Session 2, Week 3: Exploding Colors and ABC's

Art Classes

This week we had an extra special (and extra messy!) art class! We continued our explorations into color mixing with the primary colors, while learning about chemical reactions! We used some colored baking soda and colored vinegar to produce a very exciting and colorful reaction when mixed. Red baking soda and yellow vinegar combined to create orange foam, which bubbled up and out of the container! Students were then invited to paint with the new colors that were created. It was a great time! Especially because the mess was left at the studio rather than at home ;)

Science is awesome, and fun! When combining it with art in inviting provocations, the students learn things about the world just by observing and manipulating materials. Without being lectured to, they are learning by doing! Painting with baking soda paint using brushes, and then using pipettes to drip vinegar onto the paper, created some very interesting and explosive artwork!

Young artists also explored light and painting by finger painting directly on the light table.  "oohs" and "awws" echoed throughout the studio as the toddlers delighted in watching the paint spread and smear...their fingers leaving marks for the light to shine through.  When they decided they were, "all done" we did a little printmaking by transferring their work onto a piece of paper...magic!

Music Classes

This week in music class, we built upon the children's knowledge of the alphabet by singing the ABC song, as well as a few other songs with the same melody - "Twinkle, twinkle, little star" and "Baa baa black sheep". The melody from all of these songs is based on an old french folk song called "Ah, vous dirai-je maman." We then listened to a recording of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's "Twelve Variations on Ah, vous dirai-je maman" while dancing around the room. Encouraging the students to feel the music and move as it moves: during a slow section moving in long, slow adagio, and then faster... allegro, and presto!

We also worked on our marching, with an instrument game around the rug to "Here we go round the mulberry bush." You never know where you may end up, and what instrument you might get to play when the music stops!

As always, we allow the children time to explore a wide range of musical instruments, to enable them exposure and free play. Our little musicians had some ideas of their own, combining Boomwhackers with drums to play along with the guitar accompaniment. Even babies learn valuable lessons by up-close exposure to an instrument. It is truly amazing to see how fast many of our students catch on to music. Just as with language, they are comprehending music much, much before they have the muscular capacity to play it. When they are able, their cognitive abilities will already have been developed and they'll be ready to start playing music easily!

Please enjoy more great moments from this week in this slideshow!