Last semester, my younger children began to learn the alphabet. This time around, I was happy to introduce them to this wonderful resource by Catholic Heritage Curricula called: Art Masterpieces: ABC Collection (see HERE) A full set of cards from A to Z where the main object of study for each letter is a classical masterpiece. From Van Gogh to Bouguereau, each card offers an in-depth study of composition, color, lines, light, and shadows, while at the same time, offering reinforcement on alphabet sounds, colors, shapes, and numbers.
The high quality of the prints and the practical teaching booklet assured me the classes would be easy and memorable for the kids. I truly appreciated the questions for discussion at the end; a wonderful teaching tool to expand on our lesson.
All I can say is that It was wonderful to be able to introduce to the children beautiful masterpieces and instill in them at such an early age appreciation for art and beauty as well as a solid foundation in the introduction of art concepts such as detail and composition. What a pleasant journey we had!
Now, letter by letter see how we applied the program and all the activities we did for each lesson!
Let's begin...
"A" is for alligator! 🐊
Featuring: Muddy Alligators, 1917 by John Singer Sargent (Realism/ impressionism)
In this lesson, we counted the alligators on the painting and discussed the colors used by the artist, as well as the different lines used to create the focal points of the scene: the alligators and trees! For being the first time noticing this kind of concept, I may say the children were very perceptive and eager to learn more!
On the other hand. along with our classical approach to handwriting, we started our tracing journey by tracing our first letter on felt and also on the sand!
"B" is for bubbles! 🧼
Featuring: The Bubble boy, 1884 by Paul Peel. (Academic Style)
May I say fun? Counting bubbles and focusing on detail!
This lesson made us appreciate the amount of detail and skill from the artist to outline the edges of those bubbles and make them look almost transparent! Clearly, the use of colors and highlights is something kids learned in this lesson, and what an artist can use to create such an effect!
With such an impact this masterpiece made, we had to do it!
We blew away many, many bubbles!
🦀🦀🦀"C" is for Crab! 🦀🦀🦀
Featuring: Two crabs, 1889 by Vincent Van Gogh (Post -Impressionism)
And for 10 legs!
This art lesson was all about color and contrast!
The children learned how sometimes colors need to be highlighted by a different color to pop more. In this case, the artist used green as the background to emphasize the orange color of the crabs.
While learning to trace the letter C, we also practiced counting to 10, as we numbered the crab's legs!
"D" is for Dog!
Featuring: Eos, A favorite Greyhound of Prince Albert, 1841 by Sir Edwin Landseer. (Romanticism)
This lesson taught us about the shapes and lines in art.
From this particular painting, we learned about circles and diamonds; so to reinforce, we gathered pattern blocks to explore our shapes and trace the letter of the Day: D!
🐘"E" is for Elephant! 🐘
Featuring: Elephants on the move, c. 1900 by Friedrich Wilhelm Kuhnert (Realism)
To trace our letter E we used popsicle sticks and learned about elephants.
We discussed the colors in the picture, the light, and the life in the Savannah.
"F" is for flag!
Featuring: Avenue of Allies, Great Britain, 1918 by Childe Hassam
(Impressionism)
For the tracing activity, we tried threading beads into pipe cleaners in the shape of the letter "F"!
We spoke about our Beautiful flag and counted the stars and stripes as we learned their symbolism.
As we observed and learned about all the other flags in the painting and the countries they represented, we identified their particular shapes and colors.
🦆 "G" is for goose! 🦆
Featuring: To Pastures New, 1883 by Sir James Guthrie (Realism)
Tracing the letter G with playdough was fun! G is a curvy letter, therefore playdough was the best material! It helped us shape it just right!
We discussed all about the birds, light, brightness, colors, and shadows in the painting.
🐎"H" is for Horse! 🐎
Featuring: Grazing Horses IV (The Red Horses), 1911 by Franz Marc (Modern Art)
We had so much fun tracing the easiest letter of all: H!
In our art lesson, we discussed colors and lines in our featured painting. We learned new concepts such as "vivid and contrast" in art pieces.
Once done, we talked about horses and pretended to care for them by brushing their mane!
Pretend play is the best form of education in forming years!
"I" is for Indian!
Featuring: Four Mounted Indians, 1914 by Charles Russell (American Romanticism)
We started with crafts, as we traced another easy letter: - I
We made headdresses and decorated them with colorful feathers, just like the chief Indian in the painting.
We discussed their weapons and outfits, and the predominant palette of the Midwest.
Along with that, we paired the lesson with a coloring page of St. Rose Philippine, a Catholic nun from the 1800s that came from France to America and helped many Indians of Missouri with the education and care of the sick and orphans. Her Feast Day is Nov 18th but we kept it for this lesson!
✨👑"J" is for Jesus 👑 ✨
Featuring: Salvator Mundi, 1519 by Andrea Previtali (Renaissance)
In this art lesson, the discussion was centered on the symbols of the painting. The kids spotted the globe in Jesus' right hand and we admired the artist's ability to make it look like glass! That was impressive!
Also, they noticed Jesus' left hand in blessings and realized how He used only three fingers! Could He mean the Trinity? Perhaps?
By a closer inspection, we saw the shadow of His hand over his chest! Another lesson of light source in the painting 🕯️🎨 🕯️
We celebrated the Feast of Christ the King and quickly understood the meaning of the Globe in His hands... He is King of the World!
Finally, the children colored a page about Blessed Miguel Pro a Mexican Catholic Cristero who died during the atheist prosecution of the 1910-1920s.
He boldly proclaimed:" Viva Cristo Rey" before being killed for his faith!
"K" is for King! 👑
Featuring: St. Louis, King of France, and a Page, c. 1590 by El Greco (Mannerism)
K is a letter that requires skill! It was a tricky one for the kids.
As they mastered their diagonal lines, I decided to help them out by filling out a cardboard template with colorful paper scraps. This activity helped their gross motor skills; the ripping off of the paper, help them navigate in a greater space, the shape of the letter.
Carefully they filled out the template and had super fun gluing, which, by the way, they love to do!
In the meantime, we analyzed the painting. We discussed the royal clues in the portrait (crown, scepter, and golden details of the armor)
We discussed the role of the "page", another royal clue! We discussed his outfit and noticed his pale skin as a sign of youth compared with the king's.
Finally, it was interesting to observe the way the painter highlights the shine of the armor with white strikes! Art tricks to learn from the Masters!
🦁"L" is for lion!🦁
Featuring: The king watches, 1887 by Rosa Bonheur (Realism)
For the love of lions❤️ this painting is amazing!
Kids had a chance to play with their favorite savannah animals and practice handwriting the letter "L" with playdough!
Short fun lesson on texture and strokes to get bushy branches as well as shadows and curvy lines!
🐵🐒"M" is for Monkey 🐒🐵
Featuring: A monkey, 1799 by George Stubbs (Romanticism)
"M" was a bit more challenging for the little ones!
They continue to work on those diagonal lines. So, to reinforce the shape of this letter; we decided to try again with the pipe cleaners and beads! I think that navigating slowly the pipe cleaner letter with the beads, will help the kid's spacial and motor skills as well as to grasp the directions of the tracing for this particular letter.
For the art lesson, we admired the American author's ability to make the texture of the monkey look fuzzy. The small strokes are a very clever skill in this painting!🎨
This time around, the kids identified the source of light and pointed to the brightness of the colors near the light source and the shadows on the opposite side of it.
It is so satisfying to witness how much they are learning! 🥰
"N" is for Noah's ark! 🐢🐎🐑🐖🐒🦣🐘🦘🦥🦙🐓🦅🦚
Featuring: Noah's ark, 1846 by Edward Hicks (American Folk Art)
Letter "N" is in the same category as "M" with almost the same shape concept, so I paired the lessons back to back!
Part two of pipe cleaners and beads for tracing reinforcement.
In the meantime, our art Masterpiece was a very busy and interesting lesson. To start, we learned the concept of "pairs" and counted in twos up until 20, for the first time!
We realized all the animals in the ark entered in pairs just as God commanded.
Then, we studied the shapes the artist used in the painting: rectangles and squares, and even triangles were spotted! 🔍
Following the scene in the painting, we inspected the sky, how grey and threatening it looked before the storm as the animals seemed to rush into the ark.
Finally, we noticed how in art, painters make things smaller and smaller as they show how far away in distance, objects are in the picture.
Note: can you spot the two "x" in the picture?
"O" is for Oxen! 🐃🐂🐃🐂
Featuring: Plowing in Nevers, 1849 by Rosa Bonheur. (Realism)
The kids learned another painting by Rosa Bonheur, the French artist who we studied back on the letter "L"! She is fond of beautiful animal paintings!
In this lesson we had so much, let's begin:
To start, we reviewed the concept of pairs once again, ever since we studied the letter "N" in Noah's ark!
We noticed how the Oxen needed to be arranged in pairs to operate the plowing work!
We were astonished by the realistic feel of the ground, it gave the appearance of fresh dirt!
The kids loved the palette 🎨 in this particular painting. The sky was remarkable in contrast with the earthly tones of the field.
Once again we spotted the light source and shadows as well as the close and far elements. We are learning how artists draw small in order to appear far!
Our lesson ended by noticing the use of staff from farmers and shepherds to guide their flocks.
Along with the art lesson, today we used recycled ♻️ caps! My favorite school manipulative. I collect many of these materials for our school.
Kids shaped very nice O's with the lids. My favorite part of learning with lids is the different shapes, colors, and textures they can manipulate while tracing the letters. I highly encourage you to add this resource to any of your preschool lessons!
🦜"P" is for Parrot 🦜
Featuring: Parrots, c. 1900 by Alceste Campriani (Impressionism)
This gorgeous painting made us appreciate colors and birds ❤️
We counted 9 of them to be exact and noticed differences between them, upon closer inspection.
For example, some of them had redheads! Can you tell how many?
Also, not all of them were standing, and one stood out from the rest! Can you tell which one?
These details made us appreciate the artist for his ability to keep us engaged and almost part of the scene as he also used close and far elements for perspective!
The detail on the feathers was pretty impressive each stroke made it look like a separate feather to the point of giving us texture! 🎨
Lastly "P" which is also for paint gave us the perfect resource for tracing practice, the children traced the letter "P" this time with the brushes️!
Kids absolutely loved the change of scenery and the freedom of the brush to trace the shape of "P"
"Q" is for 👑 Queen 👑
Featuring: Coronation of the Virgin (Detail), 1467-69 by Filippo Lippi (Renaissance)
This beautiful fresco focused on The Mother of God: Mary, being crowned Queen of Heaven and Earth.
As we studied the painting we noticed 2 crowns; one on God the Father and the other about to be placed on Mary's head.
The richness in detail is amazing!
Can you spot all the golden accents on the picture? well, we learned that those golden accents were actually made with real gold sheets. The painter made sure it was as royal as possible!
So we talked about gold as a color and how in art is used to represent royalty and riches in most classical pieces.
In addition to our art talk, we practiced a challenging letter for my kids. Q!
My kids still need work with curves and circles, their little hands are starting to get used to tracing. So with that in mind, I needed to think of a flexible material that could assist them to process the shape of the letter. And came up with yarn or rope🪢.
They had fun with it and were able to manipulate it and reproduce the letter in a simple form.
"R" is for🌈 Rainbow 🌈
Featuring: Rainbow in the Sierra Nevada, c. 1871-73 by Albert Bierstadt
(American Romanticism)
Whimsical class! What a lovely piece by this American artist!
From majestic mountains and cliffs to waterfalls and lakes. This painting had it all!
For the first time, I explained to the kids how rainbows 🌈 are formed! Now, they are more aware to look for the sun 🌞in the midst of a rainy day 🌧️ just to spot one 🌈!
That really blew their minds!
Furthermore, we reviewed the colors of the rainbow and went ahead and try them out on a sheet of watercolor paper 🎨
They truly enjoyed this activity!
Following this activity, we discussed the concept of reflection, as the painting shows the reflection of the cliffs in the still green water like a mirror. For that, we brought out a mirror and examined our reflections, and pondered the ability of the artist to do the same in his painting.
Lastly, tracing our R's was flawless by the use of the brush and our watercolors. 🎨🌈🌧️🌞
"S" is for soldiers, smoke, and snow! ❄️❄️❄️
Featuring: Through the smoke sprang the daring soldier, 1897 by Frederic Remington (American Romanticism)
This masterpiece told us a story! The story behind the battle between the U.S. Soldiers and the Cheyenne Indians in Northwestern Nebraska in 1890.
We were able to point out many objects in the painting that start with our letter S: soldiers, snow, scarf, smoke, and sky.
The vivid scene allowed us to find wounded soldiers and charging snipers.
We discussed how hard must it have been to be in that situation, with cold, smoke, and loud noises!
We also noticed, how the artist managed to use light colors for the surroundings in order to make the soldiers wearing blue and yellow uniforms pop from the scene!
Lastly, we traced our letter with pompoms.
Curves are still challenging for the kids, and this letter took them a couple of tries to trace with the pencil ✏️ so, capturing its curves with the pompons helped them remember its form.
🌳🌳"T" is for tall trees 🌳🌳
Featuring: Fir Forest, 1927 by Albert König (Modern Art)
What a delightful pattern! Tree trunks in the clearing of the forest! As well as the color palette 🎨 the purple and green hues in contrast with that vivid orange! Truly lovely. We could only imagine being in such a peaceful place!
This painting gave us the opportunity to easily trace the straight lines across the trunks and identify their shadows across the roots on the forest floor.
The kids predicted pretty accurately the light source! That was amazing 🤩
The art lesson was very simple, as it was tracing the letter of the day! It was all about straight lines. So what better material than popsicle sticks to recreate our T's.
Popsicles treats may or may not happen after the making of this lesson 😉😁🍦🍨
☔☔"U" is for umbrella ☔☔
Featuring: The Umbrellas, c. 1880-86 by Auguste Renoir ( Impressionism)
Ahhh... French vibes with this masterpiece❤️
This loud scene of a busy Parisian street truly portrayed in a skilled way such an ordinary event and in a way that told us a story and gave us room to focus on the many details.
For starters: even though we see many umbrellas, it seems that it actually stopped raining, as some of the people in the painting are closing their umbrellas! As crowded as it seemed this painting showed everyone in a different activity, so the kids truly had to stop, observe, and study it.
I truly loved that about today's lesson!
We loved the use of curves and shades of the color blue. The outfits and pompous attires of the time. We were delighted by the elements, the hats, gloves, bonnets... Can we live there? Lol
"Mommy, I love the little girl's dress! She has a toy and seems she wants me to play with her too!"
Umbrellas were the highlight of our little lesson. So I remembered our cocktail umbrellas! The kids loved them so much!
Tracing our U's was a breeze with pipe cleaners, such a manageable material!
🎻🎻🎻"V" is for Virgin Mary and also violins🎻🎻🎻
Featuring: Song of Angels, 1881 by William-Adolphe Bouguereau (Academic Style)
Finally, I was able to share with my littles my most favorite artist! 🎨 Bouguereau ❤️
Yes! You can't even see the brushstrokes! His paintings are ever so polished!
Here, we admired baby Jesus on His Holy Mother's lap (Virgin! Our V-word) serenaded by angels... Ahhhh heavenly feels 😇
But wait... They are using violins another V word!
The detail on the heavenly hosts is striking!
The artist reveals the spiritual nature of their being, by adding a tiny detail on the angels' feet! They never touch the ground! And the wings obviously depicted the same concept.
Now, can we focus on baby Jesus and his most Holy Mother? They are so peaceful! Here, light is a big feature! See the emphasis is on baby Jesus? As if he wants to reveal his divinity through light? Also on the white garments of the angels...
Finally, can we talk again about the smooth finish of this piece? Brilliantly done!✨✨✨
As we approach the end of our letters, I decided to trace them with our own bodies! In this case, the V can easily be made with our index and middle fingers. Easy enough for us! ✌️✌️
🌊🌊🌊"W" is for waves 🌊🌊🌊
Featuring: The Great Wave, c. 1829-33 by Katsushika Hokusai (Japanese)
Seriously cool! Japanese art! 🗾
This particular painting was not done on canvas but in woodblock! What can be cooler than that? Well, it was carved and from there hundreds of copies were reproduced. Marvelous art technique!
Here all we talked about was curves! Look at those waves 🌊 we traced with our fingers along with the painting and noticed Mount Fiji in the background... Immediately we remembered how small on a painting means far, and how a closer look means bigger items.
Along with the waves we discovered that what almost blended with the foam of the waves, were fishing boats filled with fisherman rowing against it! Lots of detail and fine strokes throughout this piece!
Tracing our W's was super fun! I used shaving cream boards! All you need is a Ziploc bag and a dollar bottle of shaving cream!
This learning resource is not just fun but helpful, "W" is a rather complex letter for their little fingers to accomplish. So as they practice the shape of the letter. The soft opportunity to trace it over the foamy board allows them to lose resistance before trying it out with the pencil!
We added Whales to our activities and used our foamy boards as waves for them to swim about.
The kids really enjoyed this class. Shaving cream for the win! 😎
"X" as in St. Andrew's cross ❌
Featuring: The Martyrdom of St. Andrew, 1675-82 by Bartolomé Esteban Murillo (Baroque)
This masterpiece has as the center of the painting our letter ❌ right on the cross where St. Andrew endured his martyrdom. We were able to easily trace the ❌ with our fingers!
This wonderful Spanish artist made sure the focal point was the cross, and from there he divided the scene into two: the Christians and Romans. Can you spot where each of them is located on the painting?
As well, he boldly depicted the rapture happening for the apostle St. Andrew. His entrance to Heaven! The children spotted easily the angels in the sky.
The artist used symbolism to represent his victorious entry. Do you see the palm branch given by the angels towards the apostle? Yes! Victory
Many little details kept us coming back to the painting; the people seemed to speak by their signals towards the cross. Also the hidden elements: the ax, ladder, and shovel. Animals and soldiers with their weapons of the time period.
Overall a very busy and symbolic scene that we enjoyed studying.
Finally, on our tracing activity, we used toothpicks that overlapped and gave us the perfect ❌.
And why not? We also tried making an ❌ with our own bodies too!
"Y" is for Yawn 🥱
Featuring: self-portrait, Yawning, 1783 by Joseph Ducreaux (Academic Style)
Thank God for this lesson hahaha. We are getting there... Tired!
Feels good to yawn!
It has been a long road to our ABCs, the weather has been gloomy and we needed a big stretch!
This particular painting is very impressive! We learned what self-portrait meant and realized it takes a great deal of skill to accomplish this masterpiece!
We could not help but notice the man in the picture was actually making the letter "Y" with his hands and body!
Also, the color palette was pretty simple. Maybe to emphasize the man and his action?
The background was dark to emphasize him in the spotlight!
The details on his face were astonishing! The wrinkles in his face, shades, and colors... To the point, we began to yawn the more we looked at it.
You know! Yawning is contagious!
Or... Maybe we just need a nap? 😴
Before we do take one...
Let us practice some yawning! My son did a pretty good job mocking the self-portrait there.
Also, let us be a "Y" with our bodies...
My little girl was tired and gave me a pout... It's OK baby girl! We are almost done and you have done absolutely fantastic!
Now let's nap... Shall we?
"Z" is for Zebra at the zoo 🦒🦓🦁🐘🦒
Featuring: Big Zoo, Triptych, 1913, by August Macke (Modern Art)
We did it!!! 🎉🎉🎉
We finished our ABC masterpiece collection!
The final lesson was at the Zoo, and this special piece is what artists call: Triptych or three separate pictures displayed together.
What a colorful and interesting painting we have here, let's see... First, the animals: we spotted an ostrich, deers, and birds.
This painting uses many geometric figures throughout the scene hidden on the hats of gentlemen that walk around and buildings in the background.
We found it interesting to see the men in suits and black hats. Also, we took time to observe the details of the girl's bonnet and the woman's feather hat. Definitely a different time in history!
For tracing, kids were comfortable with their pencils and did a whole page of Zzzzz. ☺️
There was so much happiness in finishing this program, they high fived in celebration. I am so proud of what they accomplished and learned! We are planning a visit to the Zoo very soon.
Did you enjoy our Loads of Laundry ABC series?
What did you like the most? Is there a particular letter lesson you found to be your favorite?
If you are on the lookout for a supplemental program for your pre-K student, I hope you give CHC's Art Masterpieces ABC Collection (See HERE ) a chance, I also hope this post was helpful to you by giving you ideas to teach your little ones the alphabet as well as to introduce art appreciation early on their school journey!
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