Being the Boss of Your Paintbrush (and so much more!)

What's On Our Shelf This Week
Focus - Love

Art
The children explored the edge of the color spectrum with colors Black and White.



Our exploration began with some introductions. First, with dry paintbrushes. The children have been long using paintbrushes, however, since their fine motor skills are improving at a speedy rate, this is a good time for them to learn how to refine using their tools .



I asked what the children noticed about them. We talked about how the hairs feel soft when you brush them against your hands or cheeks. I then invited the children to experiment with their dry paintbrushes--to find out how gently they need to touch the brush to the paper so that the hair stays "standing up." I explain how if the hair is standing up, they are the 'boss' of their paintbrush. If the hair is squished flat, then the brush is the boss and can scratch their paper and puts its own marks on it. We all looked and compared each others paintbrushes. Some had bushy, short hairs, others had wide and thin hairs. And every other possible combination in between.

Moving on, I demonstrated how to use their brush with paint.



Dip--Wipe--Paint

"Dip the brush into the paint, wipe it one the edge of the jar to catch the drips, paint the paper. That's how we move paint to the paper easily."

Next, I encouraged the children to begin their exploration. We alternated--some children had black paper and white paint. Others had white paper and black paint. As they painted, I continually coached the children how to use the paintbrush.

I cannot wait to show you your children's pieces which demonstrate the striking beauty of these simple colors!

This project lends itself to much further investigation, which we'll be continuing through the next weeks (after the holiday break). We barely scratched the surface with this during this week. Great stuff to come.

Culinary
The PLAN was to make St. Lucy cakes for this week's focus on LOVE. The Wednesday group helped mix the ingredients (they love to stir) and kneaded and pounded the dough. This was great for Wednesday since the weather was so cold and we were inside a bit longer than usual. The dough, however, didn't rise as quickly as the dough has for us in the past, so we didn't get around to baking it. Actually, the dough never doubled in size, so I did what I do often. Improvised and Adapted.

I put the dough in the fridge and decided to have my Thursday group, knead and pound it, and simply explore with it.







Other snippets from the week
When children are working on individual activities such as these botany puzzles, when they come to a point where they can't figure it out, I provide scaffolding, within their zone of proximal development (a Vygotskian theory). These puzzles are more complicated, so when I provide scaffolding, without doing it for them, the children can undertake activities when given assistance.





Yoga
TOTAL awesomeness. We love Ms. Krista.















Next week, we'll continue with the Black and White exploration and the focus will be on PEACE.