Contemplative Arts
Making art with all five senses
Teacher Experience
A contemplative invitation for educators to reflect on before teaching.Try this 10-minute experiment: Choose any creative medium (drawing, movement, humming) and create something with no goal other than staying present to the process. Notice when your mind judges the outcome and gently return to the sensations of creating. How does this differ from your usual approach to making something? Consider how bringing this quality of presence—rather than outcome focus—might transform other activities in your teaching day.
Student Experience
A contemplative invitation for students to connect with this learning goal.Explore an art material using all five senses before creating with it. Touch it, smell it, listen to the sounds it makes, look closely at its colors and textures, and if safe, taste it. Notice what you discover that you hadn’t noticed before.
Understanding
Students will understand...How we create art, arrange objects, move, play, and interact with the world can become a contemplative practice. Using all our senses during creative activities helps us stay present and discover new possibilities in familiar materials.
Action
Students are able to...Explore different art materials through the five senses by touching, smelling, and observing colors and textures; create simple artworks while paying attention to how materials feel in their hands; and practice “mindful making” by moving slowly and noticing what happens when they press hard or soft, use different tools, or mix colors together.
Content Knowledge
Students will know...Contemplative arts are special ways of making art that help you pay attention to what you’re doing with your whole body. When you practice contemplative arts, you use all five senses – touching, smelling, looking, listening, and sometimes tasting – to explore art materials before you create with them.
Using all your senses helps you discover new things about familiar materials. You might notice that clay feels cool and smooth, that crayons make different sounds when you press hard or soft, or that different papers have different textures. When you pay attention with your whole body, you can find new ways to use materials and make interesting discoveries.
Examples of contemplative arts include touching and arranging flowers, making patterns with natural objects like leaves and stones, slow painting where you notice how the brush feels in your hand, and clay work where you feel the material change as you shape it.
The most important thing about contemplative arts is moving slowly and paying attention to how things feel, sound, and look while you’re making something. This helps you stay present and enjoy the process of creating.
Guiding Questions
Implementation Possibilities
Create sensory art exploration stations where children can safely touch, smell, and examine various art materials before using them. Practice “slow motion” art-making where children deliberately move their hands slowly to notice physical sensations during painting, drawing, or clay work. Design nature-based art activities using collected leaves, stones, and flowers that invite multisensory engagement. Establish “feeling words” vocabulary for describing textures, temperatures, and physical sensations during creative work. Create collaborative sensory art projects where children share discoveries about how different materials feel, sound, or smell. Facilitate “mindful making” circle times where children demonstrate and describe their sensory experiences with various art materials.
Assessment Ideas
Observe children’s sensory engagement during art activities and their ability to describe physical experiences with materials. Documentation of sensory art explorations through photos and recorded descriptions of discoveries. Children guide family members through sensory art exploration activities. Create a classroom “sensory art museum” where children’s work is displayed with descriptions of the sensory experiences involved in making each piece.
