Page 9 - May Spire 2013

Tot Drop
What can you create with salt,
glue and water color paints?
Can you paint with colored ice cubes?
What interesting designs evolve from using matchbox
car wheels as your “paint brush”?
The ultimate question for teachers to consider in
creating art opportunities for children: What is the
goal—process or product? While it’s amusing to have
a recognizable object to mount on the refrigerator at
home, it is much more valuable for the development of
the child to have an art activity that exposes the child
to new ways of expressing himself or herself and uses a
variety of media and procedures.
Tot Drop teachers are skilled at offering many different
media and materials to highlight learning outcomes
from their curriculum. More than creating “cutesy” craft
projects, our focus is on the process of creating; no
one’s creation needs to look like anyone else’s. Learning
how to hold and control a paintbrush, discovering how
much glue is too much, finding out that red and yellow
mixed together makes orange, creating new forms from
recycled materials—these are the real learnings that hide
behind the cotton balls used to make a bunny or the
buzzing bee made out of tissue paper and a cardboard
toilet tissue roll! The best conversation starter a parent
or grandparent can offer is, “This is amazing/interesting/
beautiful/creative… How did you make that?”
The photos below show the many joyous art forms that
brighten Tot Drop rooms and hallways. Who knows
which one of these young artists will someday exhibit at
the Met or MoMA?!
In His service,
Carol Scott
Director, NPC Tot Drop
Different ways to create spring posies -- older Twos Threes create a spring mural with multi-media
Painting with salt, glue and watercolor -- Fours room
Painting with colored ice cubes --
Threes room
Fours learn to sew by creating a mobile 9