Fun Ways to Study Famous Artists

Last year when Jacob was in Kindergarten, we began studying a few famous artists. We chose to start with Monet and I found some fun resources to use. Dover Publications has books of really nice postcards and stickers featuring the artwork of famous artists. There are also many engaging picture books which introduce children to great works of art. In this post, I will share the resources we found for Monet and how we used them.

One of my favorite resources was the book of Monet postcards. They are reasonably priced and they reminded me of the reproductions I had seen displayed when I had visited a Montessori preschool. We used a clear plastic magnetic frame to display a different Monet postcard each week. I allowed my son to pick which postcard he would like to display. Then I would ask him why he picked a particular painting and what he liked about it. We would look for clues about the artist's life in the painting. For example, in one of the postcard reproductions we saw a flag and we looked it up to see if it was the flag of France. We knew that Monet lived in France from reading the book, Linnea in Monet's Garden.

Linnea in Monet's Garden is a delightful story that is entertaining while also sharing much information about the artist. A good story geared toward younger children is Katie Meets the Impressionists. There is a whole series of Katie art books that both my children have enjoyed.

My son can now easily spot paintings by Monet when we go places that have reproductions on the wall or when we read other art related books. I enjoy being able to share my favorite artists with my children in ways they think are fun.