Homeade Art Cards

So, things have been a little slow around our house this week. This is not to say that we haven't been busy outside of home, with classes and playdates and literally exploring and playing outdoors, but all of that activity has seemed to make Ty want to snuggle and play with familair items a bit more this week. Of course, after-hours, I've been busy as always with my own plans and projects, and this one I'm especially excited about...

I'm making my own Montessori Art Cards! Being a lover of art, the idea of introducing the child with works from the great masters has truly intrigued me, though I've struggled in trying to choose my favorite classics without spending a fortune and creating a mini-museum (how could I possibly choose just a few?!). In an attempt to find cheap, 2010 wall calendars that focused on individual artists or time periods to use, I found this:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/076115759X/ref=oss_product

The reviews stated that the pages of this day-to-day calendar were good quality and thicker than you would think, the reproductions beautiful and the size much larger than a typical calendar of this type. I was skeptical, but ordered it anyhow. When it arrived, I was anything but disappointed! I was also surprised to see that each page was loose-leaf and that it included a nice display stand. I couldn't wait to grab my paper cutter, heat up my laminator, and get to work!

Typically, Montessori art displays spotlight one artist at a time. Sorting through, I was able to find enough paintings by Manet, Monet, VanGogh, Renoir, Cezanne, Degas and Gauguin to create displays for each. I chose VanGogh for our first, as Ty showed great interest in VanGogh's "Starry Night" when he first saw it last spring (my first favorite painting as a child too!). There are many other wonderful paintings, statues, artifacts, drawings etc. that I'm going to rotate through other areas on the house as well.


Using my paper cutter (probably about $14 at a craft store, cheaper if you use the weekly coupon at Michaels), I cut around the work of art, as well as the painting's information (artist, name, date, etc), placed the information under each painting on a laminting sheet and let the laminator get to work! The result was beautiful and it was so easy! The only change I may make for the remainder of the cards will be typing and printing the labels myself so that they're larger.

Horray for our first Art Display!

Checking out some of Van Gogh's work

He was instantly drawn to VanGogh's self-portrait, returning to study it several times!

Looking ahead, I will likely order a duplicate of this calendar in order to create matching and sorting nomenclature cards for the standard Montessori art/sensorial activities we'll do when he's older.

If you're interested in the idea, but maybe not making your own from scratch, you can find and print, (for free!) a few art cards here: http://www.montessorimaterials.org/mus.htm

To buy a set of 24 cards, Montessori Services offers them for $39.99:
http://www.montessoriservices.com/store/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=97_1419_5802&utm_source=googleprod&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=GoogleProductSearch&utm_content=A329

From Montessori Print Shop you can download and print your own cards very inexpensively.:
http://www.shop.montessoriprintshop.com/Pollock-Jackson-Art-Cards-AF-29a.htm