Why do we use these and why should we know this?
To the eye these concepts seem simple, however there is a foundation within these terms that are more than learning how to recreate them, but rather how to look at and live with them. Elements and Principles are fundamental to “Art”, but they are also fundamental in being able to connect to abstract thought that is relevant to areas of science and math. For instance what is a line to a drawing as it is to a surgery or the Cartesian plane?
Elements and Principles provide a structure to learning. It gives children a vocabulary to relate to their environment, to communicate it through shapes, colour, forms etc. An educator provides those fundamentals continually throughout the elementary experience, however it is important to acknowledge what and how Elements and Principles relate to our senses, and how this visible and invisible vocabulary is behind almost all things that we do.