Making Art From Anything

Making Art from Anything and other books in the “Full STEAM Ahead!” series present engaging examples of the connections between Science, Technology, Engineering, the Arts, and Math.

The pages are packed with colourful photos showing examples of works of art created from all kinds of materials, such as food, nature, trash, and even snow.

The format of the book is very visually appealing with colourful photographs supporting limited text. The captions and labels on the photos introduce specific language, such as “mosaic” and “Inuit”.

Words in bold throughout the book are defined in “Words to Know” at the end of the book. Each word in the list is also identified as a noun or a verb or an adjective. An explanation of the parts of speech is included on the same page. A brief Index is also included. Unfortunately, the Crabtree Plus digital link to the Student Discovery Lab at www.crabtreeplus.com/fullsteamahead does not seem to be working yet so I’m not able to include this feature in my review.

Each book includes “STEAM Notes for Educators” on the last page of the book. The notes outline one activity intended to guide teachers and parents/caregivers to extend the ideas in the book. The activity in Making Art from Anything helps readers create a one-of-a-kind mosaic.

Making Art from Anything is part of a subgroup of books, “Arts in Action”, in the “Full STEAM Ahead!” series. The other three titles in “Arts in Action” are Creating Colours, How Do Artists Tell Stories, and Artists Use Tools. All of the books in the series are well-suited to primary students although some are better than others at making connections between the STEAM disciplines.