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Showing posts from June, 2016

Our First Prints

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We set out a big mirror, primary colors and brushes. We gave no direction. There are so many reasons the children loved this activity. Painting on a mirror feels really different than painting on paper. It goes on smoother. You can see yourself as well and that seemed like half the fun. Secondary colors were easily created and everyone was talking about how they made purple, green and orange. Some of our friends decided to make another portrait this time right on their face in the mirror. The next part of this activity involved making a print. This kind of print is called a monoprint because you can only make one. Printing is a medium that the children always seem to enjoy. Some are even amazed by it and that's fun to watch.

Picasso Portraits

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Today we read a book about Pablo Picasso. In the story, Picasso draws the portrait of a young girl he meets in the south of France. His drawings of her start out as a "slow and careful - a delicate pencil study."  We decided to draw self portraits using just a black pastel crayon and a mirror to observe our facial features. 

Color and Light

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We read another book about Henri Matisse. This one was about the stained class windows that he made for a Chapel in France. It talked about how when the sun hit the windows it was as if he was painting with light. With the help of our light projector and colored shapes we were able to do our own version of "painting with light". We used brightly colored chalk pastels to trace and color the shapes we projected on the wall. We added to this project by coloring around the shapes with a different color and then giving the whole piece a "dreamy" effect by smearing the chalk. This project gave us the opportunity to talk about colors and shapes. It also introduced the light projector to our new friends.  Look for it displayed in our work room.

Scissors, Glue, Matisse and our Awesome Dads

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The first weeks of the Summer are usually spent practicing important skills and learning about some art basics. We read a book called Henri's Scissors by Jeanette Winter. This book was about Henri Matisse and his love of color, shapes and scissors. We thought this would be a great time to do some cutting and gluing. The children made brightly colored collages that would have made Matisse proud. We put them in our magic shrinking machine and made post cards for our Dads for Father's Day. The children who were able wrote out their cards. Our younger friends had some help. Look for the original collages on our work room wall.  We hope that all of our Imagine Dads had a very happy Father's Day!

Getting Ready For Graduation

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The last weeks of our school year we have been very busy preparing for our graduation ceremony. Our graduates are the students we call "seniors". These are the children in our class that will be leaving our school to attend Kindergarten in the fall. It's a big milestone and we spend time preparing the whole class for this big change. We also talk about how our younger friends will be our new seniors and the responsibilities that come with being a senior in our classroom. Our younger friends can't wait to be seniors in our classroom. Every year I get so much pleasure watching how this process works. A mixed age classroom holds many benefits for our students and this is a big one. While all this talking is happening, we are also doing things to physically get ready for the main event. There are caps, crowns, invitations, and decorations to make. Busy hands painting, gluing, and writing.

The "littles" visit the preschool

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The week before Graduation, we have a day when the just turned 3's who are moving up to the preschool come to visit our class. We give each senior a "buddy" and give them the responsibility of showing their younger friends around the preschool. It's a very sweet time. We talk to our seniors and ask them what things they think a new person to our class should know. They show them around each room and  pick a small activity to do together.  This is yet another way we give our seniors responsibility which boosts their confidence allowing them to hopefully be more ready for their next big adventure called Kindergarten.

Graduation 2016

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Another Graduation ceremony at Imagine has come and gone. Another very ready group of 5 year olds have been successfully sent off into the big world. We wish them a smooth transition into this next phase of their education. We hope they remember that invisible string that will always keep us connected.