Art history for kids can start at any age. Teaching art history helps children appreciate both art and the artist. The more children view works of art by great artists, learn details of the artists’ lives and participate in activities and discussions about them, the more meaningful the art will become.
Having large images of art displayed low enough for children to touch and closely look at, allows them to interact with the images.
Placing art history images around the classroom helps children learn about the past, about different cultures and exposes them to a variety of ways of making art. See suggestions for teaching art history to young children here.
Art history books provide an excellent overview of well-known artists and their work in an accessible and kid-friendly format. Many art history books for children provide ideas for fun art projects you can easily do in a variety of styles and mediums.
Sources of images for teaching art history
- Laminate various art images from old postcards, calendars, and books
- Children can easily hold these and have close up looks at different artists’ works.
- Use the same laminated pictures for bulletin board displays.
- Art calendars are another good source of images for teaching art history for kids
- January is a good time to send home a “please donate your old calendar ” type newsletter
8 good art history resources…
This volume is the first in the 8 book series, Child-size Masterpieces for Art Appreciation, by Aline Wolf. This volume contains 36 postcard-size art reproductions to be cut out and used for the first 3 steps of the program:
- matching identical paintings,
- pairing two paintings by the same artist and
- grouping four paintings by the same artist.
Chosen to appeal to young children, the selections include a wide variety of subjects and styles. Appropriate for 3-7 year-olds in 3 levels of gradually increasing challenge. The How to Use Child-size Masterpieces Handbook, also by Aline Wolf, is suggested.
Emily Carr: At the Edge of he World
Emily Carr was a Canadian artist inspired by the indigenous people of the Pacific Northwest Coast. She was one of the first painters in Canada to adopt a post-impressionist painting style. Her style is a great inspiration for finger painting trees and other subjects. To imitate it, have kids focus on the deep greens, grays, and blues of her artwork and limit the color palette you give them to paint with.
The 12-volume “How Artists See” series is a wonderful introduction to art history. Each volume presents sixteen works of art about a subject familiar to every child through personal experience. The series also comes with a complete Teachers’ Guide containing suggested activities to accompany each volume in the series.
A story about one of Leonardo da Vinci’s real-life apprentices and the mischief he makes.
A fun-filled and accessible introduction to one of science and art history’s most fascinating figures. Ages 4-8.
Two more by the same author, click on the images above to see more.
250 Masterpieces in Western Painting
250 Cards featuring the greatest paintings from the Renaissance through the 1960s… Quality reproductions and informative text on the back.
Each card is a short lesson in art history for kids.
This book is part of an award-winning series of interactive, inquiry-based books designed to teach children about the world by looking at art and about art by looking at the world. “How Artists See” series