Teaching Art Appreciation to Children

How do you build an appreciation for art in young children? Specifically, how do you engage their imaginations and get their creative juices flowing? Is there a best-approach method for introducing kids to great masterpieces, sparking lively discussion and fresh inspiration for their own artistic creations?

There are likely countless approaches to introducing art to children, but since I only have experience with one... I thought I'd share it! Can't say if it's the best method, but it's one we're having fun with, is simple and takes up minimal space on my bookshelf... something we're rapidly running out of.

We've been using the "Come Look With Me" books that we obtained through the My Father's World First Grade curriculum. These books can be purchased other places, including Amazon.com. I didn't really expect my kids to get much enjoyment at the ages of 5 and 6 from looking at Van Gogh's and Picasso's, but they actually love sitting together and discussing the paintings from these books.

We talk about how the paintings make us feel, the style of dress, the activity taking place, the expressions on faces and answer the questions provided in each lesson. So what then? What's a great hands-on activity for following up the lesson? I wasn't really sure myself until....

A comment was left on my Easter post the other day leading me to the Artsology website where to my delight I found a free compilation of printable coloring pages inspired by famous masterpieces... some of which my kids have learned about in the "Come Look With Me" series.

If you're looking for arts and crafts links, here a few to keep your classroom busy for awhile:
Creativity Portal
Crayola
Danielle's Place
Enchanted Learning
Make Pen & Ink Drawings from Stills

If you'd like to explore the Come Look with Me series, here are a handful of books for your review:


So, what is your own method for introducing young children to art? At what age have you or will you start taking field trips to local art museums? I'd love to hear what others have to say.