When staying at home for a longer period of time, it can be hard to find new ways to occupy your young ones. They have unlimited energy and always looking for something new to explore. In this series of sensory art I would like to share my lessons that I taught to my kindergarten classes. At the bottom of the post you will find ideas how to adapt this activity to older kids. It is also a great way of stress release that I'm using in my daily life :)
Materials that we used:
A3 paper
Crayons / oil pastels (pencils or markers would work too)
You will also need access to music :)
At the beginning of the lesson we talked about emotions. How do we feel today; happy, sad, excited. Then we tried to link these emotions with colours and shapes. (These is no right or wrong answer, Every one of us is unique). What are your happy colours? What shapes do you think are angry shapes? (Usually shapes with sharp angles are angry and the nice and curvy ones are happy.)We also talked about that there are different kinds of music, sad, happy, aggressive, ect...
Once everyone got comfy, we started. There are not many rules. First you listen and pick a colour that you think suits that music. Then you start! I tried to encourage my minions not to draw any objects, just feel the music and let it guide their hands. They had to carry on drawing till the music finished. (OK, not the Bartok piece... That's way too long and horrible). Once they filed their paper, they could draw over and over it.
In this activity the path is way more important than the product. Most of the final works looked, how to say this... horrible... :) BUT! We all understood that art can help us express our emotion and it doesn't matter whether we create something pleasing for the eyes or not. It's the journey that matters.
This is the list of music that I played for them:
ALTERNATIVE VARIATION FOR MIDDLE AND HIGH SCHOOL:
Instead of drawing only shapes and using colours you can think of a place that music is remind you. It doesn't have to be a real space, better if you create your own imaginary world. Close your eyes and listen carefully. Is it a happy place? What would be your ideal happy place? This was an alternative project for my middle school kids that took weeks to complete.
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