Exploring Rocks

Today the Sunshine summer class read TBSCC new book, "If Rocks Could Sing." The book had rocks in the shape of an object for each letter of the alphabet. The class loved seeing the elephant shaped rock and the doggie shaped rock. It was a fun and exciting book for all. We then played with rocks and blocks made out of trees on the rug during play time. They liked testing if the rocks and wood can balance on each other when they make tall towers. It was also fun to play the game, "how are these rocks the same?" and "how are they different?" We observed color, size, shape and texture. Tomorrow we are going to venture out into the woods to see if we can find out own rocks! We can't wait!

Nature Art!

This Thursday in lunch bunch we explored art through nature! Since we all meet outside we spent sometime searching for rocks, sticks, leaves and seed pods to play with later. We realized quickly that rocks were heavy but a whole group of children were excited to go on this hunt. After 1pm we were left with Max, Nathan, Elias and Mia who were very excited ti explore these materials. Before any art supplies were brought out I let the group build with the rocks. They explored the size and weight and came up with ways that the rocks themselves could create shapes and sculptures. After a while we each picked a rock and brought it to the art table for more exploring. We closed our eyes and felt the rock to see if it was bumpy or smooth. Most of the chldren realized that their rock was bumpy and smooth just in different places. They looked at the different colors and realized that all four of their rocks were different. Then it was time for the paint! Using sticks, leaves and seed pods they started to paint the rocks with a variety of colors. Using these materials were different than brushes and most often the sticks were harder to control. They were extremely focused and many wanted to make sure that they had their entire rock painted. Painting a three diminutional shape is quite different than a single piece of paper. They had to keep rolling their rock which made for a very colorful table. Our rocks are beautiful and hopefully next week we can find a home for them outside in the playground or the woods!