"Home" Creative Curriculum Guide

December’s theme is Home. Homes come in all shapes and sizes, but their purpose is the same. A home is a place to feel safe, secure, warm, and loved. Whatever your home or classroom “home” might look like, you are creating a space where children can feel safe to try new things, test ideas, and create with abandon. We are exploring the idea of human homes but also animal homes as we hunker down for winter in the Northern Hemisphere. How do animals stay warm and cozy and dry with bellies full for winter? We examine these wonderings and more through the art and play invitations this month using accessible, open-ended materials that can be transformed into any number of cozy or creative homes for people and animals.

Our curriculum is inclusive and honors each child’s individuality and way of thinking and working. Consider each guide like a beautiful magazine where creativity meets education. They are more than a collection of art ideas, they are the KEY to a cohesive, child-centered, manageable creative practice for your family at home, or to integrate with your homeschool or classroom curriculum.

Our Whole Child Guide is our original 26-page guide and includes:

• An introduction to the month's theme, or “Big Idea”

• 20 invitations (one for each weekday of the month), 10 art and 10 play, that can be cut into cards and kept in a box as a resource to build upon

• A master supply list that leans heavily on recycled and natural materials and easy-to-find, inexpensive art supplies

• 4 daily weekly rituals for mindfulness, connection, and physical and emotional development to help frame the weeks

• A rich, teacher-approved picture book list with an emphasis on diversity, inclusion, earth stewardship, and kindness

• 8 creative snack ideas that complement the theme

• 4 ways to extend the big idea through project-based learning skills such as research, reflection, documentation, and connecting with others

• A list of life skills learned through the month’s creative invitations

• Curricular connections within the guide’s creative offerings in math, literacy, science and social studies

• An artist spotlight featuring living and working artists

• 2 more in-depth projects for weekends or longer term classroom projects

• A master one-page calendar of the month ahead that you can print and post on the art room wall for easy reference