Green School Students Explore through Art 

Young students learn through exploration and experimentation. That’s why Alana McFall, the art teacher at the Green School, uses a “process-based” approach to teaching and learning in kindergarten and 1st grade. “This differs from a ‘product-based’ approach,” McFall explains, “in which students focus on the end product.” Here, students spend the year experimenting with different media—paint, collage, sculpting and drawing—and they aren't told what to produce.
 

In the photos, view students working with tempera paint on large sheets of paper. McFall intentionally uses large paper, she says, to help students develop gross motor skills and to give them freedom to mix, match and explore. She supplies them with primary colors—red, blue and yellow—and then sets them free to figure out how to create secondary colors, broad swoops, geometric shapes and more. “I usually don't give them step-by-step directions,” McFall explains. “They problem-solve and make amazing discoveries on their own, and then I go back and give a name to what they do,” which boasts their art knowledge and vocabulary, while planting seeds for creative thinking at a young age.