Art center design for children aged five to eight years

Age/Grade Level of Children (highlight one of the following)

a) Older toddlers, 2 -- 3 years

b) Preschoolers, 3 -- 5 years

c) Young school age children, 5 -- 8 years

Number in Group

The design of this art center will allow a maximum of 20 children at any one time due to space limitations.

Goals of the center

The goals of this art center are based on expression and freedom. The art center is available as the curriculum allows, with a goal of providing a safe and creative environment for children to express their inner selves through various art media, including drawing, painting, clay modeling, working with plaster of Paris, charcoals and chalk.

Placement of the center

Creating a diverse art center requires the center to be located in an area where it can be easy for diverse children to attend. Urban areas provide the most diversity in many cases, and placing the center in a heavily trafficked area of town will create the desired effect

Rules of the center

Since artistic expression and rules often do not mix well, developing a general sense of guidelines is appropriate for this art center. Focusing the rules of behavior more on sharing, expressing and loving, will allow for the necessary artistic energy to freely flow and produce a creative and dynamic art center.

8. Placement of materials

Materials will be stored in common areas to allow for all children, and any with special needs can simply touch and have at these supplies (Germain, 2008).

9. Maintenance of materials

Daily and weekly maintenance checks will be done on all supplies. Reordering or fixing certain materials or instruments can be done at this time.

10. Daily art activities available

On a daily basis the children that attend this art center will be encouraged to draw, paint, model clay, or otherwise express themselves creatively in a safe and encouraging environment. Most young learners are enthusiastic artists who will apply their imagination in creative ways, but others may need some suggestions to help get them started. Some examples of daily activities that can be inspirational for the creative process include suggesting themes for the day's art such as sharing or safety in the home.

11. Weekly activities planned

Weekly art showcases can be planned for children to plan and prepare art shows that they have been working on. These art exhibitions can be themed, using a popular daily theme, or eclectic, drawing on some of the more noteworthy productions and these weekly activities will be highly publicized to encourage attendance by parents, siblings, grandparents and family friends. Because competition is not a priority of the art center, no prizes will be awarded but all participants will have their art work returned with appropriate comments concerning its content and execution.

12. Method of assessment

The need to assess the art at this center has been mostly replaced by understanding the raw benefits of simply creating