Developing Drawing and Writing Skills

1. The three M’s of Developing Drawing and Writing skills.
Before children can become successful in art activities and writing, they need to develop eye-hand coordination skills. By developing these skills the child will be able to hold and control various different implements that are involved. Eye-hand coordination is a combination of small motor and perceptual motor development that allows children to use their sight to direct hand and finger movements as in drawing and writing. For children to be able to draw or wright with a pencil they need to have the finger strength to hold the implement, the need to have small motor control to direct movements of the implement and they will also need to have coordination between vision and hand movements to make the pencil do what they want.
•Manipulation is the first stage of learning, when children are playing around with blocks and building a tower they are manipulating the blocks to build a tower. This is when the eye hand coordination skills come in handy also. As children explore art materials, by holding markers or crayons they are able to start scribbling and making lines on the paper.
•The second stage is Mastery. This is when the child will start practicing their writing over and over. By doing this they are mastering the process.
•The third stage is called Meaning, at this stage the child will begin to create art products that actually represent something. A lot of young children do enjoy drawing family members or the house they may live in.  Some ways to help children progress through the levels is by providing them different types of outlets to express their creativity. By having an art center in the classroom that will include art easels, paints, crayons and colored pencils. Providing them also with finger paints, paint with brushes and construction paper is a great start to get the child’s art skills going. By talking to the children and explaining to them that art is a work in progress. And they do not need to rush their work. I would do rotations and at one of the rotations, it would be meeting with the teacher. I would use the book “Ed Emberley’s Drawing Book of Animals’”. (see the example on the page below). I would have a notebook for each child and we would do the drawing together. The book shows a simple setup for the child to learn. A lot of time, a child will be upset because drawing does not come very easy to them so by practicing drawing, it will give the child the confidence to be able to draw pictures.
2. Scribbles in art development.
At a young age the child will began to scribble, between the age of two and three they will scribble spontaneously.  The child will enjoy making marks on their paper. Between the ages of two and four their scribbles will take shapes of circles, ovals, squares, triangles and crosses and they may be drawn on top of each other. Around the age of four and five the designs will take shape of a sunshine or face, or they may add hair to their person. By the age of five the child will be able to draw animals, cars, flowers and trees. Children will develop and make progress with their art as they age and with practice. Children “are using their first scribbling as a tool to communicate with the world around them, this stage is considered very important because it is seen as the beginning of the child’s literacy development.” (Fleming, 2008)
When children are making uncontrolled scribes they are teaching themselves to hold a pencil or a crayon and be able to make marks on their paper. They are building their small muscle development. Encourage children to scribble, and any kind of scribbling that the child wants to make. Whatever the scribbling looks like you should accept it and encourage the child to do more. Once the child has developed hand control and drawing with a pencil, they will begin to make all kinds of scribbles. Once the child has developed to have control and is able to draw pictures they can now put a name to the scribbles.
Book: Action Jackson By: Jan Greenberg and Sandra Jordan. I would read this book to the whole class. The book has beautiful illustrations and it shows how abstract artist Jackson Pollack made his paintings. I would do two different activities with the class. The first activity would be using black construction paper with white chalk paint markers. And then let the students do their scribbles on the construction paper. The next activity I would have the children do their own drip paintings. This shows the children that it’s ok that their paintings do not look the same and there is no right or wrong painting. “Arts Integration facilitates new ways of thinking in and through curriculum and encourages educators (and students) to make meaningful connections between themselves and the rest of the world and have their own unique journey, thus embodying curriculum.” (LaJervic, 2013).
When introducing painting to children, they will learn to control the brush and then drip the paint. Once the students are able to control their brushes they are on their way to making scribbles of paint on a paper. When using watercolors this gives the children the opportunity to dip the paint brush in to the water and then the paint so they can apply the paint onto paper. The children can try to control where they put the paint brush into each different color. They can also mix the colors to get a mixture of different colors on their paper.
3. Observation
For children to be successful in art activities they need to have the following skills. Skill one, Eye-hand coordination is a combination of small motors skills that they will use hand and finger movements. The skill will be muscle development; the four stages of muscle development are the following. Whole arm, whole hand, pincher and pincher coordination. Children will need these skills to be able to pick up a paint brush or crayons.  Small-motor development uses the skilled use of fingers in the manipulation of various objects. It is important to assess eye hand coordination to make sure that the child is able to handle and hold different objects. If the child is having a hard time with these skills it may be a good idea to get a physical therapist involved to help with the child so they can master these skills. “Observation as a technique in understanding human behavior is an enormous undertaking strewn with all sorts of limitations.” (Kripalani, 2016)
The following information is what I would have on my checklist.

The child is able to cut with scissors.
They can string beads on a string.
They are able to weave and twist materials, like a pipe cleaner.
They are able to mold play dough.
They can stack blocks into towers.
They can take apart and put back puzzles.
They are able to make marks or drawing, and use painting tools correctly.

Book and activity
I would read the class the following book called: “The Kissing Hand.” By: Audrey Penn. The book tells a story of a young raccoon that is afraid to leave his mother and start school. The mother raccoon starts a tradition of kissing the inside of his paw and tells Chester (the main charter) that when they are apart to place his paw against his face and it will remind him of his mom and all the love she has for him. This book is great to help for a child who is transitioning into a new class. After reading the book I would have an anchor chart up about feelings, and how each child felt when it was their first day of School. I would go down the chart and explain each emotion. Then we would go around the room and share with everyone our feelings. And why we felt that way. Next they would go back to their desk and fill out the printout about how they felt. Then they can draw a self-portrait of themselves. In this activity they are able to use drawing and coloring. The second activity would be the Raccoons head. I would use sponges with brown paint so the children can make the head, then they can glue on the animals eyes, nose and mask. The next step they would be able to free draw the mouth.
4. Helping out with drawing.
A lot of children can struggle withdrawing and find it difficult to do. To help students get out their fear, I would read the following book to the class.
“I’m not just a scribble.” By: Diane Alber. The main character in the book is named Scribble; he never knew that he was different until he met his first drawing. He was left out because he didn’t look like everyone else. The main charter teaches the drawings in the book on how to accept each other for who they are. By doing this they are able to create amazing art. This book shows that art does not have boundaries, and that anyone can relate to scribble’s feelings. After reading the book I would introduce what the activity would be. I would use the stickers that are included in the book. I would have each student make a scribble of their own and then they get to pick eyes and a mouth for each scribble. Children can become very hard on themselves because they cannot produce the picture they want to draw. When a child is stuck on something, I would show them pictures of the object that they want to draw. Take a look at their drawing together and ask the child what they do not like about their drawing and let’s try to fix it.  Next I would provide them with different drawing books, one of the books I have is a step by step book. For instance if they want to draw an Elephant, I would walk them through the steps on how to draw the animal that they want. By doing this it will help build the child’s confidence in drawing, and that they will be able to draw and having a fun time doing it.
References:

Fleming, K. K. (2008). What are they telling us? The importance of children’s drawings. TX, San Antonio.
LaJevic, L. (2013). Arts Integration: What is Really Happening in the Elementary Classroom? Journal for Learning through the Arts,9(1), 1-30. Retrieved from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1018332.pdf.
Kripalani, L. A. (2016). OBSERVATION. The NAMTA Journal,41(3), 229-247. Retrieved from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1125305.pdf.