At last!!! A comprehensive guidebook for teaching the elements and principles of art in the elementary classroom...three years of sequential study, complete with activity and project instructions. This curriculum guide can easily be integrated into any teacher's existing instruction, or used for homeschool families or study groups. The guide outlines three school years, anticipating a 30 minute art class twice a week.

The author, drawing from her experience as a classroom teacher, provides projects for elementary students, including printmaking techniques, tessellations, watercolors, calligraphic lines, organic form sculptures, and value collages. Detailed lessons - developed and tested in classrooms over many years - build on one another in a logical progression and explore the elements of texture, color, shape, line, form, and value, and principles such as balance (formal, informal and radial,) unity, contrast, movement, distortion, emphasis, pattern and rhythm. Each lesson also represents an interdisciplinary approach that improves general vocabulary and supports science, math, social studies, and language arts.

The activities can be applied at any grade level. Though written for elementary school teachers, it can be easily condensed and adapted for middle or even high school students. A beautiful eight-page color insert demonstrates just how sophisticated young children’s art can be when kids are given the opportunity to develop their skills.

190 pages, 8.5 inches by 11 inches.