Painting the Creation Story

On Monday, Talia, Evan, and Julian used water color paints to paint the story of Creation. The children started with blank white pages and added their own interpretations of the story as Jesse read aloud. They painted darkness and light, the seas and the sky, the land with grass and plants, the sun, moon and stars, animals, and the first man and woman. The children each had beautiful interpretations of the Creation story.

Welcome to Spring!

It finally feels like Spring outside and in the Keshet class!  Today, the children used watercolors on white coffee filters to make the start of what will be a beautiful spring bouquet.  The watercolors are different from the poster paint they are used to working with.  The colors are lighter and they had to get used to the extra step of having to dip their small paintbrushes in water before swirling it around in the paint.  They did get the hang of it and produced some beautiful artwork.

Inspired by Daffodils

A fresh bouquet of Daffodils, water color paints, and cut water color paper was an inspiring provocation last week. Almost all of the children visited the science table where the daffodils were placed. Each child used the water color paints to represent the flowers on their blank canvases, each with their own variation. Come look at the wall of the children's paintings in the Kohavim classroom! We plan to continue bringing in fresh flowers as inspiration. Over the next few weeks, if you and your child are gardening or come across some striking flowers at the market, please bring them in to share with us! 

We Made New Situpons!

This week we announced to the Tel Aviv class that we were making brand new situpons! In the Tel Aviv class we have situpons for circle time that show us where we are sitting for that days circle. The old situpons were created the first week of school. They were made with markers and stickers and each one had the child’s picture on it. These new situpons were made with a very popular medium in the Tel Aviv class: watercolor! The group was so excited that they could paint new situpons and they had become well aware that the old one’s were getting a bit worn. It was great to see the buzz surrounding the art table that day because each child knew that they were making something that had a purpose; we use situpons everyday! While I was sitting with them, Micah Rosin turned to me and said, “You know how I put all these colors in? I stayed here for awhile!” The focus was amazing, and it shows in the product! We can already see beautiful development in each child’s art since the beginning of the year!

Lauri and I added the pictures and laminated the designs later in the week, and the lunch bunch group was SO excited to see the final product. They dug through the pile to find their picture and quickly found a space on the rug to give them a test run! We loved creating a practical product together and are looking forward to all the circles we will enjoy while sitting upon our new situpons : )

 

Wonderful Watercolors!

This week has been a week filled with wonderful watercolors! On Tuesday Micah Gladstone asked if he could paint and started a trend that has lasted all week. The Tel Aviv kids have been water coloring everything! From pieces a paper to cards, and envelopes to play post office with they have enjoyed both the process of painting and being able to share a product with their friends. We have also spent sometime water coloring on our “buildings” for our community we are creating. We have covered recycled boxes with paper that we are now able to water color. It’s a neat multi-step process. Our art table is a wonderful place for kids to have some quiet, reflective art time and can be a place of fascinating social conversation as kids share their ideas with each other inspiring each other’s imaginations. Over the week many of the children have painted independently and in pairs. However they paint, it is neat for them to explore a new medium and we are excited to continue water coloring in the weeks to come!

Watercolor Painting

At the art table, children have been using watercolor paints.  When we paint with watercolors, the children follow steps, similar to following steps in a recipe to prepare food. Watercolor paints can sometimes be a challenging medium. The children need to figure out how much water to use, how to mix colors without muddling the palette, and how to manipulate the paintbrush to create the effect they are hoping for. Following the steps, breaks down the process of watercolor painting and enables the children to explore the materials while feeling successful. See the photo slideshow below of some of the children painting and check back to find out how the Kohavim children become skilled with this art medium. 

Drip Drip Drip...

At the art table today, the Haifa class found the playdoh trays! That seems like a silly place for playdoh trays to be. But that's because we weren't using them for playdoh! We were using them to create beautiful colors on coffee filters. Each child got the chance to use eye droppers in watercolor, and create colorful designs.

They will be dry by this evening, and we hope to have them on display for you at Curriculum Night!

-Alison and Sauci

Painting With Watercolors

When Sami came into the classroom this morning, she was very excited to share her painting book with everyone. "There's a page for all the kids," she exclaimed excitedly. With the help of a teacher, she carefully tore out the different pages and handed them out. All the children were very excited to get their own page and as a result, they quickly got to work, bringing lots of color to the black and white pages. Some of the kids were very intent on making sure that they used every color, while others decided that they only wanted to use one color. Several of the kids asked Sami if they could have another paper when they were done. Sami replied, "Sure. Of course. Here you go.", and happily handed out more paper. Thank you, Sami, for sharing your painting book with us and for bringing in such a fun activity for everyone to enjoy!

MESSY ART DAYYYY!

Today the Rainbow, Unicorn and Levana friends had a fantastic time during our lunch bunch messy day! Everyone had their own pieces of paper to create their own unique paintings on. We had lots of different unique ways to paint. We painted with pasta both cooked and uncooked. The cooked pasta was wiggly and you could drag the paint across a page. The uncooked spaghetti worked more like a paint brush where you could put the paint exactly where you want it. The uncooked spaghetti was also a neat way to scratch into paint to remove it and draw a picture within the paint. In addition, we also had liquid water color ice cubes. It was neat to watch the paint dissolve on the paper. Each child liked experimenting with these different ways to paint. Molly wanted to paint with a brush and after she painted with a brush for a bit she picked up some uncooked pasta and exclaimed, "This is just like a brush!" Elias like using the ice cube paint to push the other paint around on the page which mixed both kinds of paint together. Max and Nathan painted the spaghetti with the brush and then rolled the noodles across the page. All the children tried using both the pasta and the ice cubes to paint and they left with beautiful multi-media painted creations!

So Many Feelings!

This morning the Tel Aviv students started to explore some painting of feelings. On the playground, a few students were finding it hard to find the words to express how they felt so I thought it would be a good day to read about and discuss feelings. We read a book called, The Story of My Feelings about a little girl who feels many things. When she is sad she cries and it makes her feel better, sometimes she laughs, sighs and yells. Doing this actions are ways that she copes when she can’t find words to express how she feels. It was so interesting to have this conversation with the tel Aviv students. When I asked the group if anyone of them have ever cried they all said, “No!” We talked about how everyone has times when they feel sad and that even grown-ups cry sometimes. Soon one by one every student told about a time when they cried, they were sad, didn’t get something they wanted, got a shot or fought with a sibling. It was neat to see the change in the students as they started to realize that it’s ok to have the feelings they have. During choice time they had the options of water coloring a feeling that they have and then I wrote down their feelings and why they felt that way. Hopefully we can turn it into a class feeling book for our library!

flower bouquet gifts

Each morning the sunshine children have been doing water colors on coffee filters. They have been unique and colorful and exciting to watch as the colors soak together. We are making flower bouquets for our children to bring to their Thanksgiving meals to say thank you to their host. Aleeza and Sydni worked very hard to make flowers for each of the members of their family. We are excited to put them together this week!!

Watercolors and Writing Skills

Everyone has their own particular style of painting with watercolors. Controlling one's brush and making color choices is but a small part of the creative process. As a child gains mastery, we see writing skills emerging.