Students at Home Again Early School, a preschool run by West Windsor resident Judy Steed-Roth, pictured at right, have continued defying the odds when it comes to creative art.##M:[more]##
Under Steed-Roth’s instruction, the students, ages 2 1/2 to 4 years old, have consistently proven they can draw more than just stick figures and squiggles. Instead, their art includes imitations of famous artwork and designs they create through studying music, movement, language, and science and by taking on a “how-to” approach to art.
The school held a showing of the students’ artwork earlier this month to highlight all of the students’ accomplishments, and Steed-Roth says the public is invited to another showing of the students’ art on Thursday, June 12, from 5 to 7 p.m. at the school on North Mill Road.
Steed-Roth says the traditional philosophy of preschool art only allows students to scribble and draw circles and crosses in attempts to draw themselves, though unsuccessfully. She has challenged that notion, and has developed her own program for enhancing their limited skills and helping them to produce advanced artwork. She had students focus on 13 master painters, learning through all the senses before embarking on their artwork. “Children just can’t do certain things without involving their whole bodies,” she says. “They’re learning everything all at once. Why should we separate these things?”
For example, when it comes to depicting pictures of themselves or of other people, she and her students studied where their shoulders, neck, and other extremities were located. “We looked into the mirror, and we looked at where the collars are on their shirts,” she says.
One lesson involved studying artist Henry Matisse’s Icarus painting, which depicts a black figure with one arm extended in the air, and the other arm hanging down. She had students imitate the movement shown in the picture. Then students got to work and were able to draw full figures that placed extremities in the correct spots, instead of drawing stick figures. “Even the two-and-a-half year old did it,” she said. “He has a head, two arms, and two legs,” she said referring to his picture.
Using science, students examined various flower petals, including studying the leaves and stems, and the scent of the flowers. One two-and-a-half year old was so fascinated with the detail of Leonardo DaVinci’s Mona Lisa that he ended up creating a slew of drawings focusing on hands. “Each one of those hands had five fingers,” Steed-Roth said, adding that lessons like these also teach children other lessons, like counting.
Steed-Roth began the program 13 years ago, and the preschool has since held five showcases, which include students’ artwork next to original pieces from the master artists they imitated, information about each particular piece, an explanation of what the students learned, how they created the artwork, and blurbs from what the students have said about the projects. “It’s amazing what they’re coming out with,” she says. “They made some very close duplicates.”
Steed-Roth lived in Michigan, where she was a kindergarten teacher for many years before moving to West Windsor in 1981. After moving here with her ex-husband, she opened a daycare, and then realized she wanted to operate a pre-school and expand upon what she hadn’t been able to fully do in Michigan. “This way, I’m free to do what I want,” and help the children learn various techniques for art, she says. — Cara Latham
Home Again Early School, 36A North Mill Road, 609-799-4257. Showcase: Thursday, June 12, 5 to 7 p.m.
