Art Journals: How I Love Thee

Did I spell "thee" right?

Anyways, Art Journals. Amazing little things.

My coworker Frannie gave me the idea when she saw it on Pinterest. In fact, she pinned it to her board titled, "Pins for Pam." (Yes...I'm that cool that I get a board just for me!)

In the past year during art, if a student would finish early they would go read a book.

Reminder: I work with 3 and 4 year olds. "Read a book" translates to "Get a book and run around the stage" or "Get a book and play on the stairs."

Needless to say...reading a book doesn't work.

The whole idea behind the journal is to give them a project they can do all on their own in this journal. It embraces their creativeness, allowing them to continue to create art while in art class. Not work on their jumping/climbing skills.

I was pretty ambitious when I started these books. I wanted there to be a quote on each page, so when they look back on them when they can actually read they think "aww...Ms Pam was really cool."

So the first few pages in their books look like this:

 

 

Ya....I can't figure out how to rotate them in the blog. Oiy.

So while it was really cool to have quotes and explanations, I just didn't have the time to keep up with it. Next year I hope to be able to prep it way ahead of time so they are already cut out and I just have to grab a bag and go.

I asked that "composition notebooks" be put on our supply lists....and in parenthesis they put (for art). BAD idea. A few children brought in art notebooks, ya know, the kid that tear out without you even trying at the top? Ugh. I wasn't very happy when I saw that. The whole point is to have a notebook that your child can explore their inner artist in, and in a few years look back and say "Wow! I was 4 when I did that?!"

Lesson learned.

Wow....this is going to be too long. Part II coming....