Transcripts
1. Introduction: In this course, I share how
to create art with children. I share my experience after eight years of creating
with children. I hope you will find it useful. So let's do it.
2. How to prepare the place for the workshops: How to prepare your place
before art workshops. I propose plastic mats, foil on the table, and we'll make sure that you can have fun
with the children. And any paint splashes or clay that will land on them
is okay with you. Then if you are working maybe with your all
your own children, you can put in them clothes that you don't
mind become dirty. This way. You focus
on the children. You can help them, you
can create with them. And it puts you on, is, if you create with paper, then you can prepare the
right size of the paper, the right amount of, of the paper, the right color. You can prepare
scissors or crayons. If you work with this, I invite you to divide your
project into small stages. Especially if you work
with large group, you can control the overall
progress and dynamism. This as well puts you on. Thanks.
3. Read and research about safety of the materials beforehand: Make sure that the materials
that are used are safe. Paint should not
contain heavy metals. Oil paints for which
solvents such as turpentine or not
advice they could take. Heavy metals and chemicals. Powdered clay dust is harmful for children,
lungs, and ice. With younger children,
it is advised to work with water-based materials. However, if you work
with teenagers, make sure to inform them with what kind of materials
you will work with. And if they will show
any negative effect, advised them to step
back and take a break. If you work with oil paints, make sure that air
circulation is possible. I'll always ask
whether there are any allergies that you
should be aware of. While working with young
children up to three year old, makes sure that the size of
the objects you work with is not too small As they
will try to taste it. Glitter is not advice
with very young children. As some of them wrap their eyes. You can work with
uncooked pasta, but do not use uncooked beats, beans, or seats
as they are toxic above two adults and children. If you're working with scissors, then makes sure that the right size is provided
to the right age group. Read the information at
the back beforehand, or ask for the information from the person that is
providing the materials.
4. Make wise decisions about used materials: Make wise choices
about materials. Use materials that
you don't mind will be wasted or
broken in any way. It will take stress out of
you and children and allow you to focus on the
task. And the children. If you're buying paint, maybe you don't need the
most expensive ones. They can be broken. They can be intermixed
with each other. If you are buying brushes, then maybe you shouldn't buy expensive brushes
like this one's made out of sable hair that need to be looked after
as well. Very well. Maybe you can buy some
synthetic brushes that are available
in every shop. Or maybe you can try to find something even
in a grocery store. This brush is for
oil for baking, but it can be as well using for some interesting patterns
for paint. A painting.
5. Age appropriate expectation about attention span: Having age appropriate
expectation about attention span is
a good place to start. Reasonable attention span
to expect of a child is two to three minutes
per year of their age. Two-year-old child can focus
for four to six minutes. Four year old can ignore some distractions
such as coal for dinner. They can spend seven
to eight minutes on a single activity or as much as 15 minutes if the
activity is something new, especially interesting,
such as for example, visit for in a doctor's office for eye exam with a small group. A four year old child may spend five to ten minutes playing
without interruption. Five-year olds can ignore
more distractions. Distractions, they can focus on a single interesting activity
for up to 15 minutes. And they can be as then they can have a sign at tasks
for four to six minutes. If it's easy and interesting. As small group of children
can work or play together without interruptions
for ten to 25 minutes. Recognize that
personal interests remains the most important
motivation for children, and it will double the time
of the attention span. What is more
interesting for adults is that the child's attention
span can be extended, especially when the activity is made with some creativity. This can be used for, especially with the task that
are not liked by children. Tissues such as cleaning up, putting things
back on its place, or even maybe doing homework. If we will use song
for cleaning up. If we will use maybe
some meat, maize. Or maybe we'll make up
story connected with all the tasks that are
supposed to be done. Then children will follow up
with a story, their minds. We're in love stories. And this can be, this, this task for them can be associated with
something pleasant, something joyful for them. Another idea is to check in
with the child frequently. If the task they are
assigned is hard, then by checking in and giving the opportunity
to receive help, children can ask questions and release frustration they have. If we will help them, then they will keep the focus on the task and they
will not aborted. For older children, it's as well great idea to
build in short breaks. Every 20 minutes. There can be five-minute
break for refreshing, demand for refreshing the body. Move a little bit. If it's possible. It will give new ideas and new energy to
children's minds. And the performance overall
will be much better. And we will see
happy faces as well. Which is exactly what we would like to see
at the very end.
6. Complexity of project according to age: Think about complexity of
projects according to age. Especially if you are
an artist yourself. You need to keep in mind
that what is easy for you does not have to be easy for others, especially for children. So before making a workshop, you need to look up with what age group you
will work with. If they will be in
the same age group, then you can expect that
they will have more or less the same abilities and attention span with
toddlers as well. You need to keep in mind
that they will need maybe more assistance and you
will need more time to help each of each child. Here, I would like to show
you two were to origami. I'm projects. One is great to do
with older children. Dad would like to have something complex and more
engaging to work with. However, if we would like to do it with children that
are 23 years old, that would be almost impossible and we would get lots of tears. And that wouldn't
be fun for anybody. However, if we maybe tried
to make something simpler, such as this bulge paper Bolt, which is as well quite
challenging for smaller children. But maybe together, you
could do it with them. However, they
could, for example, color it decorated later. And this would give
them as much joy. So it's always great to see how complicated things
they can do so that they can really enjoy what
they're doing and they can finish it from
the very start to the end. This will give
them satisfaction. It is as well always to have
a margin of time so that some unexpected events that can happen are not ruining the time that you should
be working with children. It can be spillover water, it can be toilet time or
maybe some emotional reaction and that you need to react
to and maybe count somebody. So you need this time margin for this Evans so that
you can currently create project with other
children and as well have this extra time for
this unexpected Evans.
7. Set rules of workshops beforehand: Signing agreement
before workshops. It can be hand
stamp, for example. Clear out what
behaviors are allowed, explain what are
the consequences. And most important, use
natural consequences. If something would be
broken or spilled water, it needs to be cleaned up
by the person that did it. If something broke,
but it can be fixed than it should be fixed
by the person that did it. If something, if the
project is not possible to finish because child
deliberately destroyed it, then leave it that way. Those are the methods to teach that to our choices of behavior. They are positive and
negative consequences. That way, you are helping yourself and children
by being prepared. You do not have to overreact to unexpected
unexpected events.
8. How to explain and give instructions: I can remind myself
when I was little, how nice it was
when a teacher came over and explain something
with a calm voice and manners. I remember that I
could fully focused on the task and I could grasp
where I couldn't understand. I could fix it very quickly. If you may be do not recall
such situation yourself than I can tell you that
it is very important how we give instructions
to the children. A calm voice and manners put to run at ease when
they are in group, they want to put their best. And all of a sudden, if something goes wrong, children can get very nervous and anxious about
their abilities. By slowly showing the
instructions we are allowing everybody to follow the steps
and understand it deeply. It can make a great difference. If you are not used to
explaining things to others, you can practice it
with your friends, with your partner, with dog, or even with a plant. You can as well make
a video and then look at added once again and
see where you can improve. How the instructions
you are giving can be clear and maybe how you
can improve your voice. Now, I will show you
how I give instructions to make this simple
paper airplane. So first, first we have
clean sheet of paper. We are folding it in the middle. We are taking age
corner and stick it together as if we have
two clips in our hands. We stick it together
with our finger. We go across. We go across. Okay. Then we show what we did. Yes. We can ask, Does everybody has this step. We can see clearly maybe some children will need assistance so we can
wait with another step, make sure that
everyone is following. When every body has, has done this step, then we can follow. It's good to make children
look at the table so that they can see as well what
is happening at the table. And at the very end, we see the third fault here. We take this forward with
our fingers like this, and we pushed the
other sides back. And there we have it. We have our super fast airplane. Yes. There we have it like this. Okay. So now, if not, everybody has it done. I will follow everybody who needs help and then
we will continue. So please be patient. When everybody is done. We will continue. There is still one step
with the airplane. And you can make sure
that everybody has done the folding correctly. When everybody has
the aeroplane. Then you can follow with the last step, which
is decoration. So you can strap that. Now. We have, we have, for example, it can
be pens like this. Or if you would like, you can use a paint. Everybody can decorate their
airplanes that this way. They make it their own so that
not one of it is the same. So you should always say
that if you need assistance, if you need a help,
raise a hand. And I will come to you this way. If someone is struggling, they do not feel abandoned. If we will say the other person, I know you can do it
because you are so smart. I know you know that. Then it gives a boost to their
mind today intelligence. And they really can make more. And this is something that you can use with the
children frequently, frequently because it
will help you and it will help them to figure out
maybe something new. This gives lots of clear understanding to
children to follow the steps, which for me, for example, I could for this airplane
with closed eyes, but it is because I
am doing it so often. And it's been such a long time
since I've been doing it. But if they do it
for the first time, it is very important to
be clear and calm and help everybody so
that they do not feel that they are left and
they do not understand. And every thing is
broken and they will start crying because
everything falls apart. It is great, great improvement on our side if we
will learn how to explain. Because this way, the work with children
will be so much easier. They will react to us in a
different way, if you can. You can experience it yourself. Try once, explain it very commonly with
very calm manners. And once tried to, for example, expect that
they should know it. Why you don't know it. It's so simple. Come on. You will see, you will see different, great,
great difference.
9. Let them choose: Giving a choice, it's always
important for children. It has quite high priority. Having a sheet of paper
in certain color is sometimes way more important
than you would have thought. I have experienced it
many times where because I did not have enough
paper in certain color. Or the workshops were
in some way broken. And it was not easy to bring smile and enthusiasm
to children's faces. Thanks.
10. Less is more use fewer elements and colours: Less is more used, fewer colors, or you can always prepare
something extra for later. Well, you see that
everything goes smooth. Children can choose from to
treat up to five colors, but not from ten or 20. Let's imagine here. We have 60 colors of crimes. If children would have
to choose hue of them, it would take them a long
time and a lot of energy to choose from such a
huge range as well, they would start to
focus on the material itself rather than the tasks
that they are performing. Grad is as well. An article for you as a
person that is making the workshops is
that the case will get very messy and
distracting for them. Than introducing fewer elements
is very useful and puts the focus on the task and put at ease the mind of participants. Thanks.
11. Let the childen make mistakes and practice their skills: You can say out loud that
mistakes are okay and welcome. I'm children put too much
pressure on themselves. Children are not able
to hold tools like pencils and brushes
as good as adults. So encouraged him to practice. Not drawing perfect lines or other shapes is okay. With that. They will enjoy the time
you spend with them, even if they will
struggle a bit. Let them practice without fear. Yes, they should try. But it is a practice
that makes you Master.
12. The space for children's creativity: Be creative. Leave space for the creativity in
group of children. If you give exactly the
same topic for a painting, you will get ten
different stories. Children can add a little bit that will give a new meaning. Then therefore, do not be strict about how the
outcome should be. It is great to see how they see and believe me, at the end, you will be surprised
and you will see simply, wow, I did not see that coming. It is as well great
idea to create workshops that in turn can
influence in a major way. It does not mean putting a
blank page in front of them, but create a skeleton
that will lead to them. However, it will not tell them strictly how did the
creation should look like, how the sizes should look like, so that they can create
with the imagination. And they can influence
in a major way.
13. How to understand how children see the world: How can you try to
understand what children notice
and see if you can ask them questions and listen to the answers
to today answers, what do they describe? What is important to them? They see the world
in a different way. Things which are important
for adults or not, what can be very
important for children. Maybe having paper in a certain color can be over
great priority for them. Listen to their reactions
and acknowledge it. You can always ask why
something is important and then try to
explain or negotiate. But first of all, try to
understand and listen.
14. Use the advantages that you already poses: If you work with
children, you know, use it as your advantage. What are the likes or dislikes? You can ask the parents,
guardians, or teachers. This will help you greatly in deciding what kind of
Tamar it should be. And maybe you can
introduce something new. But by using topics
that they like as well, if you feel more comfortable in some kind
of artistic technique, then use it, you will be
more confident with it, and it will give you a boost of confidence and
focus on workshops. So think about any advantages, any field that you
feel more comfortable with and use it for
your own health.
15. Persuade, convince and learn the art of negociation: Not forced to run to lag something,
persuade and convince. And above all, learn
the art of negotiation. Children are great masters
to get what they want. So should you be great
master of being persuasive, convincing, and knowing
how to negotiate. You should be prepared
that sometimes things will not go as smoothly. And simply as you have planned. Children are not robots
and they will not always perform exactly
what you want them to. If you introduce something
new, put a stress. Why is it nice? What is great about it? How you can have fun
up front about it. If you have problem
with a child that wants something else than
you have planned, then try to negotiate with the child how
it can be resolved. For example, it can be
topic for the next lesson. And this way, you will
keep your promise. The next workshops
will have that team. But the workshops
that you have at the time will not be
completely destroyed. So this ability is
really a great help. I will give you more
resources in materials on how to learn to negotiate.
16. Prize children for their effort: Price them for pressing each child for the
effort and asking questions about what
they did and why they did it engages Tim and
boosts their confidence. Good words are always welcome. Even if you think they
are not getting true, they are, they will come
back to you maybe later. So it's not always obvious. Most of the time you will
see instant reaction, smile and brighter faces. But sometimes you need to wait. Maybe you need more good words. Everybody likes to feel
appreciated. Adults as well. Think how credit fields when
somebody appreciates what, appreciate something you
have done and stresses how much effort you've put
on it and how great it is.
17. Manage time for children: Say out loud, how much
more time is left? Remind every, every little
while how much more time. Do not fully understand
time awareness comes to them when they start
to understand a watch. So it is around becoming
a school child. Until, until then, time
is quite vague concept. And it is task for
adults to help manage it and help to control
it for children. Friendly reminder now
and then helps them make a decision of what is a priority
and what should be done.
18. Uncomfortable questions: Children can pick up on anything, ask
uncomfortable questions, prepare yourself then,
how can you answer with a joke or just become
confident and instructive? Making jokes, jokes is
remedy for good atmosphere. Laugh is healthy and helps. In many situations. Adults are taught to not ask
uncomfortable questions. But children are simple, curious, and they
want to know why. Therefore, being patient and instructive is the
best way to help them understand and not to feel offended on
embarrassed yourself.
19. Believe in YOURSELF!: Believe in yourself too quick to pick up on
stress or nervousness. Be confident in your abilities. Even if you don't have
lots of experience. Affirm yourself and smile a lot. It puts an East children and
yourself. You can do it.
20. Conclusion: Thank you for watching. It was quite something new
to create this lesson. I hope you have learned
something new and we'll use it to create something
great with children.
Anna Rozanska
