“A” is for Art!
 
Wait a minute, I thought it was just STEM? When did we add an A? Don’t worry if you missed the A in STEAM, we are here today to talk about it, and why art matters in STEM. 
 
You’ve probably guessed, the A is for Art! Adding art to STEM education allows for our children and students to have time and room for creative expression, collaboration, and teamwork. Art can be a lot of different things, not just painting or drawing. Under the Arts umbrella we include writing, theater, music, dance, and so much more. 
 
How can you incorporate art at home? So many ways! Use writing prompts to encourage your child to write a story or a play. Make up dances to your family’s favorite songs. Make puppets out of old socks and put on a puppet show. Just like with engineering, remember that the process is the important part- allow your child to make messes and fail. The end product does not need to be professional, its about the skills your child practiced and learned while they were creating and expressing themselves. 
 
One of our free resources at the library, Parent TV, has so many great resources for art at home. To get started, follow this link to ParentTV and use your library card number and pin to log in! Now that you are logged in you can explore! Check out these videos on drawing, music, painting, and dance. 
 
 
The art of teaching art to children : in school and at home
by Nancy Beal

In this accessibly written guide for classroom and art teachers as well as parents, Nancy Beal shows how to release children's marvelous gifts of expression. Beal believes that children must first of all be comfortable with their materials. She focuses on six basic media: collage, drawing, painting, clay, printmaking, and construction. She gives practical consideration to all facets of a teacher's responsibility: how each material should be introduced; what supplies are best; how a classroom may be set up to support children's explorations; and how teachers may ask open-ed questions to stimulate personal and meaningful expression. Beal also discusses how to integrate art into social studies and how to make museum visits productive and fun. Each chapter includes a section specifically for parents on helping their children create art at home.
The art book for children. : Book Two Book two
by Amanda Renshaw

Encourages young readers to explore objects of art along with concepts such as clocks, time, music, mirrors, collecting, trust, movement, line, and shape, and explains how great artists used these themes to create their works
The art box
by Gail Gibbons

An introduction to creating art describes the many different kinds of tools and supplies that artists use to draw and paint, and teaches about the three primary colors and how other colors can be made from them.
Kids' art works! : creating with color, design, texture & more
by Sandi Henry

Provides more than fifty hands-on projects for original artwork, while teaching a variety of techniques and concepts in sculpture, prints, design, textiles, and texture
The art lesson
by Tomie DePaola

Having learned to be creative in drawing pictures at home, young Tommy is dismayed when he goes to school and finds the art lesson there much more regimented
M is for masterpiece : an art alphabet
by David Domeniconi

While introducing readers to famous artists, mediums, tools, and techniques, an A to Z pictorial uses simple poetry to introduce topics such as color, Easter Island, impressionism, Frida Kahlo, and landscape.

Handley Regional Library System
100 W Piccadilly St
P.O. Box 58
Winchester, Virginia 22601
(540) 662-9041
www.handleyregional.org