Discovering Great Artists: Hands-On Art for Children in the Styles of the Great Masters (Bright Ideas for Learning (TM))

We’ve been going through this book for art in CC - our homeschool group. We’ve loved all the projects for the kids so I thought I’d get my own copy so we can recreate the experience at home too! It’s been a fun way to imitate the great artists!

As an elementary school art teacher, I refer to this book frequently when I need new ideas. It covers so many time periods and styles of art. Each page features a famous artist a small blurb about that artist, and an art activity. The difficulty of the projects range from easy to more challenging, and the prep time for the lessons range from a few minutes to more involved. It is easy enough to modify the lessons for different age groups. The back of the book has several cute art history games. I could even see this book being useful for scout leaders and after school programs. The only drawback is that there are no color photos of the artist or their work, so a good art history book or other source of color photos is essential.

This is a wonderful book for ways to spark an interest in both art as an activity and art history. I work with kids from ages 2 - 13 and this book has ideas that will work for most of that range. A variety of materials are suggested and the historical information helps bring perspective to the artists work, even for young minds. I highly recommend this for the home or school. I even bought one for my daughter's middle school art teacher for use at the school.

I have been looking for a new ways to teach children about art, and this book had all that I was looking for and then some. I am very impressed with the stress on the process over the finished product and the wonderfully creative approaches used to teaching children about art. A terrific book!

This book was very helpful in putting together my art studio curriculum. I teach fine and creative art to small children. I needed more great lessons to expand my classes...This book was so great that it dissapeared soon after my classes started...I have looked everywhere...and assume that it is a lost cause. I am here to buy a new copy. I highly recommend this book for teachers as well as parents. No child is too young to start exploring art! Especially with an enthusiastic adult!

Intoduce your kids to the great artists by doing projects that imitate the artists style. For example, read a short paragraph about Michelangelo's life and then mimic his technique by lying on the floor and painting the "ceiling" above (tape paper to the underside of a table for the "ceiling").