Gourds in Watercolor

With the arrival of fall, we turned our thoughts to things harvest this week in the atelier. The children were introduced to gourds and colorful corn as inspiration for small watercolor paintings. They were asked to attempt painting a gourd on their paper, and they each chose the one they wanted to reference. We worked with the colors of the subject matter – light and dark orange, green and brown. One gourd stood out amongst the children as being a “small pumpkin”, which seemed to be a favorite. They also loved the “special” corn. They really enjoyed this project!

When introduced to the gourds and corn:

“Do you see this orange pumpkin? Juice comes out of them….but not a lot. And this corn is not the corn you eat, it’s special corn. You can peel it!” ~Anika

When asked what one of the larger gourds smelled like:

“It smells like pumpkin!” ~Sophia

“It doesn’t smell.” ~Alaira

“It smells like grayish.” ~Jalie

When asked what the cornhusks sound like when they rustle:

“The corn husk sounds like rain (when you shake it)!” And as she shook the corn she tried it out as a new tickling tool, “I’m tickling you with the corn!” ~Mia G.

When asked what the gourds look like:

“This one looks like a lemon!" ~Ava

“This one looks like a pear! This one looks like an octagon – I mean – a septagon”! This one is a drum! This one is a hat (wears the gourd on his head)! ~Corbin

“It looks like a cat, a very different cat. I’m going to paint this gourd!” ~Alaira

When asked how the gourds look and feel:

“It’s kind of bumpy, and also kind of brownish-orangish.” ~Jalie

Mia S. then became the facilitator for this process! She chimed in:

“Is this pumpkin like a circle? And what about this one? And what about this other one?” (she went through all of them together with Jalie)

During the painting process:

"These are beautiful paintings!” ~Mia S.

“I need more orange paint because I need a lot for this picture.” ~McKenna

"I want to use purple to make my gourd.” ~Ava

"When I mix peach and brown it makes light brown!” ~Corbin (he proceeded to do many color studies thereafter)

Until next time...

Yvonne

Rose Petals on Paper

Last week I was leaving my house and noticed my rose bushes had exploded with blooms and color. I grabbed some petals and thought we'd have some fun with them in the atelier. Only a few children worked with me this day, as it was beautiful outside and most wanted to be in the sunshine instead (I don't blame them)!


I asked the children to see if they could glue the petals on the paper to make a flower. They have been very interested in glue lately, and so they took off and made their own creations........


Damon enjoyed this project very much. "I'm making a bullseye! I LOVE bullseyes!" ~Damon



Ava went for the minimalist look, while Sophia liberally dotted her paper with petals:

Until next time...

Yvonne

Colored Tape and Metallic Paint! (a note from Yvonne)

The children really enjoyed exploring the possibilities of colored masking tape over the last couple of days. They twisted it, crumpled it, and in the end, put it on paper!

The idea was to put the tape on the paper, while using more pieces of tape to overlap the other pieces. The children were simply asked to, “Put tape over tape”. The outcome was an array of random designs.

Next, we painted the papers (and the tape) with metallic paint using foam brushes, so that we could later demonstrate what happens to the look of the paint on the paper once the tape is removed. We let them dry over night…

The objective of this creative exercise was to see how tape, once removed, could leave clean lines while masking specific workspaces. We had an enthusiastic time "gettin' sticky with it"!

Some quotes from the children during this project:

“I don’t want to add more paint, I like it like this” ~Mia G

“I would like all colors of tape!” ~Corbin

“Look, I made a triangle!” ~Anika

“I made a triangle too!” ~Allie

“I made stairs!” ~Damon

"I have all of my tape on!" ~Gwen

“Wow, boo (blue tape)!” ~Jason

“I like mine this way (with straight lines)” ~Zaidan

“Look, I put the tape on the paper!” ~Sophia

“Can I have some purple tape please?” ~Jalie

“I want to paint the whole paper” ~Ava

"Ohhhh, paint!" ~Eddie

“I need more paint, I ran out!” ~McKenna

“I’m ready to paint mine now” ~Mia S.

“I want lellow (yellow) tape! ~Natalie

“I need a lot more tape” ~Alaira

Until next time...

Yvonne

Art Becomes a Tool for Thinking

Using art as a tool for thinking, children can:

• make their theories and questions visible;
• take new perspectives;
• represent and explore emotions;
• study properties of the physical world;
• deepen their relationship with each other.

Children use their fluency in a range of art languages to make their thinking visible to themselves and to others, to construct new understandings, and to unearth new questions.

Chalk Pastels | New Yogis | Muddy Piggies

What a hailstorm! Our area was part of the zone that got the worst of it. The jumbo golf sized hail broke through our skylight and it began hailing in our home. The yard and landscaping look something awful and we've been cleaning up since Wednesday. The skylight has been temporarily covered by the roofers and they came out today to measure for our new skylight. The roof will also need to be replaced. Our AC units got banged up badly and my car has hail damage. Needless to say, our garden does not look very good. More than half of it is gone, so we are going to try and replant what we can. Our harvest will just be later than planned.

Onto more fun stuff.

ART
This week we gathered on the covered patio to explore the possibilities of chalk pastels. Chalk pastels hold rich possibilities for layering and blending colors and are texturally engaging. I began by calling attention to the beauty of the chalk pastels. We talked about how these are drawing tools that lay side by side in their tray. One color leads to the next (red leads to orange, orange leads to yellow) just like a rainbow. We talked about how these beautiful drawing tools are like cousins to sidewalk chalk.



Next, I brought the children’s attention to the paper we were using, which was thick, textured paper. One of the pleasures of chalk pastels is their textural relationship with paper!



We discussed how there are several ways to use these drawing tools--we experimented using the flat end of the pastel, the skinny edge, and also the long side of the pastel, and saw the different lines each way made.













The thick, rough paper catches at the pastels and creates a ‘pull’ on them. Chalk pastels initially highlight the weave of the paper, as the chalk settles into the tiny 'troughs' on the paper. As more layers are added, the chalk becomes thicker and the weave is filled in and the texture of the paper changes. We noticed the children's favorite part was blending.







Their work this week was an introduction to this new art medium, which we'll continue using throughout the year. Next week, we'll extend this and add another medium to the chalk pastels.

Yoga this week was on Wednesday so we had some new yogis. I had a meeting at my son's high school that morning so Kellyann held the fort down for that hour, and I'm SO happy she grabbed my camera and captured these shots.













Other Snippets
We discovered the beauty of sea glass on the light table. No worries, all the pieces are large and not sharp.



Some fun in the mud after the storm. I almost, ALMOST joined in on the fun.

Happy Birthday and Spring Break

We'll be closed next week for Spring Break for restorative rest.
Wanted to leave you all with a few snippets though.

And Happy Birthday to Ms. Kellyann. We lit the birthday candle, sang her Happy Birthday and she now has a handmade apron, since we get good and messy here, ya know. (A big thank you to Tanya for driving to South Austin in the rain to retrieve it for me!)

Light Table Exploration | Gelatin and Watercolors

Some snippets from today

Gelatin Molds ready for discovery


Injecting watercolor into molds



Full on Exploration







Isn't it beautiful?

Clay, Suncatchers, and Love Notes

ART
Clay Exploration – Stage Two



This week we began Stage Two of our Clay Exploration, which is building on the foundation of what the children experienced last week with full body play. We moved the clay to the table and each child was given a sponge and a canvas covered wood board (gotta love the hubby who runs to Home Depot at 7:00 the night before to buy wood and then saw it into squares).

This stage invites children to work with individual chunks and changing the clay’s texture by adding water to it. The children continue building their physical knowledge of clay, experiencing its movement and texture, as they move toward eventual sculpting work. We had fun, and boy, was it messy fun!

Che immersed himself in the full on sensory exploration of clay’s qualities by almost dissolving his clay into goopey mud. He was being a researcher, investigating the contact of water on the clay. Us, as teachers, are encouraged to avoid the temptation to interrupt their research since this research is an important step in their journey toward representational work.

Lulu opted for extended clay time long after the table cleared. This is the beauty of running an Reggian-inspired program. Kids don't all have to "go with the group" and "work at the same pace". There is no fragmented periods of time here. And she has moved into the representational stage. She is hard at work creating a sculpture for her mama.

~*~

The light table has been a bit hit. Ms. Krista (our yoga teacher, who is a former Reggian teacher) gave me a GREAT idea on what we can do on the table, which will be an extension of a previous project we did. We’ll do that next week! Stay tuned!

We learned two new Good Morning Songs and a new Cleaning Up Song.

This week, we read There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly. We read the contemporary version and also the original version, which has these really cool “vintage” illustrations.

We also enjoyed the Napping House by Don and Audrey Wood.

This story also a cumulative tale like the There Was an Old Lady stories.



Ms. Kellyann and the children singing Ring around the Rosie

Yoga Snippets

Spreading Love
We usually don't do "crafty" things here with all the art exploration and projects we already do, but I thought it would be fun to make Valentine Suncatchers this week.







Now that I have Kellyann here, we have been able to keep up with portfolios. A LOT of work goes into these (which we would love to share with you all soon) and I will be able to begin creating the Documentation Boards on our Art Explorations, which is basically what I do on my blog, but with a bit more detail. These will be great to take with us when I move offsite so parents can see how a project can evolve over time.

Hope your children enjoyed finding their love notes from me in their lunchboxes this week.

I got much joy out of writing them all.

"Love grows by giving.
The love we give away is the only love we keep.
The only way to retain love is to give it away."

-Elbert Hubbard