In classes this week we welcomed the beginning of spring through song, dance, books, and art! Children danced to Vivaldi’s “Spring” while twirling colorful scarves pretending to be butterflies, bugs, bees, frogs, or bunnies. The books, “When Spring Comes” and “Tap the Magic Tree” introduced themes of the changing seasons and characteristics of spring. Children were invited to create flower prints using real flowers to stamp or print the flower with paint onto paper. We read “Some Bugs” which helped us to start thinking of the bugs we begin to see in the spring time and gave way to the crunchy “grass” in the sensory bin. Children were able to strengthen fine motor skills while using tweezers to grasp the bugs that they found hiding within the grass. The light table was covered in paper and supplied with bugs, magnifying glasses, pencil crayons and an invitation to look and draw what you see. Children enjoyed looking closely at the bugs through the magnifying glasses taking note of patterning and coloring details for their drawings. A, L, and C worked together using the rainbow stacking blocks and silk scarves to build “homes” for the bugs. Children were able to call upon their fine motor skills again as they squeezed pipettes to drip liquid watercolors onto filter paper, creating beautiful circles of swirling, vibrant colors! D exclaimed, “the colors are growing!” as he watched them spread over the filter paper circle. Our youngest artists explored the textures and properties of paint made from real fruits and veggies. Children helped scoop, dump, and stir the powder and water to mix the paint. Children used brayers, paintbrushes, popsicle sticks, and their hands to roll, brush, scrape, spread, and smoosh the paint across the paper covered table. Each day I witness new ideas as children explore the studio and the materials on the shelves. Big ideas are formed and connections are made. My heart is full and nearly exploded this week when one child squealed with glee, “This is a happy place. Nothing is bad or mad. I love it here!” Our special art lesson for this week familiarized the Little Artists students with impressionist painter, Claude Monet. Children learned of his love of spring, flowers, nature, light, and his garden. They used paint scrapers to push and spread paint across their paper creating a pond and exploring the different textures the tools created. They loved using real flowers to create flower prints within their ponds each one resulting in a personally unique work of art! In music class, students explored sounds and ideas about spring, including the changing of the seasons, through books such as “Tap the Magic Tree” by Christie Matheson, and “When Spring Comes” by Kevin Henkes and Laura Dronzek. After our “Hello” song at circle time, we danced to Vivaldi’s “Spring”. We then investigated several provocations related to the sounds of spring! Gathered around the sensory table, the kids searched through green paper “grass” for bugs and egg shakers. The students were asked what sound the crunching paper grass made, a “chh chh” sound, connecting the sounds of paper media with a vocalization. Children delighted at the sounds of “apples” (felt balls) falling from the “tree” going plunk, plunk, ker-plunk on the gathering drum. And when we beat the drum, we found that we could make them bounce! S and C discovered that if they put a tiny toy on the big bass bar xylophone, they could also make it bounce! A really enjoyed the xylophones, metallophone, and drums, closing his eyes and feeling the music during circle time. G delighted in the colorful scarves at the light table, moving them to the music. MM and L were both interested in the melting snowman in “When Spring Comes” – they both wondered what happened to the snowman when spring came, and he got smaller… and smaller… and smaller… and then disappeared! L liked to sit right on the gathering drum and feel the vibrations! After some free explorations of sounds made by different instruments and other media, we came back together as a group for an improvised jam! It was a wonderful first week filled with excitement and wonder about the sounds of the world around us! We couldn't be more thrilled, and can't wait to see what the students create next week! Enjoy the slideshow below for a closer look into our week!
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