Unexpected Coloring!

Today on the playground we had paper set up on (and under!!) the climbing structure! We had paper under the landings, on the bottom part of the tunnel and on some of the poles. These unexpected coloring areas were a huge hit as children from all different classes came together to reach up high and color!  Some colored with one hand, others both! Many of the younger children were fascinated that the older one's could color under the tunnel.

Both Ben G. and Zach S.  tried to jump in order to make a dot. Having a dot on the paper helped them feel accomplished as they added to the tunnel's decorations. It was neat to see how coloring was not only a creative activity but a physical one too. Kids needed height or strength to reach up high. Also many of the kids were squatting under the climber. This activity forced them to be aware of how their body fit in space, which can be a very tricky skill.

Keshet and Levana kids loved painting the poles. Noa and Alex L. Spent a lot of time making sure that all the white was filled in. it was so nice to see how proud Noa was to show off her communal drawing at pick-up. It was a beautiful day filled with wonderful community created art.

 Hopefully we can do it again soon!

Fun with Foam (Shaving Cream)

Today in the Adom classroom, the campers got to play with shaving cream.  There were eyedroppers and watercolors to drop into the shaving cream and make colored shaving cream.

 Zach had fun mixing colors!

 Ben and Zach love the feeling of the shaving cream.

We had a great time squishing and playing with the foam; it is such a smooth and unique feeling that we managed to make a HUGE mess.

 Ben M likes the blue foam the best!

 

We also squirted shaving cream into cups and then put glitter and food coloring in the cups.  

We mixed it all up and put the cups in the freezer to stay overnight.

We shall see what frozen shaving cream looks and feels like when we take it out tomorrow!

red and orange

green and blue...shining yellow, purple, too!

We have been excited about colors ever since Grayden's mommy read us the story about the yellow and blue dots that make green!

Today, we used paint chips that had open square windows to match colors.  Ilan did a great job searching...

checking...

and showing off his match!

making connections

Today, Lily came running over to me and said, "she (Hillary) has a jacket with all the rainbow colors on it!"

Lily then looked down and exclaimed "my polka dots are rainbow colors, too!"

Making connections with other children is an important skill - it was fun to see Lily do this with a child in another class.  We look forward to making more connections throughout the year!

circle time with Unicorn class today

Today I had the pleasure to lead circle time at the Unicorn classroom.

During circle time, we decided to build a structure from colorful transparent blocks. Each kid was given a block to hold, and on their turn they were asked to put it dwon to a collaborative structure.  While children put down their block, I taught them the names of the different shapes and colors in Hebrew.

The shapes we used are:

Square= Ribua

Triangle= Meshulash

Rectangle= Malben

The colors we used were:

Red=Adom

Blue= Kachol

Green= Yarok

Yellow= Tzahov

same idea, different medium

A few weeks ago, we read the book Mouse Paint and experimented with water colors to see what would happen when we combined red and yellow, yellow and blue and blue and red.

Today, we took finger paint and put different combinations into plastic bags. We mushed and kneeded the paint together until we began to hear exclamations of "I made orange! I made green! I made purple!!!". It was obvious that taking this active role in the transformation of TWO colors into a whole new ONE was both excited and enlightening!!

The Wooden Animals Have A Home

 

On Tuesday, we painted wooden animals and waited for them to dry. Today we got to play with them. At first the kids were very worried that they were going to get their hands dirty. I explained to them that while we were not at school yesterday, the paint had time to dry. I showed them how no paint came off on my hands when I touched the animals. The kids used colored wooden blocks to make houses for the animals. Some of the kids worked cooperatively with one another to make houses together. There was lots of sharing without prompting and very polite asking, such as "May I have  a turn when you're done?" Way to go Rainbows!

Fun With Glue!

The Tel Aviv class experimented with tissue paper and glue today. They enjoyed squeezing the bottles and creating fun designes with the glue on their paper and then adding the tissue paper on top of it. Rachel created a heart out of glue. Hannah made a beautiful flower with different color petals. Lily and Eliza worked together to create a masterful piece of art. The Tel Aviv class loves working with other media and the colors are fantastic. Later this week we will practice glueing for a structured project but today was a day of unstructured fun with glue!

Fun With Clay

Nancy brought in some colorful clay for the children to explore. The clay started out in thin sticks that were stuck together and sorted by color. As you can see, after many animated exclamations of "What is this?," the children got to work. Josh, Rose, Sami and Audrey decided to mush the clay together while Sophie decided to break the clay into small pieces and sort it by color. The children applied their fine motor skills using clay tools to mush, cut, and pound the clay. All the children said that the clay felt "sticky and wet."

Counting 101!

Today we filled the small pool with small colorful plastic balls and put a few shovels in the pool, so the children could scoop away!!!!! Most of the morning the children were scooping the balls in and out of the pool randomly. At one point I noticed Aleeza looking at the balls in the pool and took the opportunity to ask her if she could find four red balls. One by one she scooped the four red balls and placed them in a floating basket in the pool. Then I asked Aleeza to scoop out six yellow balls. She counted/scooped six yellow balls and placed them in the basket. Laura was right by Aleeza's side as she counted! Five minutes later Aleeza and Laura called me over to see how many blue balls Aleeza scooped out. In case you were wondering...It was eight blue balls! Now that is what I call a whole lot of counting and a whole lot of fun!

Ways To Paint!

Children's bodies are eloquent when they stand/sit to paint. The gestures of their arms, the tilt of their bodies, their eyes steady gaze tell the story of children's engagement with color, with movement, with creative offerings. Look closely at these images of the children painting their sukkahs: they hold captivating stories...

Mia leans back away from the box, reaching out to the deep orange. One hand moves the paint with the brush, the other waits nearby.

Lexi leans forward into the box, holding the box still with one finger and moves the paint with the other hand, with a brush.

Teddy stands up straight and moves the paint with both hands at the same time, with two brushes.

Sam's body is tilted over to the left,his eyes focused intently, as he moves the orange paint, with a brush, the other hand held tightly clenched.

Recycled Gardening

Keeping in line our summer theme of "reusing" and recycling materials, we created beautiful pieces of art. We used our strong hand muscles to push in scraps of cloth into the styrofoam.

Snails, Snails, Snails Everywhere

Friends, Jake, Lily, Avery, Ilana, and Sandy are playing the Snail Race Game. They need to roll the colored dice and then move the matching snail one step towards Friends, Jake, Lily, Avery, Ilana, and Sandy are playing the Snail Race Game. They need to roll the colored dice and then move the matching snail one step towards the finish line. Who will win? They had fun predicting which color was going to reach the finish line first. They waited patiently, taking turns, and discovered they were ALL winners in this snail race.