No, no, not that kind of space. When we talk about "space" as part of the elements of design, we are talking about the use of visual area in an art piece. The idea of "space" can be pretty complex in meaning and by no means an easy thing to teach young children. So without trying to verbally teach anything, my goal in this class was to take this abstract idea and make it tangible.

When we create art, we can choose to fill a space, or we can choose to make open space. We translated that idea through our beginning activities. When children arrived, a variety of sensory bins were laid out for them, with containers ready to be filled and dumped, a popular activity for this age group. Another activity option was to make space by hammering holes into cardboard using golf tees and a mallet. Some of the kids weren't sure I was serious when I told them they had permission to hammer holes but they were soon happily banging away on the boxes.

Before we moved on to our main activity stations, I gave each child a scarf and invited them to move throughout the studio space. "How can we use as much space as possible?" "How can we use the least amount of space?" "Can we use just one side of the room and keep the other side empty?" "Hey! you look smaller because you are so far away!" Moving with scarves was a fantastic opportunity to get our wiggles out and understand the area around ourselves.

In our main activity stations, I wanted to build upon the interest in the craft punches I saw in the previous class on "shape." Instead of just using the positive shape the craft punches stamp out, I asked kids to also use the paper with the negative shape left behind. I absolutely love how the positive and negative shapes interacted on the page.​

Our second station also made use of positive and negative space. When I planned on using stencils for class, I figured kids would enjoy them, but I had no idea this station would be so popular. We had to rearrange the station several times to fit everyone in.

Some students chose to sponge paint their stencils. Others chose the dry-quick option of tempera paint sticks. Both options had vibrant results.

At our third station, I wanted to create a new painting experience for students by restricting the range of their paint brushes. Students were challenged to paint their pictures through the holes of various crates. The limitations of movement didn't limit the amount of fun. Some students stayed at this station to make several works of art.

This class was so much fun for me to teach. It was an energetic class full of color and joy. Space as an element of design is super abstract, but student's understanding of it expanded through concrete application. These experiences will help build student's foundational knowledge for when they discuss space as an abstract concept when they are older.

Shape is a familiar concept to young children. Us parents and teachers are often quizzing the kids in our lives, "What shape is this?" The familiarity of the subject made it easy for students to quickly engage and remained focused in our Elements of Design class. We began class playing with shapes that we could explore with our hands - MagnaBlocks, wood blocks, Duplos, pattern blocks, and GeoBoards. Young students learn best when moving, touching, and doing. One little girl jumped up from her work and announced, "Hey! Two triangles make a diamond!" She would not have learned that from me telling her. She needed to discover it.

I often like to set-up my Mini Makers classes with stations. This allows kids to flow where their interest is and spend as much or as little time as they want on a project. I find there are some children who are very detail-oriented and will spend an entire class on one project. Then there are other kids who are always on the move and like to sample many projects.

One project in our shape focused class was creating shape collages. I offered some pre-cut shapes from the supply shelf, but the magic of this station was in the craft paper punches. A couple of boys spent a solid twenty minutes solely punching various shapes. When I asked them if they would like to glue any of the shapes onto a background, they replied they were happy to continue punching more shapes.

This is the beauty of a process art class. Those boys were not interested in creating a product they could keep. They were engaged in learning about a new art tool, knowledge they can later apply to their artwork. In my next blog post, see how we build upon their new understanding of this tool to talk about positive and negative space.

At a second station, I asked kids to look for shapes in their everyday world. We used stamping as a method of capturing those shapes. 

In a process art class, we let creativity take us in all sort of directions. One student announced that our paint palette - a paper plate - was a circle and she wanted to paint that shape. We ran with the idea and she spent a good chunk of time filling her circle shape with color. We want the art studio to be a place that fosters experimentation and ideas beyond what is already planned.

Our third station was a collaborative piece. I had pre-drawn various open geometric shapes on large butcher paper and taped it to a board. I propped the board up on the floor like an easel, making it easily accessible. It is important young children have opportunities to write or paint on various surface angles because the change in wrist movement works different muscles. Variation leads to increased muscle control.

I asked students how they would choose to fill the shapes with paint. I was amazed to watch a two-year old spend the entire class at this one station, quietly painting alongside her mother. What a valuable bonding experience!

What is a line? It's simply a moving dot. Movement is also the best way children engage with the world. Our class focusing on Line began with several immersive activities where students became the moving dots.

​We began with a Montessori-style activity, "Walking the Line," inviting children to use their whole body, refining balance and control. Some children used their creativity and adapted the line to become a road to drive a car.

To continue our work with gross motor muscles, children were invited to pretend markers were ice skaters and to use big arm movements to "skate" across the butcher paper. A wordless book titled "Lines" by Suzy Lee provided inspiration.

We also made sure to work our fine motor skills - smaller muscles that will help children grasp writing utensils and art tools. Students were invited to use their pincer fingers to build various lines with loose parts.

Our last opening activity was a bit of a puzzle. Toy cars were parked at the beginning of a line. Students were challenged to drive their car through the maze, staying on the correct line and making it to the correct garage. This took some focus and sometimes a bit of teamwork.

After all that movement, we were ready to sit for a bit and work on our main project. The invitation was simple - black paper, glue, and strips of bright paper. 

I encouraged Mini Maker's to experiment with line directions and soon we had some examples of cross-hatching. I also reminded students that sometime lines are different lengths and they aren't always straight. 

We ended class with a quick project for early finishers. Students were invited to create a line design on a small canvas with rubber bands and washi tape. Once designed, Mini Makers then applied watercolor paint over top. This watercolor resist technique revealed unpainted lines when the tape and rubber bands are later removed.

This week we are wrapping up our class series in Mini Makers on the elements of design. I want to share with you what we do in our Mini Makers classes and how we make some abstract concepts a little more concrete for our littlest creators.

Then we got messy, mixing paint on a large work surface. Only primary colors were available, but it didn't take long for pops of purple, green, and orange to start emerging onto the paper. Mini Makers joyfully mixed with paintbrushes and their hands. Sometimes the color I like to call, "preschool brown" emerged, an important lesson on over-mixing that will build their foundation for later art projects. 

When Mini Makers were ready to move on from painting, we ended class by strengthening fine motor skills with pipettes and food coloring. Little artists watched in wonder as paper towels quickly absorbed the liquid and colors blended into new colors.

Returning this Summer! Kids Art Camp. Art Camp will take place this summer at RLB Art Studio. The tentative plan is to offer Art Camp three times over the Summer, one week in June, one week in July and one week in August. Art Camp Times will be 10am-12pm. Monday-Thursday.  More information will follow. 
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For suggestions or comments please feel free to email Rachel at Rachel@berlinenterprises.net Also be sure to follow us on Facebook. 

"I am very excited to be offering Art Camp this summer and am thrilled that camp will be taking place at the studio. This will allow us to explore many mediums and be able to create art outdoors, weather permitting." -Rachel.