Recycled Art!

The children really enjoyed spray painting with the sprayers and water colors! They took their time and were very deliberate as they sprayed the water colors on the recycled materials.

Try this activity at home!

The Shushan Castle!

Our palace/castle has come a long way! Check it out!

Step by Step Building

The Tel Aviv class has been hard at work building their recycled castle of Shushan! We have looked at books and pictures and seen different types of castles for around the world to help inspire us to build our own unique castle creation. Eli saw many castles with a draw bridge and was so excited to make one for our own castle. After poking some holes and using some string we created a real working draw bridge! Ezra and Max have been hard at work with the architecture of the structure. They keep adding new boxes with tape as places to store the treasure so that it will be safe from Haman! All of the class has spent time painting and decorating the castle. It has been a true teem effort. We also have been using our partner puppets that we created earlier this week to re-enact the Purim story in our new castle. Everyday it keeps changing and I can't wait to see what it looks like next week!

Building Together!

Today we started to work on our recycled castles! During the week before break the Tel Aviv class worked hard to decorate different recycled materials that they brought in from home and today we finally were able to use the materials together. The class had been wanting to build a castle and Purim is a great time to talk about castles, kings, queens, and their connection to our Jewish Tradition. The class worked together to place the boxes in a shape for the castles and they used tape to secure each piece into place. It was so neat to see their imaginations at work. Max decided to add a ladder with popsicle sticks and Eli made a slide out of a toilet paper role. Dylan looked through some books on castles and decided he wants to make a catapult for the castle tomorrow. It is a full class effort and the group is excited and proud of their creation!

Recycle, reuse, recreate!

The Kohavim children really enjoyed making very original creations using old wire hangers, string, bells, CDs, small flower pots, sand dollars, and more. The item that was perhaps the biggest hit was a roll of multi-colored "duck" tape---that's right, "duck", not "duct." Several children asked where such tape could be purchased, so there might be a run on it at AC Moore. I've heard from a reliable source that if you search around you can find equally attractive tape at a lower price. It was very interesting to see how the children chose to use the materials in their structures. I did this same project with a group of adults who weren't as creative in how they chose to use the materials as the children were. What does this tell us about what happens to creativity over time?

Reusable Art!

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

Thinking with Found Materials

 

Yesterday, Sasha and I attended a workshop at the Eric Carle Museum. This workshop was developed to support learning for Pre-K through early elementary classroom and at home. In this workshop we collected and explored materials. These type of 'found~recycled~ materials support critical thinking skills when we offer children the opportunity to observe, interpret, evaluate, make associations, compare. In working in groups, as we often do, skills such as problem solving, cooperation are also learned.

Last week the Kohavim children created some beautiful works of art with 'recycled' materials and thought of some great 'stories' or narratives about are creations. Each came 'alive' in story form. We would like to continue this creative journey by requesting your help. If you could look in your drawers and around the house find some 'treasures' of recycled stuff. We would encourage you to think of color, texture, length, shape. Let your imagine run wild.

Some suggested materials to collect from the book I perused through are as follows:

Wire, feathers, beads and buttons, broken jewelry, tape, string, old keys, small machines that don't work, plastic socks, leather remnants, sponges, small seed pods, wood scraps, containers preferably white or transparent, baskets, cardboard pieces: all kinds of shapes and if possible with no writing or print, paper of different weights, textures and colors, screws and bolts, and small mirrors.

We would encourage you to involve the children in the selection process as well. When we put all the 'found' materials in a group pile, in the block room, we will create a storage space together, and begin our exploration journey and develop those critical thinking skills and expressive skills. Thank you for any help you could provide.

What you see in this picture is the city we created in small individual groups then developed a story line around our creations, similar to what your children did naturally last week. It was a wonderful workshop which was inspiring.

Our Save Box!

Yesterday the Tel Aviv children decorated a cardboard box (our "save box"). Often the children build these intricate detailed structures with the magnitiles/legos and want to save them and play with it later. The children will ask, "Where can I put this I want to go eat snack, or make my challah?" So we thought we would reuse the cardboard box and make it our "save box". What a great idea!

Snow in November!?

What can you do with some boxes and foam peanuts?! Make it snow! The Tel Aviv class loved looking at the random recycled materials that got shipped to my house yesterday. They turned them into many wonderful imaginative games that encouraged collaborative play and also created a wonderful opportunity for Lauri and I to see how well the class uses their new problem solving strategies! When they saw the boxes the first thing they did was dump all the peanuts on the ground. Then, it snowed! Eli, Jacob and Dylan had a blast throwing the peanuts up in the air and watching them fall. Then they had races to fill the box back up. Max wanted to see what they were doing so he ran and joined the fun. As he ran, he stepped on the bubble wrap and exclaimed “Bubbbles!” He and Molly then spend some time practicing fine motor skills and popping all the bubbles. Then Rachel joined in the fun and decided to build an “Ark” for the snow. It was so neat to see how this game evolved as different kids joined in and materials were used in new and innovative ways. It definitely shows that one person’s trash can be a whole class’ treasure!