August Art Adventures at OMA

This month's Art Adventures class at OMA was great, as usual. Upon arrival, we headed to the Pinkney exhibit. I was a little disappointed since we've seen it the past two times we've been - but this time they armed us with a fun "I Spy" game and sent us on a little scavenger hunt in the gallery looking for specific things decpicted in the art. A game of I Spy and a scavenger hunt top my kids' list of fun things to do, so they loved it. It turned out to be a great way to get the younger kids involved.

Once all the items were found, the kids sat down to talk about the elements that make up art - lines, shapes, colors and textures. They saw the difference between a line drawing (uncolored) and a similar drawing that had been turned into a colorful painting. The teacher brought items of varying textures, and the kids took turns feeling them and describing how they felt. Finally, they learned about the genre of illustration, which Pinkney is famous for, and how his art work is incorporated into books.

My favorite aspect of this class is that we spend half our time in the gallery learning about art and the other half in the studio making our own. For this month's project, the kids used leaves and tracing plates to complete crayon rubbings on paper. Then, they painted over it with watercolor to see how the crayon still shows through. I like how it related to what they had learned about starting with lines and filling in with color.

After matting their masterpieces and enjoying storytime in the gallery, we spent a few minutes checking out the rest of the gallery. The kids love the Therman Statom exhibit, and further on in the museum, we found a piece we want to make at home - a portrait made entirely from fingerprints! Photos of that project coming soon, I'm sure. :)