International Children’s Book Day is in April. This is a great time to let kids know other cultures – though they may seem very different from ours – all have some things in common. Art, for example.
In the fabulous children’s art book Global Art: Activities, Projects, and Inventions from Around the World, Mary Ann Kohl and Jean Potter bring us accessible art projects and ideas from 7 continents. This isn’t a new book. It was winning awards in 1998. The fact that it’s still, 12 years later, a popular go-to text for educators shows what a high quality book it is. The book emphasizes a step-by-step approach to each project, helping kids to build skills before using the new technique to create a finished project. Because of this approach, the book can be enjoyed by kids from preschool all the way through high school.
Best of all, Global Art is organized by continent and includes brief, easy to understand cultural histories of the featured group as well as maps and descriptions of holiday celebrations. While your kids are enjoying the art projects, they’ll learn more about other cultures than they even realize.
Because this book has been in print for more than 10 years, you might just be lucky enough to find it at New Dominion Book Shop or one of Charlottesville’s other great used book stores. Alternately, you can ask Barnes & Noble to special order it for you, or get it directly from Amazon.
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