Weekly Activities

For our summative project, each child received a canvas and was asked to identify something in nature they would like to paint. The children had to identify the colours needed for their painting. Using only the primary colours as well as black and white, the children created their colours. William: This is the ocean.  A squid is trying to attack a crocodile.  Tyreese: This is a forest. There are trees and flowers. Ryleigh: This is underwater at the beach. The sand is black from the water. There is a fish, a starfish and seaweed. Chloe: This pony is at the playground. He will go to the forest after. Michael: This is tree in the forest. Bela: This is rain falling on trees in the forest. Sofia: This is a castle in the forest. The castle is made out of nature stuff. Keira: This is a beach.  There is sand, rocks, logs and water. The sky is red.

"You look big!" Carefully flattening his clay. Examining a flower.    This week we looked at the work of Georgia O'Keefe. We  learned that O'Keefe was inspired by nature and expressed herself through paintings of landscapes and flowers. We watched a short video of Georgia O'Keefe on Brain Pop Jr.  http://www.brainpopjr.com. The video explained that O'Keefe loved to paint things from a different perspective. Many of her paintings of flowers are close up often resulting in the painting looking abstract.  We looked at some of O'Keefe's paintings of flowers to understand her perspective and what she saw.  The children then used magnifying glasses to examine real flowers at close range to see if they could discover new things that they couldn't see before.  Some of the children noted that some flowers had more than one colour and they could see where the colour changed when using the magnifying glass. On Wednesday, the chi...

Looking at Eric Carle's books This week we looked at the art work of author and illustrator Eric Carle. We watched a short slide show of how Eric Carle paints tissue paper and how he uses those papers to create his images. Here is a link to his website http://www.eric-carle.com/photogallery.html The children  looked at a number of his books to see his painting techniques and how he  uses his designs to create images.  The children then experimented rolling layers of paint onto paper. After the layers of paint were on the paper, the children used different edged paint scrapers to create designs. On Friday, the children used stencils to trace onto their painted paper and then used these images to create their own stories becoming both author and illustrator. The butterfly flew away from her mother because she didn't have her popsicle. By Keira My teddy bear. By Billy The whale wants to get the Turtle family. They lost their baby in the ocean....

Today each child made a book to express their knowledge about colours in nature. This assessment helps us to see what each child is understanding and learning. Some of the comments were: Ryleigh: Red and blue make purple. Keira: The sky is blue. William: Red is a primary colour. Tyreese: Cucumbers are green. Chloe: I love purple. Sofia: Purple is a secondary colour.

The children love rainbows and it is usually a topic of conversation when they paint. Bela was interested in the work of the Water Group when they were painting a rainbow.  He thought they were using too many colours. This prompted my asking, what are the colours in the rainbow? Michael: Red, purple, pink and yellow William: Green, red, orange and yellow Tyreese: Blue, yellow and orange Chloe: Purple Bela: Red, green, blue and yellow Ryleigh: Blue, green and purple After conducting an experiment of shining a flashlight on a CD and projecting the image onto paper, the children could see that there were seven colours in a rainbow. Using the colours of the rainbow, the children did a picture of their choice.

William - Rainy Nights Ryleigh - The Sky At Night The children have become more aware of the colours around them and when are outside have been naming the different colours they see. One colour they have been pointing out is blue as we have been fortunate this fall with sunny days and  blue skies. This book prompted a big discussion of what colours could Marisol use to paint the sky. Tyreese said she could use grey because it could be cloudy. Chloe thought white would be good for clouds too. Sofia added that she could use orange and red for sunsets. Keira and Ryleigh thought Marisol could paint the sky black because that is the colour of the sky at night. William thought black and grey could would be good for a stormy day. We looked at the work of a number  artists to see the different perspectives as how to represent the sky in a painting.  The children than drew a nature scene with crayons and used watercolours to paint the sky. Sofia - The Rainbow Rai...

Red and blue will make.... Yellow and red will make.... Using food colouring to mix colours The children experimented with different mediums mixing the primary colours. Prior to mixing the colours, the children predicted what colours would be created through the different combinations. ie. blue and yellow will make..... Through their experimentation the children learned how the primary colours (red, blue, yellow) mixed together create the secondary colours (orange, green, purple). Painting with primary colours. Using shaving cream to mix the primary colours.

The children are learning that there are three primary colours.: red, blue and yellow.  The children shared their knowledge of primary colours found in nature. Bela: leaves can be yellow and rain can be blue. Ryleigh: I saw a red flower. Chloe: The sun is yellow. Tyreese: I saw a bluejay, it was blue. William: The sky is blue. Michael: Water is blue. Using only the primary colours, each child made a collage of their choice depicting something found in nature.

Our summative project is almost complete and will be sent home next week.  All of the children have finished painting their rocks and some have finished gluing on eyes.  The children have put a lot of thought into the colours used and type of eyes for their rocks. The individuality of each child is evident in the rocks making each rock special and unique. The children have answered the following questions: - Tell me about friendship in your life: - Who are your friends and why? - Tell me a time when you gave friendship? - When did you receive friendship? Their responses will be sent home in a card along with their rocks.

We have been talking about all of the wonderful qualities our friends have.  Today, we talked about situations that arise in friendships that aren't always positive.  Using puppets, I acted out different scenarios that sometimes occur amongst friends such as friends not sharing, feeling left out, and a bossy friend. I asked the children how would they solve each of these problem. They brainstormed different ways to change the situation.  Here are the ideas the children had for friends who do not share: - Michael: go play with somewhere else - William: ask may I play? - Ryleigh: how many minutes do you need with the toy? - Tyreese: go somewhere else to play - Bela: ask a teacher for help.