This work was inspired by a lesson I saw on Fang’s art display! I had previously introduced color mixing with water and with playdough, but not with two colors of watercolor paint! The children loved it and it has been in use all week! Thanks Fang!
Here is EH beginning the work just after have a lesson. You can see my sample in the upper right hand corner of the work area:
In progress:
This week we introduced landscape painting for winter. We had our first real snow of the season, and the easel is right near a window with lots of snow covered trees for inspiration! The first day, I put out a broad bristled paint brush, and the children used it to simply cover the paper with lots of apint. We called them snow storm pictures. The next day, I replaced the brush with a much thinner one. This required more dips into the paint pot, but also resulted in more detailed (and slower) painting techniques!
Here is day one with the broad brush:
And here is the same child (4yr old) on day two with the thinner brush:
Here is a six yr old girl working on a very detailed snow landscape:
So far this year we have introduced sculpture with our magnet work. This is a familiar material for most of the children and they naturally feel free to create different shapes with it. We talk about their sculptures and ask them to describe what we see. We are using this as a first step, and will introduce other forms of sculpture in the future.
To introduce the concept of design, we chose our magnetic shapes. This work has templates for the children to place the shapes on, which we introduced at the start of the year. Now, we presented the children with the concept of creating their own design. They have had lots of experience using the shapes on the templates, and it has been interesting watching them combine them in original ways.
In the first two photos, YS brought this design over to me and said, “I made four turtles!”
In the early weeks of school we introduced lacing shapes as the first step toward weaving. Next we added a wire shelf and a basket of beautiful ribbons to our practical life area. The large openings in a grid provide a simple “loom” for the children to practice. In the photo below, DG is working on his first lesson with the wire shelf loom. He is 2 yrs 8 mos:
Next, we introduce our large classroom weaving loom. We call it our “shalom” work because we are all working together to make a rug for the class! I have last year’s rug on our peace shelf and the children use it for the finger labryrinth. Each day, YS comes to tell me he made our rug a little taller! In the photo below, MG is adding another string to the rug.
Here is a photo of the rug we made last year. PJ is doing the finger maze from the shalom area peace shelf):
