Preschool Art Explorers

The DCM Preschool Summer Camp began with an exciting week – Art Explorers. This camp gave children the special opportunity to become familiar with multiple aspects of art like line, shape, color and composition – all through hands-on activities. The preschoolers explored different mediums throughout the week using oil pastels, wire, paint, water colors and more. Each open ended activity was inspired by a famous artist such as Wassily Kandinsky, Vincent van Gogh, or Alexander Calder. One activity was wire sculpture, specifically inspired by Calder. Campers were able to use a Styrofoam base, poke a wire into it and then bend it, twist it and shape it into anything they liked, just as Calder did with his famous wire sculptures. 

To complement the wire sculptures, we read the colorful book Lines That Wiggle by Candace Whitman. Inside the book is a raised, glittery line that squiggles on each page, describing all of the different kinds of lines from “lines that wiggle, lines that bend” to “zigzag lines that light up the sky.” 

The highlight of the week was the group activity that accompanied the reading of Mouse Paint by Ellen Stoll Walsh. Children were able to dip their feet in blue and yellow paint and then walk down a giant sheet of white paper, leaving colorful footprints. As children walked down the paper they stopped to rub the colors together and excitedly saw the colors change. Children seemed to appreciate the light-hearted lesson on color and loved the book that went along with it. Overall, inviting a love of art in children was our ultimate goal and with the multiple activities, children left with a sense of pride in their ability to create unique and interesting art from various materials.

This post submitted by Sarah Prokop, Programs Intern and Mollie Willis, Early Learning Specialist. Video compiled by Sue Kessler, Preschool Camp Coordinator.