fewer distractions. ArtBreak was perfect for him.”
“(She) still can get easily upset, especially when she is disorganized or feels pressure, but I have seen improvements in her ability to calm herself down and try to be more organized.”
The choice-based, child-directed environment and inviting art materials create a support and comfort that children respond to with a relaxation response of increased blood flow to the limbs, which warms their hands, a reliable indicator of stress reduction that we were able to document.
Attending to the nature of lighting and music in the studio contributes to an environment of calmness and warmth. The children themselves are often drawn to choose work that is calming when they need it, and it usually involves fluid media. One year a fourth grader spent most of his time at the sink rinsing paintbrushes that he gathered from the worktable or swishing his hands in a dishpan he had filled with water. This sensory experience was soothing for him and allowed him to return to his classroom relaxed. The next year he began painting, reveling in finger paint and painting his hands with a brush. Sometimes he made prints with his painted hands. In sixth grade he began sewing. Sewing is a highly cognitive activity when it comes to measuring and cutting, but the rhythm and repetition of hand sewing with a running stitch can be quite relaxing. In this way he began, when he was ready, to integrate problem-solving and cognitive processes into his work. Occasionally I have noticed a child who is struggling in frustration with a technical task—fastening boxes together, stringing beads just so, drawing a certain shape—put that work aside to do a little finger painting instead.
SOCIAL SKILLS AND COMMUNITY
Sometimes the main task of an ArtBreak group is to learn to become a working community. With some groups I have had to remind myself of the stages of group process, and that we will get through the norming and storming period, outlined in chapter 2, and reach the working stage. An ArtBreak community develops through the process of making art together.
When working with a small group of boys referred to an ArtBreak group created just for them at the request of the school intervention team because the once-close group of friends had been constantly arguing and fighting, I despaired for several sessions of anything occurring except the flinging of materials and insults. Then the boys all decided they would make knotted and woven necklaces of twine. This was very bad news to me as, although we had a roll of twine, I had no idea how to use it to make complicated necklaces. “Not to worry,” they said. They opened my laptop, searched for and found YouTube instructions, and, arranging themselves in a semicircle around the computer, taught each other how to make macramé jewelry. They razzed each other for being slow to learn and awkward with their fingers, but they determined who was the best at necklace making and demanded that he help them with the tricky parts. For three sessions they sat companionably teaching each other and producing necklaces; this was a turning point for the group from confusion to collaboration and productivity (or, in group process language, from storming to norming), and provided confirmation for me of the power of attending to child-directed learning and group process. Their teachers noticed that their fighting stopped.
During a session early in the year a child used a plastic egg, plastic googly eyes, and a wooden spool to sculpt a little figure with a poignant expression. A bit uncertain socially, she seemed to have made a self-portrait. Through the year she blossomed socially in ArtBreak and extended this experience to her classroom, playing with others at recess and getting herself elected to the student council.
Children talked about the social aspects of ArtBreak:
“We make new friends.”
“We learn to be creative and be a good sport . . . we support each other.”
Teachers commented about gains in social skills:
“He is a natural leader. This can sometimes be a good or not-so-good thing. ArtBreak gave him an opportunity to hone those positive leadership skills.”
“Above all, he benefited most from ArtBreak. He has friends, has been accepted/celebrated for his art abilities, and is, overall, more confident and embraced by his peers.”
“He handled recess better, was able to join in play with others more easily.”
“Every child looked forward to ArtBreak, especially ________. She felt part of a group and gained self-confidence as a result.”
PROBLEM SOLVING AND COGNITIVE SKILLS
I have noticed that children master the technical skills they need to accomplish their purposes in ArtBreak mostly by doing, observing the results, and re-doing. When asked what they learned they talked about skills:
“We learn about tools, what you can make with them, being careful with them.”
“I learned how to make a robot, how to sew.”
“You use your thinking, you think about what you make.”
“If your paint gets kind of dry, you can draw and scratch things in it.”
In How Learning Works, Susan Ambrose and her co-authors describe process tasks for developing self-directed learners. This takes place in ArtBreak through choice and problem-solving questions. The steps are
A third grader who enjoyed constructing animal figures with small boxes found it of great importance to have his projects turn out exactly as he envisioned, and sometimes the scope of his concept was way beyond the spatial-thinking skills of an eight-year-old. I respected his firmness in making his own decisions about designing, measuring, and cutting, holding my tongue (with difficulty) when I was bursting to intervene with corrections. Nevertheless, he persisted, sometimes retreating to a chair outside the door to collect himself when his frustration became too great, but always returning to try again. A child stayed after a group one day to finish painting a collage of a snowman on a huge sheet of blue paper ornamented at the bottom with pink paper and duct tape. When he finished he stood close to me and told me quietly: “My parents are amazed that I make these things. They say, ‘How did you make this?’ And I get out stuff and I show them.”
Problem solving the construction of a doorknocker for a cardboard house takes ingenuity. Photo by Josh Birnbaum
Community art making supports collaborative problem solving. Some children choose to work in teams. Two first-grade boys in an ArtBreak group began working together, first as a collaboration when one recruited the other when he needed help building a long communication device using cardboard tubes and tape. They continued this partnership through the year, and as they were in the same classroom they sometimes planned their work in advance. One day they came in and announced: “Today we will paint,” and then asked, “What will we paint?” I encouraged them to look around and see what they would like to paint. Together they discovered two Styrofoam cubes and attached them with tape. On their own they donned smocks and prepared a palette of yellow, blue, and red paint—three inviting pools of primary color. First, they made a lime green and gave the cubes their first coat. We exclaimed over the beauty of this green and I had to hold back to keep from urging them to leave some of that color when they added red. But the joy of red prevailed and the cubes turned a khaki color.
The boys painted and painted and noticed that they could carve their names in the cubes and reveal the lime green. They painted right back over the etched green letters, and then
