Nursery and Kindergarten Art Activity Books is a series of six activity books specially designed to make learning of art an enjoyable and fun process for the young learner.  The teaching approach throughout the series helps to develop visual literacy and to provide a sound basis for future art education.  It is aimed at instilling a lifelong interest in art through an enjoyable and varied art experience.  

Each activity book aim to:

·         teach artistic skills- through exploring the various elements of art

·         build vocabulary of art - introducing new words describing the various elements of art, and helping children to articulate ideas and opinions

·         introduce a range of art materials - activities are designed to provide for a variety of art experiences

·         encourage creativity - gives opportunities for children to express ideas and feelings 

·         instill thinking skills - encourages transformation of observations and thoughts into interesting artworks

Above extract from Shing Lee Art (reproduced with the permission of the publishers).

Each book has three main sections:

1.       Element of Art - covers following six topics.  (Each topic consists of the Let's Learn, Let's Try, Let's Have Fun 1, Let's Have Fun 2).

o        Lines

o        Colours

o        Shapes and Forms

o        Patterns

o        Textures

i)        Theory – the child is introduced to that particular element of art and its descriptors. Colourful photographs and/or vivid illustrations are also given for greater exposure to real life examples.

ii)      Activities – hands-on-activities which encourage the child to be creative, imaginative and using their thinking skills to help them transform their learning and observations into interesting art pieces.

‘Line’ opens each unit to the child and introduces the theme. Here, they are introduced to the various types of line and its descriptors such as: 'long', 'short', 'thick', 'fat', 'heavy', 'thin', 'horizontal', 'vertical', 'diagonal', 'jagged', 'smooth', 'continuous' and 'broken'. It is then followed by activities which encourage the child to experiment with a variety of lines to express moods or movement.  

‘Colour’ creates awareness about the different categories of colour around us: Primary and Secondary. The child is also taught the names, as well as descriptors such as 'warm', 'cool', 'bright', 'dull', 'light', 'pale' and 'dark'. Different shades of colours are introduced and the child is required to put into practice what he/she has learnt through the activities that follow.

‘Shape and Form’ is considered an application section in which lines and colours can be combined to create boundaries within a picture to form shapes. The child is taught on 2 and 3-dimensional representations of things they see and to use a variety of shapes to represent an object, idea or feeling. Vocabulary such as 'round', 'oval', 'triangular, 'rectangular', 'broad', 'narrow' and 'spacious' are also introduced. The focus of this section is to teach the child to create and organise shapes in creative ways.  

‘Pattern’ is all about observation, sequencing and categorisation. The child is taught to look out for repeated or contrasting colours, lines, shapes or combinations of these art elements and also to look out for patterns in the environment. After these observations, the child is encouraged to create his/her own designs using patterns.  

‘Texture’ refers to the tactile quality of objects, either in real-life or simulated by the combination of art elements in a picture. The child is taught on the different kinds of texture and to look for and sort out objects of different texture to create a picture. He/She will be asked to guess if an object is 'rough', 'smooth', 'furry', 'prickly', 'slippery', 'hard', or 'soft' just by looking at a 2-dimensional picture.

2.       Recycling (a 2-page section to show children ways to use waste materials for art projects).

3.       Art Appreciation 

Art Appreciation' shows the child what other artists (other children's art pieces, famous artists, etc.) have done and expands the way he/she looks at the world. It helps to consolidate what have been taught from the previous theme and encourages the child to experiment with different art materials/media to try and achieve the effects that renowned artists have aimed at. 

CHARACTERS in the books:

Nursery- 3 main cartoon characters: A 'walking' piece of paper, a 'walking' crayon and a 'walking' colour pencil (all characters with eyes and mouths). These characters will take the child through the learning objectives and activities in the book. They will also be the main characters in all the five sections of 'Elements of Art'.  

K1 - 3 main cartoon characters: A 'walking' tube of poster colour, a 'walking' paintbrush and a 'walking' pair of scissors (all characters with eyes and mouths).  

K2 - 3 main cartoon characters: A 'walking' lump of plasticine, playdough or clay. a 'walking' easel and a 'walking' computer monitor (all characters with eyes and mouths).