Session 2, Week 4: Pointillism, "Seurat the Dot" and Getting Ready for our Bear Hunt!

Music Classes

We can't believe how fast this session flew by! Our bear hunt adventure has almost arrived, so we continued to practice our singing skills by singing the simple pentatonic bear hunt song we created. I think our little hunters are ready for next week!

In our provocations this week, we emphasized sounds that different materials make. Instruments made out of metal vs. those made out of wood, for example. We worked on our fine motor skills by pinching the string on the finger cymbals to make it ring. G learned that if you hold the cymbal it sounds different than if the string is held.

You can see in the background that our forest is starting to grow already! That didn't deter the students from singing along to Solfege scales, doing the Kodaly hand symbols with confidence! I was so impressed to see how fast they have picked this up, in just a few short weeks! During free play provocations, MM, L, and S decided to form a band!

Art Classes

Our Little Artists focused on Georges Seurat, whom we like to call "Seurat the dot" - little mnemonic device to help the kids remember the name of the artist, and it's so fun to say! Famous for his painting, "Sunday on the Island of La Grand Jatte", Seurat worked heavily in pointillism, the art of using very small dots (LOTS of very small dots) to create a larger work of art. To emphasize this point in our provocation, we used some dyed rice.

As the children eagerly set to work, this nicely divided rice was quickly mixed into a very beautiful blend of all of the colors of the rainbow! Our youngest artists got to paint on a baby-sized light table, helping to squirt the paint on the lit surface and then manipulating it with their hands, or with a little help, dancing on the paint. Then, we made a mono print of their creations!

To continue our lesson on pointillism, Little Artists were invited to paint with dots, using cotton swabs. First, an outline is helpful for guiding where the dots will go. We talked about what an outline is, and the children brought some great ideas to the discussion, such as the "edge" or the "outside" of an object. Then, the dotting commenced! Students made up a little song while working, "Dot, dot, dot, dot, dot..."

This week we also read the book "The Dot" by Peter H. Reynolds, which encourages little artists not to be afraid to just try something, to make a little dot, and see where it takes you! 
​Dots of color blended, diffused, and mixed on diffusing paper! Pipettes and liquid watercolors were used to transfer the paint onto the filter paper, always with very impressive effects. 

Children wanted to continue their work with the colored water, transferring from one container to another with pipettes or by pouring and mixing colors to create new colors of their own!  These organic investigations lead to pride and ownership and an eagerness to share their discoveries.  C exclaimed, "I put pink and orange together and made my own very cool color!  I'll let you keep it for the other kids in the classes to use!" What a beautiful extension of the provocation lead by the children.  C's statement also delicately illustrates the sense of community growing within the studio!

Please enjoy more great moments in this slideshow!