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Summer Arts Activities for Children

Summer Arts Activities for Children

It is a simple fact that funding for the arts in schools is dropping, reducing the time spent on them. Having fewer opportunities to explore the arts is a shame because the arts play an important role in children’s math, reading, problem-solving and critical-thinking skills. And there is the inescapable fact that the arts can bring joy as well as learning fun to children, resulting in the creation of a satisfying interest in them throughout their lives. Our summer learning activities are designed to take up the slack from the disappearing arts programs in the schools.

Begin with Dance

Dance is a great way to gain better balance and coordination. It also is a different way to exercise that is a lot of fun as well as a way to express your creativity. Here are some ideas for a fun-filled week of family dancing.

  • Dance to a dance exercise video.
  • Put on some music and have everyone dance as if they were different kinds of animals (chicken, elephant, cat and so on).
  • Put on different kinds of music and just respond to the beat.
  • Watch shows with dancing, from ballet to “So You Think You Can Dance.”
  • Attend a dance production in the community.

Explore the Theater

Your first arts activity involved dancing. Keep on dancing as you explore the arts of drama and the theater:

1. Search the newspaper or online for local productions by theater groups and colleges to give your children a taste of what the theater is like. Then try to attend one of these productions or see a rehearsal.
2. Take part in a children’s theater arts program, such as Journey Theater Arts Group, that will let them learn more about acting or the behind-the-scenes activities involved in putting on a play.
3. Go to Zoom Playhouse to find plays for the family to perform. You don’t need to memorize a role; just read it over silently several times so everyone can read their role easily. These plays are really CUTE!
4. Watch a play on television with your children.

Introduce Your Children to Sculpture

To most children, art centers on painting and drawing. This week expand their artistic creativity to sculpture by giving them the opportunity to create actual objects. Your children can use a variety of materials to create sculptures, such as Play-Doh, sand, wood, Styrofoam, rocks, soap, paper, LEGO™, Tinkertoys™ and ornaments. They can carve the materials, glue them together or shape them with their hands. We’ll give you several ideas of projects; however, you can find many more by searching online for “sculpture activities for kids.”

  • Play-Doh is a great beginning material for young sculptors. Unfortunately, if it is allowed to harden, it is likely to crack. To avoid this, look for oven curable clay in your local craft stores to make lasting creations.
  • Sand is also a great sculpting material. Wonderful castles can be created in sandboxes and at the beach. To preserve them for a few weeks, spray them with hair spray or use a mixture of 10 parts sand, 1 part glue and 3 parts water.
  • Your children also can make edible sculptures by using a combination of pretzel sticks and mini and large marshmallows. They can form them on a graham cracker base and glue them together with frosting.currentIssue

Paint Like the Masters

Painting teaches children how to communicate visually and enhances the fine motor skills of young children and the creativity of older children. This week, increase your children’s knowledge of famous artists by having them paint in the artists’ styles.

Begin by looking online or in art books at the paintings of several artists. Some interesting choices are: Georges Seurat, whose paintings are made of dots that somehow blend together. There is also Piet Mondrian, who later in his career only used vertical and horizontal straight lines and the colors red, blue, yellow and black. They also can view the work of Jackson Pollock and then fling paint from sticks or large brushes onto canvasses to imitate his style. Take your older children to an art museum with a sketching pad. Then encourage them to copy several paintings that they find appealing.

Bring Music into Your Lives

Early musical training contributes to the development of the left side of the brain, which is involved in language processing. And music helps children learn to think creatively. Start your children listening to and making music as early as you can.
1. It’s Fourth of July time. Play John Philip Sousa patriotic tunes and march around the house.
2. Have a family picnic in a park and enjoy a free band concert.
3. Visit www.schoolhouserock.tv with your school-age children. They can have fun learning grammar, multiplication and science to such lively tunes as “Multiplication Rock” and “Conjunction Junction.”
4. Make musical instruments, from drums to tambourines, for your young children to play. Look online for “homemade musical instruments” for more ideas.
5. Start your children on music lessons.

Learn More about Photography

Teach your young children the basics of taking pictures. Older children should read the camera manual and play with all of the options to take better pictures. Show your children what great photography looks like by visiting an exhibition of photographs or looking at the works of great photographers in books and online.

Peggy Gisler and Marge Eberts have taught at every level from kindergarten through college and have co-authored more than 100 books. They have also been in the trenches getting six children through school. Their children have run the gamut, from being in gifted and talented programs to special education resource rooms. Because of their experiences, they see themselves as interpreters between parents and schools as they have been on both sides.

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