What is really important for STEM education is that children learn how STEM applies to their lives, along with the critical thinking and reasoning skills that will allow them to identify a problem and find ways to solve it. Finding creative approaches to new and existing problems is a key skill needed in today’s economy … More STEM or STEAM? How “A” makes the difference!
Phi, the Golden Ratio, can be found throughout life and the universe. The appearance of phi creates a sense of balance, harmony and beauty in the design we find in nature. Mankind has both applied this same proportion, both consciously and unconsciously, to achieve balance, harmony and beauty in art, architecture, design and composition. The … More Fibonacci Sequence, Golden Number Φ (Phi) and Art
There are many elements of classroom decor that can affect a student’s ability to learn. One school day starts when you pass through the classroom door so this door is the first thing that teachers and students come up with every morning and between the lessons. I truly believe that a classroom should be an inviting … More Classroom door decoration ideas
Telling Time with Salvador Dali: A surreal art integration activity for classroom teachers for telling time! Learning to tell time can be boring for kids! So spice it up and teach telling time in a way your students will never forget! They will have so much fun they will forget they are learning or practicing … More How to teach… telling the time with Salvador Dali
A hand-painted animated drama that feels more like a teaching aid than a movie – but it’s clearly unique, and very much a labour of love. It is a monumental effort by artists who came together to prove that a truly memorable piece of art takes time and hard work. Vincent Van … More Loving Vincent
Edvard Munch’s “Scream” is one of the most recognizable artworks in existence. Once just the Symbolist shriek of a single, mentally ill artist at the dawn of the 20th century, it’s become a projection screen for our own fin-de-siècle anxieties, psychic, environmental, political and, yes, economic. Last spring Munch’s 1895 pastel-on-cardboard version, the third of … More The Scream (Edvard Munch) & inspired lesson plan
Arts integration goes beyond including art projects in class; it is a teaching strategy that seamlessly merges arts standards with core curricula to build connections and provide engaging context. For example, in a math class, you might see students learning geometry by examining Wassily’s Kandinsky’s paintings. Or you might see students learning fractions by examining … More How art unlocks the door to learning
The Starry Night (1889) “This morning I saw the countryside from my window a long time before sunrise, with nothing but the morning star, which looked very big,” wrote Van Gogh to his brother Theo, describing his inspiration for one of his best-known paintings, The Starry Night (1889). The window to which he refers was in the Saint-Paul asylum … More The Starry Night & inspired lesson plan
What is the purpose and value of Art education in the 21st Century? CMA’s Executive Assistant Director and Director of Learning and Experience Cindy Foley makes the case the Art’s critical value is to develop learners that think like Artists which means learners who are creative, curious, that seek questions, develop ideas, and play. For … More Teaching art or teaching to think like an artist?
In terms of how art makes us think, consider the kinds of things we have in mind when we talk about teaching thinking. We want students to learn to ask thoughtful questions, to construct careful explanations, to explore new viewpoints, to see the complexity and dimensionality of the topics they study, to find puzzles worth … More Using Art to teach critical thinking
