Provide a range of materials; expose 
students to new materials routinely. 
 Offer a visually and spatially rich 
environment in which students can interact 
with materials. 
 Look at art with students in addition to 
making art. 
 Adults should not insist on “decoding” 
images in terms of the presence of things 
and objects. At early stages, drawings are 
often not meant to be representational, but 
rather are records of movement. 
 Young students can use sketchbooks. 
“[V]oluntary drawings offer children a form 
of engagement in art-making which is 
different from that which they experience in 
lessons initiated by the teacher.” 
 Offer multiple activities simultaneously, so 
students can move from one to another if 
their attention for the first exploration 
begins to wane. 
 Design experiences for children that are 
focused on the exploration and creative 
manipulation of materials. These 
explorations do not always need to be 
geared toward the creation of a finished 
product.