Weekly Activities

  Pink for sad Brown for excited Line of Inquiry: Colours are sometimes associated with feelings. Black for bad (not happy) Orange for sad We began by talking about how we were feeling today.  The emotions ranged from excited all the way to sad.  We discussed different ways we can express ourselves using words and actions. I asked if the children could use a colour to represent how they were feeling.  Before the children chose a colour, we read Dr. Seuss' "My Many Coloured Days."  To help the children connect with the colours and emotions from the book, the children acted out the story.  I then placed the different colours described in the book for the children to choose from.  As each child chose a colour, I asked why the colour represented his/her feeling.  The children were not able to express further why the colour was chosen. I want to explore this further to help the children make connections as to how colours ...

The children made a request to mix the primary colours into homemade play dough. Some of the children found it frustrating as it was difficult to knead the dough to thoroughly mix the the colours. Rocco noted that when the red was added to the dough it looked pink. Alfie asked "how do you make pink?" Rocco replied "mix white and red together." Simone responded "No, white and blue make pink." The group decided that they should find out which statement was true. The group discovered mixing white and red makes pink. This discovery prompted the children to see if they could make any other colours. Julia was delighted when she was able to light yellow and share her discovery with the group. How do you make pink? I made light yellow! Experimenting with primary colours and white The results

Clay Project This Friday, the children carried on creating animals or things they like with clay. With a short review with Mary, the children could choose to use their planning pictures from last time or to make something new. Some children followed their previous planning pictures. They carefully chose the shapes they would need for the animals. Having practiced the skills of using and manipulating clay, the children enjoyed creating animals or objects with clay. Putting shapes together. I added some shrimp on my pizza! Carefully matching the shapes. Francine was rolling a long clay piece for the dragonfly's body. I used the wet towel when my clay was too dry.

Making orange Making green Mixing primary colours This week we continued building our knowledge of primary colours.  We sorted items into two groups: primary colours and non-primary colours. Rocco stated that "yellow and red make orange."  We tested Rocco's statement by mixing the two colours  and concluded he was correct.  This led us to mix the other primary colours. The children predicted what would happen to the colours prior to mixing. The children are quite knowledgeable as they predicted correctly each time.   Here is the link to a Sesame Street video we watched (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yu44JRTIxSQ) and another to an online colour game we played.  http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/preschool/colors/colorgame.htm Mixing primary colours Coffee filter art Sorting items by colour Mixing using coloured water and coffee filters.

On Friday, the children started planning what animals or things they want to make for the clay project next week. Let's draw the animals we want to make. focusing on drawing. In small groups, the children brainstormed what shapes were needed to create animals. With the teachers' and peers' help, children picked the wooden shapes  needed and placed them on a piece of paper to form the picture. Children were thinking carefully when they decided on where to place and to glue the shapes. Step by step, children formed the blueprints for their clay project next week. From knowing the shapes to combining shapes into pictures, children will use the clay to create a three-dimension project next week.

Clay Fun Last Friday, the children had a chance to explore and manipulate a new art material - clay. The teachers showed the children some picture books and illustrations with shapes that could be made with clay. Then, the children had plenty time to manipulate and be familiar with clay. The children gained some tactile experience; as well, they learned the skills to work with clay, like rolling, punching, squeezing and pinching. I can stack little pieces of clay up! I can pinch clay into small pieces. My clay became long and narrow when I rolled it!   Squeeze the clay with two hands! Punch! Punch! I can make my clay flat. With the tactile experience and practice, the children started to make different shapes and to create thing they want to make! Look! I made a spiral! "I made a circle!" "This is a flat dress!"   We all had white hands at the end!

More Art with Shapes Mary read "Architect of the Moon" by Tim Wynne-Jones to the children; the story was about a little boy who uses his imagination and different shapes of blocks to re-build the Moon. We talked and learned about more shapes in our environment. A half circle is called a semi-circle. Pentagons have five sides. A stop sign is an octagon! The children had a chance to visit three different art stations about shapes. Mary and the children traced the foam blocks on the big paper. Children combined different shapes to create a huge painting! Ann and the children used yarn to do lacing with different shapes. The yarn goes up and down around triangles, circles, squares, and rectangles. The children used markers to decorate their shapes as well. Anamaria and the children used the overhead projector to trace shapes out on the whiteboard. The children enjoyed tracing the contour line of different shaped shadows.