~ MMGM ART LAB FOR KIDS EXPRESS YOURSELF ~

~ MARVELOUS MIDDLE-GRADE

MONDAY NON-FICTION

 ART FEATURE ~ 

--  'ART LAB FOR KIDS ~

EXPRESS YOURSELF:  52 CREATIVE

ADVENTURES TO FIND YOUR VOICE

THROUGH DRAWING, PAINTING, MIXED 

MEDIA & SCULPTURE  --

 LEARN MORE ON GOODREADS

ABOUT THE BOOK {from Goodreads}:

Art Lab for Kids, Express Yourself is a fun collection of art activities that encourage children to create freely, using their own thoughts and experiences as a guide.

One of the most important gifts we can give children is to nurture their creativity and allow them to express themselves freely. There's no better way to express yourself than through creative art projects. This is especially true for children because it gives them an outlet to explore their developing interests and strengths.

Art Lab for Kids: Express Yourself contains 52 brand new original art projects that will draw out each young artist as they discover their style, document their thoughts, and build confidence in their unique perspective. Each lesson asks questions and offers personal choices while encouraging diverse approaches and creative thinking.

The Colorful Beasts project, which incorporates discussion of endangered animals with the Blue Rider art movement, asks children to use torn colored tissue paper and glue to create an expressive representation of a favorite vulnerable animal. In I Built This City, children imagine and build their own cityscape using columns of newspaper text to make buildings on top of a watercolor painted background, and detailed with marker.

Many projects include varying examples and executions of the activity to illustrate and reinforce the open-ended nature of the labs, inspiring children to embrace and share their own voice.

Give children the great gift of creative self-exploration with Art Lab for Kids, Express Yourself.

The popular Lab for Kids series features a growing list of books that share hands-on activities and projects on a wide host of topics, including art, astronomy, clay, geology, math, and even how to create your own circus—all authored by established experts in their fields. Each lab contains a complete materials list, clear step-by-step photographs of the process, as well as finished samples. The labs can be used as singular projects or as part of a year-long curriculum of experiential learning. The activities are open-ended, designed to be explored over and over, often with different results. Geared toward being taught or guided by adults, they are enriching for a range of ages and skill levels. Gain firsthand knowledge on your favorite topic with Lab for Kids.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR {from her website}:
Fine artist and art teacher Susan Schwake is best known for her bold use of color in her nature-inspired abstract paintings and for her playful-process oriented teaching style.

In her own work she is most interested in the role color plays in nature and often alters or amplifies color to uplift the work or draw greater attention to overlooked details. She explores and documents her love of nature in her daily art making practice. Profoundly interested in blurring the lines between reality and dreams her landscapes and larger works on canvas feature specific and composite locations rendered in unexpected color.

Along with exhibiting in New England venues, Susan has also created several large-scale, site-specific public artworks for local municipalities including Overnight Art in Portsmouth NH and Art Esprit Shoes of Rochester New Hampshire. Her work has been featured by United Airlines, Editions Boreal, Small Magazine from China, ON Magazine, and others. Her work has been featured online at The Working Proof,Juxtapoz, Poppytalk and Design Sponge. She has written for WhipUp and Illustration Friday Blog about artists, DIY and teaching art. A full list of her gallery exhibitions is under the news section on her site.

Art Educator
Her passion for teaching art and bringing out each student’s personal style has found her working in diverse settings for over 20 years. She has inspired thousands of people in private and public schools, museums and libraries, community organizations, special needs agencies, summer camps, intergenerational facilities, at Plymouth State University and her own little art school, called artstream in Rollinsford, New Hampshire. Susan has also taken her classroom online and offers a series of e-courses that include painting, printmaking and a parent/child class based on her bestselling books.

Author
Susan Schwake has written six books about creating art with children (and daring adults). Released in 2016 by Two Little Birds Publishers, Art Camp, is an easy-to-use collection of self-guided, open-ended lessons inspired by contemporary artists and nature. Art for All Seasons features 40 seasonally inspired creative art projects. These two books follow the release of her first three books from Quarto Publishing, the bestselling Art Lab for Kids series, with over 100,000 copies sold in the USA. The series has been translated into nine languages, bringing her teachings to worldwide audience. Her latest release is Art Lab for Kids: Express Yourself from December 2018.

MY THOUGHTS:
I was impressed with this book on many levels. The 'Getting Started' unit by the author is inspiring and sets the scene for a volume filled with understanding and respecting children's developmental journey through self-expression. Here the author discusses art-making materials and the effective art-making space.

Next she moves on to 'Express Yourself' units on drawing, printing, printmaking, mixed media, and paper. Each unit features eight to twelve projects for children to complete.

Each project, or 'Lab', includes a materials list, a 'What Do You Think?' introduction to the process, stepped-out photos of children working on the project, and stepped-out text instructions for the adult and learner to follow. The photos are in color and are close-ups, and I was pleased to see the genuine enthusiasm on the children artists' faces as they worked on their projects.

My favorite projects include: Woven Eye, Art Trophies, Fold Me a Garden, Stars in the Sky, Tape-Stencil T-Shirt, and the Block-Printed T-Shirt. An interesting Gallery of Artists is included in the back matter.

Highly-recommended for teachers, caregivers, youth group/scout/summer camp and 4H leaders, and adults who want to learn some basics about teaching art to children.

I borrowed this book from the New Book shelf in the children's section of the local public library.

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Learn about more great middle-grade reads by visiting Greg Pattridge's 'Always in the Middle' blog to find the links to other blog posts celebrating Marvelous Middle-Grade Monday!

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My inspirational historical romance short story, 'Handmade Hearts', is free on Amazon June 2nd - June 6th! This story was inspired by a true story. Set in New Orleans during WWII. Click on over to Amazon to download your free copy . . . Enjoy!
LINK TO 'HANDMADE HEARTS'

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