Letting Students Choose Creates Eager Artists at Daycroft Montessori School of Ann Arbor

On a recent Thursday morning, in the art studio at Ann Arbor’s Daycroft Montessori School (www.daycroft.org), a small group of students exchanged ideas on their latest works in progress and decided how to proceed.

They were half of the Grades 3-4B class at Daycroft’s Elementary Campus on Zeeb Road, and they had gathered in the studio for their weekly 90-minute art class. The rest of the classroom’s third and fourth graders had split off for library and technology learning during that same period.

Rotating specials in this way is how Daycroft keeps its art classes intimate and personal – for all students at the Zeeb campus, from kindergarten through sixth grade.

One student, Anda, had brought with her to art class a sketch for a large-scale painting. She chose watercolors because they seemed natural for the scene she had envisioned of a sailboat crossing a lake lined by grassy fields and leafy trees under a sunny sky.

Another student, Jeremy, resumed detailing a colorful piñata he had begun shaping. He and two classmates – Patrick and Sebastian, working nearby on an ambitious architectural model – wondered if papering the piñata in pinkish-purple would make boys want to swing harder at it. 

While Caroline used a barbed needle to embed wool into a colorful felted scene of a landscape at sunset, Charlotte and Gabriella made miniature homes from recycled boxes, plastic containers, pipe cleaners, and fabric swatches.

Anda, now ready to depict a large tree trunk in the midst of her lake-and-landscape composition, surveyed the mixable water paints at hand and asked: “How do I make brown?”

Donato, meanwhile, thought, sketched, thought again, and dug through the many and varied materials available for a construction project taking shape in his mind.

Very Montessori

It was all part of a typically engaging and productive studio session in the choice-based art program guided by Suzanne Higgins, Daycroft’s veteran art teacher.

The children had each selected their own subjects, media, and materials. They got so wrapped up in their projects that the 90-minute class was over before they knew it. They had to scramble to clean up the studio and store their works before heading to lunch.

Daycroft students meet once per week, in small groups, for art class. They begin each school year sketching with pencils. “We begin by putting shapes together,” says Higgins. “The students choose what they want to draw. They find simple shapes in photographic images, and build out their drawings from that. It’s a very Montessori approach.”

Each week through the first few months of the school year, students explore a new art material. They move from pencils to colored pencils to chalk pastels, oil pastels, China markers, watercolors, and more. The final material is clay.
“Once a material is introduced,” Higgins says, “it’s available to students for the rest of the year. They learn how to use the material, and how to store it properly.”

High-quality materials are a hallmark of Daycroft’s art studio. This, per Higgins, is in keeping with Daycroft’s use of Montessori materials throughout the learning experience.

“Students are always eager to work with a new material,” says Higgins. “They dive right in! And in our choice concept of learning, children can use these materials to express their own interests and feelings in art. One student may focus on a single piece of art; another may produce eight.”

All Children Are Artists

How Higgins came to Daycroft a dozen years ago can itself be seen as a personal path of exploration and discovery.

Higgins, born in Hawaii, lived in Alabama and North Carolina through most of her school-age years. She studied studio art and French at Meredith College in Raleigh, NC. Wanting to work in a helping profession, she went on to earn a Master’s degree in art therapy from The George Washington University in Washington, DC.

After working for seven years as an art therapist, Higgins had the chance to teach art at her mother’s Montessori school in North Carolina. This experience led to her selection as Daycroft’s art teacher the following year. “It was like a dream come true for me,” she says. “I’ve always believed that the most dynamic art is created by children.”

Created by children, that is, with guidance from exceptional art teachers like Higgins. She keeps up on choice-based art education through Teaching for Artistic Behavior (www.teachingforartisticbehavior.org), a grassroots movement of art teachers nationwide.

Higgins’ belief, echoed throughout the Daycroft community, is that all children are artists. She strives to take art class away from uninspiring drills and group projects to ways of giving children the freedom to find their own muses.

Per Higgins, “We avoid saying, ‘Here’s the right way, here’s the wrong way.’ Instead it’s ‘What do you think?’ ‘What are the possibilities?’ ‘Let’s think about it.’ This fits right in at Daycroft, where children act on their own natural desire to learn.” 

The result of this choice-based approach: “Every student here loves art class,” says Diane Mukkala, Daycroft’s head of school. She adds: “A number of Daycroft parents have told me that our art program was a big deciding factor in their choice of our school.”

About Daycroft Montessori School

Daycroft Montessori School blends the distinctive student-centered teaching methods of Maria Montessori with traditional and progressive education. This helps Daycroft accomplish its mission: to provide a personalized learning environment that appreciates individual differences, nurtures the whole child, and enables students to develop at their own pace and achieve to their potential.

Daycroft is one of Washtenaw County’s leading private schools. It began as a preschool program in 1968. Daycroft has since grown to include full-day and half-day kindergarten programs, a Young 5 program, an elementary school program through 6th grade, before-school and after-school care, summer camp programs, and enrichment classes.

Daycroft has earned accreditation from the Independent Schools Association of the Central States (ISACS; www.isacs.org). It is a member of the Association of Independent Michigan Schools (AIMS; www.aims-mi.org), the American Montessori Society (AMS; www.amshq.org), and the North American Montessori Teachers’ Association (NAMTA; www.montessori-namta.org).

Daycroft Preprimary School (preschool and kindergarten) is at 100 Oakbrook Dr., Ann Arbor, MI 48104.  Phone: (734) 930-0333.

Daycroft Elementary School (grades K through 6) and Daycroft’s administrative offices are at 1095 N. Zeeb Rd., Ann Arbor, MI 48103.  Phone: (734) 662-3335.