Month / February 2017

by arTree

Pink glasses for everyone!

unnamed

What color glasses would you wear if you had a choice?

We explored light, colors and color mixing with these awesome glasses. Kids had a blast and tried one, two and even six of them at the same time.

‘It is orange!’ cried one.

‘I made it really dark! It’s so dark I don’t even see anything’ laughed the other one.

‘I have two colored eyes! One yellow and one blue!’

Then they tried mixing the colors on the overhead projector and even on the light table… sharing the goggles with each other and talking about the way the colors made them feel. It was really fun and it made me think they are SO ready for art lessons about secondary colors. YAY!

by arTree

Happy Valentine’s Day


Today we were sitting at our table, eating snack, reading books and talking about Valentine’s day. What it is and what it means for us.

I asked the kids how we celebrate it. They looked at me for a while and then said: ‘by loving everyone!’ I love that answer! (Even though I totally did not expect that) – isn’t it so much better than saying by giving each other candy and cards?

Gotta love preschoolers.

by arTree

Self portrait and lines


What is a line? 

A dot that went for a walk. — Paul Klee

I started today’s at project with a mission in mind – I’m documenting kids work during the year and would like to make them a book (presentation folder) that will hold the most memorable moments. And that book needs an awesome personal cover. 

We talked about lines and Wassilly  Kandinsky. What is a line? What types of lines do we know? What can we draw with them… and then we made our background with oil pastels, sharpies and liquid watercolors. 


Then we used our art easels with little mirrors taped into them to draw our self portraits. It was really fun to see how different they were… M decided that he will be a mountain 😉


When the boys were done (yes, this class is full of boys), I cut their portraits out, framed then with black paper and we glued them onto the colored background. 

Aren’t these portfolio covers going to be just perfect? 🙂

by arTree

Mailing letters filled with paint


Painting letters

V really enjoyed putting together huge letters today. It started slowly. He wanted to paint over some doodles he made on a paper. Then he wanted to paint another piece of paper… and then he experimented. What would happen if I put them on top of each other? This simple inquiry resulted in thirty minutes of a very focused work. He kept adding more and more paper and using the paint as a glue. When the paint was not enough he used tape. Soon the letters were so thick it was a challenge stuffing them in the envelopes. 

I was amazed how such a simple activity can become such an amazing project – with such focus and attention. Soon M started copying V’s work… it looks like I have at least two engineers and inventors in the classroom this year. We already talked about getting more boxes so we can build up our houses with them (and tape) and painting them. Looks like a long term project in the making of you ask me. ❤️

by arTree

Fill Me a Bag

bag

What is your favorite ‘get to know you’ activity?

I love to do ‘fill me a bag.’ It involves the families, lets the child talk about her favorite things in front of the whole classroom (in a non-intimidating way)… and most kids really enjoy the show and tell aspect as well.

I found these great colorful envelopes for the kids to take home on the first day and attached a simple note with instructions:

Dear families,

Please help us to learn more about your child. We would love to learn what he likes to do, what are his favorite books and toys, what sport is he into? Fill this bag with things that help us learn something new and fun about him 🙂

If he likes to play with legos, put a small lego cube in. If he likes to read books, you can include his favorite… we will look at the things and carefully put them back to bring home the same day!

Thank you

Fill-Me-a-Bag directions for your child:

  • Fill this bag with 3-5 things that you can use to tell the class about yourself
  • All your things need to fit in this bag
  • You can decorate the bag if you wish
  • Bring it back next time you come and tell us all about it

I cannot wait to see what the kids bring into the classroom. And now, I have to go and search for things to put in my envelope… hmmm… do you think my coffee mug would fit?