.

This is my signature hack! I have been sharing this tip for years.

I even give elementary-grade children the same sizes of small paper. If children need or ask for a larger piece of paper, you can give them the size they need. I like to encourage them to plan and have intention before they use the larger paper.

The important thing is to give children quality materials without wasting.

You can learn more about my art teaching method by reading my books, curriculum, and viewing my art training videos.

Many parents and teachers internationally have adopted this idea and given me positive feedback! You can stage these papers on a tray, in a basket, or a card stand.

Be Eco Friendly,

Spramani

All rights reserved, 2024 copyright Spramani Elaun, Nature of Art®

19/07/2024

🐱🎨🐈🐈You might have thought that teaching children how to copy art might teach them how to draw better.

The fact is it does not. It actually teaches children how to follow directions. And too much copy cat work makes children scared to trust their own creative intuition. They start to believe it’s not done right. But art is subjective, and can be finished anyway! 🐈🐈🖌️🖍️

🧒🏻🧒🧒🏿🧒🏼🧒🏾 After teaching thousands of children of all ages how to paint and draw, I’ve observed how this can stifle creative ideas. Once children learn to copy good, it becomes the goal to drawing exactly perfect. Causing frustration and competition, and not feeling good enough.

Now… do I teach children to copy things - yes sometimes. More for practice. I call this a guided drawing lessons or copy-mode drawing. But the idea for these lessons is to focus on learning how to build art elements. 🌿🍁🌱. For example make leaf shapes.

Then after some practice I usually lead my students to customize their art work with their own ideas, switching to creative mode. I talk a lot about this in my books. 📕 📖

🥰 If you are a parent homeschooling or a teacher you can learn all these ideas by buying my art books, curriculum and video trainings. I discuss all these topics and so much more!

If you’re not on my art newsletter/ I invite to join 👆🏽👆🏽👆🏽 📨📧💌 join at Montessori-Art .com

I share these ideas free every week. Spramani- art teacher 🎨🙏🏻 All rights reserved, 2024 Copyright Spramani Elaun, Nature Of Art 🐝

09/07/2024

Are Your Young Students Rushing Through Art Activities?? I have lots of parents and teachers ask me how to get their students to slow down and not rush through art supplies. I decided to record a video on what I recommend you do to slow children down. Art Teacher & Author- Spramani Elaun

Today, I'm excited to share a valuable insight with you on how to guide young students in developing a deeper appreciation for art. Learn about the importance…

02/07/2024

Mural painting with Japanese high school students at California State University San Marcos. Acrylic painting. They wanted to paint a mural that inspired them to think about their future goals and thinking forward.

28/06/2024

Hi friends,

I haven't posted on this page since around 2017. I had started another personal page some time ago, but recently Facebook locked me out of that account. Therefore, I'm back on this old page starting over. In case you messaged me there, sorry I can't see those messages any more.

Many changes have occurred; both my kids are all grown up and have just moved out of the house. I'm still running my business, Nature of Art. Presently, I am a full-time author, traveling internationally art training for Montessori schools, homeschoolers, and offering art curricula. Additionally, I assist women in transitioning their businesses online, similar to what I have done. My daughter Laurun Cruz-Clippinger started a new business called Elaun on Insta selling women's apparel. I'm a partner there. My son Spencer (AKA Elex) also works online and makes music. Both kids doing there thing.

I hope you are all doing well, and in case you are curious about my return to this page, it's due to the issues with my previous account. https://www.facebook.com/spramani.elaun.18 I'll be doing a lot of posting here from now on. :)

Those posts you see from my current facebook I'm locked out are now coming from my Instagram account rather than Facebook.

If you wish to learn more about my recent endeavors, feel free to visit my two websites listed below. Unfortunately, along with losing access to my Facebook account, I also lost my business page – Montessori Art Tribe. (https://www.facebook.com/montessori.art.tribe)

Consequently, I am in the process of rebuilding it within my old Nature-Of-Art-Kids business page. It's quite frustrating to have lost five years of work and connections with thousands of friends.

Great to see old faces on here!

27/03/2024

I recommend using watercolor paper or thick
uncoated papers to paint on for early childhood or elementary grades. Using a heavier paper is more stable. Regular bon paper will rip or become soggy when painted. These are some of the systems I explain in both my Montessori Art guides for early childhood and elementary grades. If you want to learn more visit my free blogs, buy my art guides or take a free video training. I'll list links in comments below.