Staying Cool

 

A tray of ice , salt, and droppers to color your sculptures was the a great way to cool off on a hot summer day. The children stuck the ice together with salt and pinched the droppers to get color into the dropper  and watched as the color exploded over the ice cubes. 

Selling Art at the Shuk!

The Tel Aviv class created tile and stick art to sell at the shuk!  They used ceramic tiles, felt, buttons,popsicle sticks and glue to create colorful detailed sculptures! 

Impromptu Creativity!

Today Lauri and I had planned that we were going to create recycled sculptures to sell in the shuk. Before school started Charlotte came and was helping Lauri tape down paper so that the table could be covered so we wouldn't get paint on it. When Lauri left to get more supplies Samantha and Josie came to help Charlotte tape down the paper; however, soon enough they had created a new project! The girls were using tape to create different designs and stories. They were measuring and cutting and creating such elaborate pieces of art. When Lauri came back to set up the sculptures we realized that our project could wait another day: this project was too fun! The group was engrossed for a full forty minutes as they worked together and tuned a brown piece of paper in a table cloth filled with stories from their imagination! It was a great start to a fun indoor day!

A Bridge!

Once again, we saw the Keshet children exercising their imaginations as they constructed a tunnel, decorated the top of it, and climbed through it.  They even climbed on top!  We enjoyed looking at the photos of the Shamayim children's creations on our shared wall.  Thank you for sharing your materials with us.

Not a Box

is the title of a book by Antoinette Portis.  Here's a summary: "A box is just a box . . . unless it's not a box. From mountain to rocket ship, a small rabbit shows that a box will go as far as the imagination allows.  Inspired by a memory of sitting in a box on her driveway with her sister, Antoinette Portis captures the thrill when pretend feels so real that it actually becomes real-when the imagination takes over and inside a cardboard box, a child is transported to a world where anything is possible."

Exploring the possibilities began this morning.  It was a hiding place, a fire station,  and it was also the canvas for artistic expression.   Ben and Ethan chose to draw on the top and the sides, and then Ally and Ethan continued drawing on the inside, on the ceiling and on the walls.  I wonder what they will do  with it next?

 

Gak Art!

The children mixed glue, water, food coloring and borax together to make orange gak.   They rolled it, cut the gak and made jewelry with it.

  In Lunch Bunch Adam and Elias asked if they could draw or color the orange gak with markers?  The children took out a few old markers and started to draw and color the gak.  Check it out...That's what we call  "Gak Art!" 

Brave Queen Esther

At our morning meeting we had in depth discussion about heroes and who the heroes are in the Purim story and why.  When we opened the classroom for free play we invited the children to create crowns with scissors, paper, markers, tape and sequins.

Queen Esther seemed to be be very popular!  The children took their time as they traced, cut and decorated their crown.  Tomorrow we will have the opportunity to make more crowns.  Next week we will play with the crowns in our dramatic play center.

Where's the Paintbrush?

The children had an opportunity to do some finger painting this morning.  After an explanation and a brief demonstration, they understood that no brushes were necessary.  This creative opportunity has a sensory element that can be strange at first.  Sometimes we forget that children need to be exposed to new things over and over before they become comfortable and allow themselves to explore more deeply.  We plan to offer this activity on several more occasions to allow the children to become more comfortable with the medium and the experience of having wet, gooey, paint covered fingers and hands.

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. 

How can we take care of our world?

Last week the children wrote or dictated on a frame how they can take care of the world.

Then they had the opportunity to create a colorful piece of art from flowers and green plants some of which we picked from our TBSCC garden. The children arranged the flowers and leaves on the contact paper, then we took another piece of contact paper and placed it on top.

The children really enjoyed the entire process!

Day 3 Recycled Art!

The recycled art took on a whole new look as the children painted it with glue and glitter!

Nature "focusers"

The Rainbow class took time to decorate one of the two parts to their focusers - which one of the children identified as "binoculars". After a quick teacher demonstration and explanation, each child proceeded to put the cap right on the end of the marker, so she could immediately find the cap to put on the marker after she finished. This was another opportunity to remind us to take care of our materials. Drawing on a curved surface is tricky!

The Rainbow parents had decorated the other part of the focusers in honor of their child when we met for Curriculum Night. The kids were delighted to see the half that their parent had covered with designs, patterns, and pictures. We taped the two together to make the focusers that we plan to bring on our upcoming nature walk. Once the focusers were securely taped together, the kids were delighted to use them to look outside. We heard reports that they saw squirrels, a horse, and a bird just outside of our window. With our focusers, we can also look at small areas in the woods or playground area. They will give us a way to bring our attention to a specific area as we look around us. Stay tuned for more about the focusers and our exploration...

Partner Work!

Today the children partnered up and created some amazing structures with glue and popsicle sticks. Hannah and Eli worked together to create a spider! The dialogue was beautiful! Eli, "Pick one from my hand Hannah." Hannah, "Do you want to put one on the top or the bottom?" Ezra and Eliza were buddies! Ezra, "It's your turn and then my turn." Eliza, "That's right."

Working together with a partner takes time, practice and lots of experience!

Feathers, feathers! To be a bird...

During our free play this morning, there were lots of different materials available for making collages. There were wooden shapes, foam shapes, sparkly snowflakes and leaves, cardboard circles, curly paper, stickers....and feathers!

Several of the kids enjoyed blowing on the feathers to see how they fluttered in the moving air. They also liked the light tickle of the feather on their cheeks. We talked about what it would be like to be a bird whose body was covered with feathers that allowed the bird to fly. What fun!

Designing our own pyramid!

By role playing with each other Sasha and I tried to teach the children about slavery and how it felt to be a slave. Slaves had no choices, were told what to do and when to do it! They worked all day and all night! The slaves had to build large cities for the mean Pharaoh!

When we think of Egypt we think pyramids and so if you were a Jewish slave one might think you had to build pyramids for the mean Pharaoh! So we decided to work together and build a pyramid out of paper bricks. Over the course of the next few weeks the children will trace, cut and design their own bricks for our pyramid. We are off to a good start!

The kid inside us all

Mario had a lot of fun today creating things with Wiki stix and playing with Lego. Oh yes, the children had a great time too. There's nothing like a new material to draw a crowd(crowd picture is missing) and keep the interest level high. Mario commented that at first the children seemed to be balling up the Wiki stix, and Mario knew they could use them more creatively. I had provided cards and some sample pictures which helped stimulate new ideas about what to make. Suddenly there were butterflies, tic tac toe boards, spider webs, names spelled out, and some creative but best not named weapons of destruction. We'll see what tomorrow brings with these colorful wax coated "stix".

Reusable Art!

Reusable Art! The Tel Aviv children had fun creating art with confetti, bottle caps and wood!