Many years ago when my own children were students in PreK and taught by the amazing Janice Shannon, I vividly recall hearing all about the artists lives they were learning about in class. Many of these artist inspired masterpieces still hang in my home today. This year, I decided to bring the artist study units back to my PreK classroom and the enthusiasm is contagious! We started with a study of Georgia O’Keefe which fit in nicely with our farm unit. We created huge flowers out of brown paper bags and used chalk to create backgrounds akin to Georgia’s clouds. Students really enjoyed creating little clay skulls after reading about how Georgia found beauty in things often overlooked, like bones. Next up was Andy Warhol and we created pop art of cans and painted watercolor portraits of ourselves. The class has been so into learning about new artists that some parents have even taken family trips to museums to see the art in real life. Most recently, I added a unit on a Yayoi Kusama and we had a great time covering ourselves and everything else in dots. These activities have been so well received that they have spilt over into my after school Gator Craft club on Fridays. It is a pleasure to watch the students create connections to art and I am looking forward to more adventures in art as the year progresses. Stay tuned!