Every time I introduce a new artist to the kids, I try to picture what type of artwork we can make inspired by the technique, materials, and subject matter. It is where my mind goes to first. That makes sense because it's a natural mental jump to look at an artist's work and think about how to also create art. As a former art teacher, this is also something that comes fairly easy to me. I look at art and I see five or six potential projects.
The bigger challenge is imagining arts integrated play that will engage a toddler and preschooler. With each art unit, I try my best to create an opportunity to play with the art. Whatever I come up with needs to be engaging or novel enough to earn attention. With a basket of Magna-Tiles or trains sitting near by, it's easy for an invitation to play to get overlooked.
It's also nice (although not necessary) if the invitation to play ties into some of the things that we are looking at in our Art unit. If the item of play can be a learning tool and a play thing - well that just makes my whole body smile.
Our latest unit focused on the artist Kehinde Wiley. His art is bold, dramatic, exquisite, and completely captured the hearts of both Rémy and Sierra. Throughout this unit geared for toddler and preschool aged kids, we talked about portraiture, subject, background, and pattern, so I was looking for an opportunity that would let them play around with these big ideas.
The activity I landed on was a magnetic mix and match to hang up on our fridge. I created background patterns based on parts of Kehinde Wiley's work, and then isolated the subjects. I mounted all the images to magnetic sheets, allowing the children to try out the subjects on each of the different backgrounds. If they look carefully at the people, they see clues that point to the correct background match.
I used these magnets when discussing the idea of background vs subject. It was super helpful to physically separate the two concepts. By the time we were painting, my 22 month old was telling me she had a "flower background".
But mostly, the magnets were up on the fridge (or eventually on the oven and the washing machine). The kids played with them in all sorts of expected and very unexpected ways. Sierra took to carrying around the magnets as emotional support, saying they made her feel calm or happy - not what I imagined when I created these things, but totally amazing!
The magnets are still hanging on our fridge. I admit that they are worn out - the edges frayed and the subject's arms hanging on by mere threads. It is the proof of play.
If you'd like to create your own Kehinde Wiley Mix and Match Magnets, pop over to resources here, and download the images. Then cut out, mount to magnetic sheets, and let the fun begin! Please share with me how the play goes in your house...
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