Describes ways that aesthetic theories can be integrated into children's art education. The author illustrates elements of E.H. Gombrich's theory of aesthetic perception using as examples art activities designed to increase student awareness of their "mental sets" and their understanding of how mental sets influence visual perception. (AM)

Onfim's drawings, discovered in a medieval town in northern Russia in 1951, are the earliest known child drawings in existence. The history of these early 11th century drawings is described here by a Russian archaeologist. (RM)

An art activity which involved elementary students in making coiled clay constructions is described. (RM)

There are different types of copying, some involving artistic behaviors and some not. It is important to differentiate these types, separating the replication of conventions from more inventive artistic behaviors. A framework for such examination is applied in a group of pilot studies involving children copying comic strips. (Author/RM)

Provides the details of an art project focusing on the human skeleton. Includes samples of student work. (RL)

In this art activity elementary students are asked to design their own alphabet, not just by streamlining the letters they regularly use, but by inventing new letters. (RM)

A first-grade teacher describes how she taught her students to weave using real yarn. (RM)

Little League and art education are trying to justify themselves by forcing precocity on children. Children are entitled to learn in their own most effective ways. (RM)

Pictograms--assemblages of geometrical shapes that represent parts of the body--simply and vividly show how the body moves. They can be used to help elementary students draw larger figures and have confidence in drawing people. The pictograms also encourage children to look at shapes and details that artists use. (RM)

There are five categories of titles of paintings: descriptive, narrative, directive, poetic, and arbitrary. When children title their work they give clues to its intent and challenge the presuppositions that adults may bring to children's art. Titling can expand students' ideas for painting and provide a greater variety of approaches. (CS)

Many students find it difficult to draw complex subjects. Suggested to help elementary students is a method in which they draw eyes from the center out. Observing detail, breaking an area down into small parts, and then connecting them to complete the whole also facilitates reproduction of a variety of objects. (IS)

Presents an overview of factors in the development of children's art and a theoretical rationale for elementary art education. (SJL)

Described is an art course in which fifth-grade students made masks using low fire whiteware as the medium. (RM)

Art activities, three for elementary students and one for secondary students, are described. Elementary students develop an autobiobox (a visual autobiography in a container), learn to draw trees in a meaningful way, and do human figure drawing; secondary students study and duplicate cast shadows. (RM)

This book collects the thoughts of some of the world's most astute observers of child art. Essays in the book include: (1) "Art as a Unifying Principle in Education" (Sir Herbert Read); (2) "Stages of Development in Preschool Art" (Rhoda Kellogg); (3) "Child Art and Visual Thinking" (Rudolf Arnheim); (4) "The Mental Foundation of Art Education in…