Chairville School Art Program
Robert Lindgren

    The art program at the Chairville School is designed to meet the stated Core Curriculum Standards as well as to fulfill our district’s own art curriculum.
    We provide a variety of art experiences to help children develop their fin motor skills, aesthetic awareness and their ability to think critically.  We also give our students the opportunity to work in cooperative groups, problem solve and to think imaginatively.
    Art gives children the experience of relating to our culture and historical past.  Each grade level spends time looking at and discussing the art of other cultures ant times.  We have units on Egypt, French Impressionism and Native American Art and Culture.  Children look at the art that has bee done throughout human history, from cave painting to Pop Art.
    The thought processes that are required to do art transfer to all of the academic settings children encounter.  Art helps to make our children better students in all other areas of study.
    Although the visual arts are just that, primarily visual, children are often asked to verbalize their impressions and opinions when looking at prints, paintings in a museum or their own work.  This helps to promote a child’s ability to verbalize clearly and to think critically.
    Chairville School has a program called “Art Goes to School”.  Parent volunteers help to teach art appreciation during the children’s regular art period.  Each grade level takes a field trip to reinforce and enrich each “Art Goes to School” activity.   Fifth grade goes to the University of Pennsylvania to tour their Egyptian collection.  Fourth grade goes to the Philadelphia Museum of Art to look at the Impressionists.  Second grade visits Princeton University to tour their outdoor sculpture collection as they study sculpture in their art class. Our first graders go to the Philadelphia Zoo as part of their “Art Goes to School” unit on animals in art.  The Kindergarten collects fall leaves in our own backyard as they study color.  And while we are out, we take them to see the old one-room schoolhouse, The Crosskeys School.
    We have additional experiences to help bring art into the lives of our children.  We have an artist in residence from Perkins Center for the Arts.  This year the fourth graders will learn to make original computer art during a six-week session with two professional artists.  We also have our annual Community Art Show, and, of course, the Student Art Show in the spring.  From time to time artists visit classes to share their work with the students.
    Our art program offers a broad range of experiences to our children involving parents, the community and regional resources.

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