We’ve added some great things to our water and sand tables this week. First, I purchased some vinyl rain gutter material and created some tracks for exploration. This little guy discovered he could move four boats at a time if he poured the whole bucket of water behind them!
I also added a tic-tac-toe board to our old green turtle flower planter. A couple of the older children have been playing it each day!
This week we have started our unit about the artist Georgia O’Keefe. After reading a book about the artist and looking at some of her famous paintings, we introduced a work for the children to try creating large flower paintings of their own. Using 9x12 watercolor paper, we used the circle and oval metal insets to trace a large flower. The tracings were done in crayon and colored in. After their designs were complete, they used watercolor paint to do a color wash over their entire painting. The children were very excited to do this work and each child took great care in the design and creation.
Here is our oldest student, RM, hard at work:
Her finished painting:
EH and SS are working together:
Here is the painting completed by SS:
This has become a popular two person work. Here MG and YMG are hard at work:
More finished paintings:
Today we completed our second to last project in our abstract expressionism unit! We created paintings using enamel paint floating on water. This technique creates an amazing marbleized pattern that had the kids gasping in delight! Each child created a unique print and we were all thrilled to see the finished prints!
YS selected his paints and used an old pencil to stir them together in different ways. The finished print is amazing!
AL was very thoughtful as she carefully stirred the paint. We were all silent as we watched the paint flow around the pan!
WOW!
Today we learned that our fundraising project for our mini art unit was successful! We will be able to order a very large cotton canvas for each student to do their own Pollock inspired “action” painting. We will be ordering the materials in the next few days, and in the meantime we have a few more lessons to complete.
Today we discussed the different tools Jackson Pollock used to create his paintings, including some of his wife’s kitchen utensils! We made Pollock inspired paintings today by driving matchbox cars around our papers! The children were captivated by this process, and many of the children spent 15 or more minutes quietly painting away.
For my mini-unit in art, I chose to focus on abstract expressionism and the artist Jackson Pollock. Last week I introduced the artist to the chidlren during line time. I had printed out several pictures of the artist working in his studio to pass around. I told a story about Jackson Pollock and how he discovered his special type of action painting. Then we looked at several of his famous paintings in a large book I checked out from the library. After that, I showed the children several canvases of abstract action paintings that I have made over the years with other students and my own children. I asked the children to describes what they saw and there were some interesting answers. Most of the children described the colors they saw, some children described lines versus squiggles. The most interesting answer was from MG who said the paintings all looked dirty!
Today, we introduced the first Jackson Pollock style project in our series. By rolling a marble dipped into paint over a paper, the children were able to create abstract patterns that are similar Pollock’s style. We placed five small plates with paint and one marble in each next to their work space. The children were able to go at their own pace and choose the colors in any order and amount that they chose. The children were very deliberate in their color choices and calm in their motions. It seemed to be almost meditative to some of the children!
We are learning to sing the 4 questions and today we sang the first question which involves matzoh. We have a follow up activity on the shelf to make a paper matzoh by rubbing a crayon on paper over an exposed piece of corrugated cardboard. The paper looks amazingly similar to a piece of matzoh!
Yesterday we introduced the foods that appear on the Seder Plate. We took turns tasting some of the bitter herbs too! Today the children colored templates that will be sent to the Makit company to be made into real plates the children can take home!
The past few weeks have seen an incredible increase in map making. I always enjoy seeing an idea take hold of someone and then ignite interest in others! The positive side of competition is when children push themselves to create or do something meaningful that they have seen someone else doing.
YMB (3yrs) and EH (4yrs) are working side by side punching out continents. EH worked much more quickly and went on to paint the oceans later that day:
SP (4 1/2yrs) had never tried to make a map, but after seeing the other (younger) children doing it, he decided to try it. He completed hi entire map in one day!
RM (6 yrs) had not worked in geography for quite a while. Seeing the increased activity sparked something in her and she decided to make a map of North America, complete with labels:
YS (3 1/2 yrs) also noticed all of the map work this past week and decided he wanted to make a punch map of North America:
