ArtObet

PreS-Gr 3—In this entertaining educational video, five young children sit on a front porch, enthralled as their adult caregiver uses magical beads to introduce 26 artists whose first or last names start with the letters of the alphabet. For each artist there's a 30-second cut scene with three elements: brief glimpses of two or three of their famous artworks, a short rhyme that contains an interesting fact about the artist, and a scene where the children act out something from the artist's life or art. The young actors are cute and expressive, and the video is smattered with simple digital special effects. Snatches of familiar classical music play in the background. The artists highlighted are from a variety of time periods and range from the well-known, like Leonardo da Vinci and Claude Monet, to rather obscure individuals like Sofonisba Anguissola. The video is clearly targeted at young children who won't mind the rather unsophisticated cinematography and the slightly saccharine cheeriness of the actors. There are also very useful interviews with the film director and the teacher who developed the ArtObet teaching system in her classroom that provide helpful suggestions for incorporating art history education into the curriculum as early as kindergarten.—Donna Cardon, Provo City Library, UT