Crafts.

75 great American masters are introduced through open-ended quality art activities allowing kids to explore great art styles from colonial times to the present. Each child-tested art activity presents a biography, full color artwork, and techniques covering painting, drawing, sculpture, photography, architecture, and more. Special art options for very young children are included. Many great artists will be familiar names, like Cassatt, Warhol, and O'Keeffe. Other names will be new to some, like Asawa, Smithson, and Magee. Each featured artist has a style that is interesting to children, with a life history that will entertain and inspire them. Sample of some of the artists and companion activities: Andy Warhol - Package Design Bev Doolittle - Camouflage Draw Dale Chihuly - Pool Spheres Maya Lin - Memorial Plaque Jasper Johns - Encaustic Flag Joseph Raffael - Shiny Diptych Roy Lichtenstein - Comic Sounds Thomas Jefferson - Clay Keystone Edward Hopper - Wash Over Grant Wood - Gothic Paste-Up Wolf Kahn - Layered Pastel Jackson Pollock - Great Action Art Mary Cassatt - Back-Draw Monoprint Louis Comfort Tiffany - Bright Windows Hans Hofmann - Energetic Color Blocks Rube Goldberg - Contraption Georgia O'Keeffe - Paint with Distance 2009 Moonbeam Children's Bronze Award 2009 Benjamin Franklin Award

Art Workshop for Children is not just another book of straightforward art projects. The book's unique child-led approach provides a framework for cultivating creative thinking and encourages the wonder that comes when children are allowed to freely explore the creative process and their materials. As children work through these open-ended workshops, adults are guided on how to be facilitators who provide questions, encourage deep thinking, and help spark an excitement for discovery. Children explore basic materials and workshops that use minimal supplies, and then gradually add new materials to fill the art cabinets as well as new skills and more complex workshops. Most workshops are suitable to preschool-aged children, and each contains ideas for explorations and new twists to engage older or more experienced artists. Interspersed throughout are sidebar essays that introduce perspectives on mess-making, imperfection, the role of adult, collaborative art, and thoughts on the Reggio Emilia method, a self-guided teaching philosophy. These pieces underscore the value of art-making with children, and support the parent/teacher/care-giver on how to successfully lead, question, and navigate their children through the workshops to result in the fullest experiences.

From accordion crafts and Advent wreaths to windsocks and yarn art, these activities can reinforce any faith lesson for any age group. There are simple crafts anyone can do in minutes, along with more advanced projects suitable for budding Rembrandts and Picassos. You'll find new twists on old crafting standbys, plus unique new ways to express faith. This go-to resource is perfect for teachers, catechists, and anyone who wants to supplement faith formation with art projects that students can enjoy and remember for years.

The Arts & Crafts Busy Book should be required reading for anyone raising or teaching children. It is written with warmth and sprinkled with humor and insight. The Arts & Crafts Busy Book contains 365 screen-free, fun, creative and educational arts and crafts projects for children ages two to six that provide a great alternative to using TV as a babysitter. It shows parents and daycare providers how to: Stimulate creativity and self-expression with activities that encourage a child to explore his or her place in the world. Create experiments with paint, glue, playdough, paper, and markers that focus a child's energy constructively. Encourage the development of a child's concentration and coordination, as well as organizational and manipulative skills, with well-chosen arts and crafts projects. Save money by making arts and crafts supplies such as paints, playdough, and craft clay with ingredients that can be found around the home. Celebrate the holidays and other occasions with special projects and activities.