Arts And Crafts In The Elementary School | by Joan Dean
Making things is an essential part of human nature. We start to create very early in life and even under difficult conditions some of our activity is creative. This book explains the role of a teacher in the elementary school in developing a child's creativity.
| Title | Arts And Crafts In The Elementary School |
| Author | Joan Dean |
| Publisher | Philosophical Library, Inc. |
| Year | 1964 |
| Copyright | 1964, Philosophical Library, Inc. |
| Amazon | Arts And Crafts In The Elementary School |
Chapter One. Why Teach Art?- Making things is an essential part of human nature. We start to create very early in life and even under difficult conditions some of our activity is creative. We cannot escape the need to create, and...
- Chapter Two. The Teacher's Task
- The history of education since the First World War has been the history of a growing realization of the importance of developing a child's personality—a realization that education should be a leading ...
- The Teacher's Task. Continued
- Children's work in art and craft is also influenced by their mental characteristics. The particular type of imagery which a child most commonly uses will affect the appeal of varying kinds of work. ...
- Chapter Three. Primary School Children
- In recent years we have come to accept the idea that certain things are best taught at certain ages. We have a reading readiness age, and an age when tables are most easily taught. In the same way we ...
- Primary School Children. Continued
- What particular characteristics have Primary school children which arc relevant to the teaching of art and craft? In the first place the enthusiasm and readiness to have a go of most young children ...
- Chapter Four. Media And Tools
- In what way does the child artist differ from the adult artist? The adult artist is one who has become so conscious of his need to express himself in the forms of graphic art that he has sought opport...
- Chapter Five. Paint
- There are numerous kinds of paint on the market and many factors contributing to our choice. I do not think a manufacturer has yet brought out a more satisfactory medium than powder colour. It is true...
- Paint. Part 2
- What kinds of experimental work can be carried out with these media? In the Infant school, for the most part, children should be given paint and paper and encouraged to paint pictures of their own cho...
- Paint. Part 3
- Most kinds of pattern offer good opportunity for experience in handling different media, and further suggestions will be found in the chapter on pattern making and fabric printing. Work designed to...
- Chapter Six. Chalk, Pastel, Pen And Ink, Pencil And Crayon
- These media have in common the fact that they are all media for drawing in line. This is one reason why they should never be allowed to take the place of paint in art teaching. Although paint can be u...
- Chalk, Pastel, Pen And Ink, Pencil And Crayon. Continued
- The other use of shading is one which is well within the understanding of Juniors and one which I feel will do much to improve the use of pencil. This is the use of shading to show texture. Actually t...
- Chapter Seven. Collage And Creative Embroidery
- Collage has a tremendous amount to recommend it as a way of making pictures and patterns. It is an excellent way of finding out about composition, which is the business of juggling with shapes and col...
- Collage And Creative Embroidery. Continued
- Each child should have a plain or possibly lightly patterned piece of material for the background of her picture. It is, I think, more valuable if there is a choice of background materials, so that ch...
- Chapter Eight. Clay Modelling And Pottery
- Clay, from many points of view, is by far the most satisfactory modelling material available to us. It is comparatively cheap. It can be cleaned away with water. It is much pleasanter to work with tha...
- Clay Modelling And Pottery. Part 2
- If you are going to fire work, you will need various items of small equipment for glazing. Bowls and jugs are necessary— enamel jugs and bowls from Woolworth's and throw-outs from the school canteen a...
- Clay Modelling And Pottery. Part 3
- 2. Dull glaze base. This again, can be obtained from a pottery supplier. It can be used in experiments in making more subde, matt-surfaced glazes. 3. Oxides. I would suggest the following as a begi...
- Clay Modelling And Pottery. Part 4
- 4. Working in relief. Some quite interesting work can be done in relief. Clay can be rolled out into thick slabs, and shapes or figures cut from the slabs. These can be finished in two ways, which can...
- Clay Modelling And Pottery. Part 5
- 4. Slab pots. These, as one would guess, are pots made from slabs of clay. There are several ways of making the slabs, but I think the simplest is to roll out the clay with a rolling-pin. Each child i...
- Clay Modelling And Pottery. Part 6
- There are numbers of ways of decorating pottery. Some of them are suitable only for work which is to be fired, but others can be used on any work. Just as we encourage children to explore all the poss...
- Clay Modelling And Pottery. Part 7
- 4. Slip can also be trailed to form patterns directly on to a pot or tile. These, once again, should be bold, and all fine detail should be avoided. Some good examples of slip-trailed plates can be se...
- Clay Modelling And Pottery. Part 8
- When the pot has been biscuited and decorated it will need to be glazed. Weigh out the ingredients of your glaze, mix them together, and add water until you have a liquid of a cream-like consistency. ...
- Chapter Nine. Other Modelling And Carving Materials
- The use of three-dimensional materials, including clay, creates so many problems of organization in school that, except for Plasticine, they are probably not used sufficiently. They divide roughly int...
- Other Modelling And Carving Materials. Continued
- In a similar way, it is possible to carve in hard clay, although this makes clay enthusiasts raise their eyebrows. For plaster, clay, soap and salt carving, knives are the best tools. Old fdes, too...
- Chapter Ten. Puppetry
- There are a number of crafts which are closely related to the three-dimensional work described in the last chapter. One of these is puppetry. This craft has become very popular in recent years and so ...
- Puppetry. Part 2
- Papier mache heads can also be made by the better-known method of modelling in Plasticine and covering the model with layer after layer of thin paper, pasting between each layer, until the paper is st...
- Puppetry. Part 3
- Making a wooden puppet stage is, however, by no means beyond the ability of Junior children. A very simple one, which can be placed on a desk, and which folds flat when not in use, can be made as foll...
- Chapter Eleven. Needlework
- Another craft which bears some relation to the three-dimensional work discussed earlier, is needlework. We have, in fact, already discussed one aspect of it, that of embroidery. Just as women today ar...
- Needlework. Part 2
- Draw on paper a line AB which is a quarter of the total waist measurement. (Page 100, Fig. 1.) Draw a line AC at right angles to AB. The length of AC is the measurement from the shoulder at the neck t...
- Needlework. Part 3
- Making A Pleated Skirt 1. A straight piece of material and a hand are needed. Fold and pin the material into pleats. 2. Pin, tack and sew the hand in position, allowing an overlap at each end. ...
- Chapter Twelve. Woodwork
- Yet another craft which is connected with the three-dimensional work discussed in Chapter Nine is woodwork. We have long accepted the idea that girls should start learning needlework at an early age. ...
- Woodwork. Continued
- 1. Some work on the nature and growth of wood and on the appearance of the various kinds. 2. Some examination and observation of good and bad pieces of wooden furniture. Some discussion about how t...
- Chapter Thirteen. Pattern Making And Fabric Printing
- Making patterns is a very old and fundamental human activity. The rhythm of repeating lines and shapes gives pleasure to children to day as it did to our earliest ancestors. What do we hope childre...
- Pattern Making And Fabric Printing. Continued
- In addition to the basic ways of making patterns, there are certain basic pattern structures. Children will discover many of these for themselves, given the opportunity and encouragement, but a sugges...
- Chapter Fourteen. Pattern And Texture
- Pattern and texture are two words whose meaning is closely allied. The Oxford Dictionary, among many other definitions, gives for pattern, decorative design as executed on wall-paper, carpet, cloth e...
- Chapter Fifteen. Weaving
- The craft of weaving is very closely connected with the business of selecting and relating pattern and texture. I have stressed in earlier chapters the need to train children for the task of choosing ...
- Weaving. Continued
- When the weaving has been completed, it can be cut off the loom and the ends finished. The finishing will vary according to the use to which the material is to be put, but it is wise, if possible, to ...
- Chapter Sixteen. Colour
- I have suggested earlier some simple experiments with colour which will encourage discovery among the younger children. Knowledge of colour and ability to use it should be growing throughout the Prima...
- Chapter Seventeen. Tone
- Tone, or lightness and darkness, is very closely associated with colour. Most people find good tonal relationships in a picture difficult to achieve, because they find it difficult to dissociate tone ...
- Chapter Eighteen. Drawing
- What are we going to teach children about the techniques of drawing and about the representation of reality on paper? Arc we going to encourage them to draw from life, or are we not? These have alw...
- Drawing. Continued
- It should be remembered in doing this sort of work that children develop at different rates and there may be some in the class who are still at the stage of making two circles represent a figure. Thes...
- Chapter Nineteen. Bookcraft
- One of the dangers of bookcraft teaching is that it is made into a measuring exercise and nothing more. No one will question the importance of teaching children to measure accurately and to use drawin...
- Bookcraft. Part 2
- Another simple binding, a progression from the last, is the single-section binding. For this it is necessary to have the pages of the book joined in pairs and folded round each other. This binding can...
- Bookcraft. Part 3
- Paste out the long wide piece and lay the card so that it overlaps the cloth up to the side lines and so that it lies between the top and bottom lines. Turn the top and bottom cloth over and press it ...
- Chapter Twenty. Line, Shape And Composition
- The business of putting a picture together is a complicated one. It requires ability to put many elements together in a satisfactory relationship. We have already discussed relationships of pattern an...
- Chapter Twenty-One. Classroom Decorations
- There are very few Primary schools where the children do not decorate the classrooms for Christmas. There is, I think, a tendency among teachers to feel that this work is not really a legitimate part ...
- Classroom Decorations. Continued
- These sorts of motif could also be used as decoration for wire Christmas trees, made as decoration for classroom window-sills or for party tables. The trees themselves are shown in the diagram. The wi...
- Chapter Twenty-Two. Planning Work For The Primary School
- In this final chapter I am attempting to summarize some of the suggestions made, under age group headings. It is not altogether easy to do this in an abstract way without particular children in mind. ...
- Planning Work For The Primary School. Part 2
- 7. As a result of work and discussion children should be beginning to appreciate that colours have a lightness and darkness which is not the same thing as colour. They should be able to recognize the ...
- Planning Work For The Primary School. Part 3
- 7-9 years While lower Juniors require quite a lot of opportunities to do work of their own choice, more formal work can gradually be introduced. Definite art and craft lessons with a specific aim c...
- Planning Work For The Primary School. Part 4
- 1. Clay and Plasticine modelling. Work with and without the addition of other materials. The models should be becoming more careful and detailed and additional material selected with greater care and ...
- Planning Work For The Primary School. Part 5
- (b) Line and shape and position in the picture can be used to emphasize one thing rather than another. (c) Lines and shapes and textures need to balance each other. (d) Lines and shapes have emo...
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