Art of Fridays - Creating Texture with Paint

For art today, we investigated painting techniques that create textured effects. 

We used different tools such as: 

* Plastic Forks

* Tooth brush

* Wide brush vs. narrow brush

* Fingers

* Plastic knives

* Shells

* Paint dabbers

Grace "I never painted with a tooth brush before. It covers a lot of paper very fast." 

Kesler "A fork? ... look, lots of lines." 

Luca "The plastic knife scratched the paper."

Angela "Look at these circles. The pencile makes nice circles." 

Enjoy, 

Anamaria 

Friendship Celebration

After reading the story "Miss Spider's Tea Party" by David Kirk, Esme came up with an idea of having a celebration at Creative Minds to show everyone our appreciation for all the friendships that have formed throughout the year. 

All the children agreed that it is a great idea and a wonderful way of showing our feelings towards each other.

When asked who to invite to the Friendship celebration, the children all chanted at the same time: "Everyone"

Esme "It wouldn't be nice to exclude anyone! They will feel sad." 

The children demonstrated in their vote the understanding that people might feel sad if not included. 

  We all shared in the workload of preparing the tea, cutting the fruits and preparing other treats for the celebration.

Decorations and invitations were made and everyone enjoyed this friendship celebration. 

Kind words and thoughtful conversations took place while enjoying the delicious food. 

Art on Fridays - What does friendship feel like?

When the question "what does friendship feel like?" was asked, most of the children answered with "good", "happy" or "sad". 

For art today, I brought out different materials to help the children explore the use of different descriptive words. Each child touched, smelled and investigated the materials one by one. They all thought of a word that describes the feeling they get from it and shared it with the group.

Feather "fuzzy and soft" Allye

Shell "bumpy" Kesler;     
          "rough" Damon

Pipe Cleaner "flexible. Easy to bend" Grace

Glass "sharp" Andrea;    
          "hard" Kesler;     
          "fragile" Matthew

Fabric "colourful" Janet

Cotton ball "fluffy" Grace";      
                  "comfortable" Allye

Chestnut "cold" Kesler;    
               "round" Grace;   
               "smooth" Allye 

Andrea

Allye

Luca

Matthew

Damon

Grace

Kesler

Their art project will be displayed at Creative Minds and can be taken home at any time. 

We used all the materials to do textured art. Texture is an element of art used to describe the way a two or three-dimensional project feels when touched. The visual "feel" also takes place when observing a texture art project. 

Friends around us.

The giving and receiving of friendship happens throughout the day at Creative Minds in numerous ways.

The wind group children drew some pictures of themselves and their friends and their task was to think of some characteristics that describe their friendship; their likes and dislikes, their way of giving and receiving friendship, etc.

Most of the children talked about the happy feelings that arose when friends are around. Esme mentioned how sometimes friends do make each other sad, but a hug or "I am sorry, is there anything I can do to help you feel better?" can change that feeling. 

This shows an understanding that we live in a world of interacting systems where our actions can affect others. 

In the end, we brainstormed qualities we find in our friends and wrote some friendship poems: 

Esme:  My friend is happy

             She plays with me

             and we like to have fun.

             My friend is Sofia. 

Grace:  My friend is kind. 

             We sit together

             We play together

             My friend is Sofia. 

Kesler: My friend is kind.

             She shares

             We play all the time 

             My friend is Adyson.

Andrea: My friend is hurt

              I ran and got a band-aid

              I cared for my friend

              My friend is Esme. 

Andrea's poem was inspired from her actions. When Esme got hurt, she rushed to her cubby to bring a band-aid for her. Her generous and kind action made the children point out how Andrea was caring towards Esme. 

Esme showed her appreciation by saying "Thank you" to Andrea. 

Enjoy,

Anamaria 

Art of Fridays - Discoveries and inquiries arose when painting with primary colours

For Art on Friday, the children used the three primary colours (Red, Yellow and Blue) to paint a picture.
All of them noticed that when mixing primary colours, new colours formed.

Grace "Wow. Look, I made green. Yellow and blue make green."
Angela "Purple. Red and blue make purple." 
"I made brown." Kesler added. He mixed all the three colours to make brown.

All the children enjoyed mixing colours. They shared their little discoveries of the endless colours and shades they can make just by using three paint colours.

Luca

Kesler

Grace

Andrea

Angela

Good feelings arise when friends help each other by sharing the work.

While reading the classic folktale "The little red hen", the children demonstrated an understanding that because the other animals (hen's friends) did not want to share in the workload during the day, when it came to enjoying the delicious bread that the hen had baked all by herself, the hen chose not to share even though all the animals jumped "to help eat" when it came to that. The children recognized that the hen might have felt upset and disappointed that she received no help and then everyone wanted to eat. 

"You can't just eat. Everyone needs to help a little bit. I always help my parents at home." Esme 

We created a feeling face chart where the children picked a feeling that reflected how they think that red hen felt when no one helped her.

"I like to help my friends." Kesler 

"It makes them happy." Andrea 

In order to dramatize the story, we all made paper puppets. Esme chose to be the little red hen and when she asked the other children (animals) to help her bake bread, they all said yes. The children felt the need to change the story because they all felt that sharing the workload is a generous act that reflects an important friendship quality.

After the dramatization, we gathered all the ingredients necessary and baked our own bread. The children enjoyed taking turns and helping with adding the ingredients, mixing and cleaning up at the end. They all agreed that working together was fun and fast. 

"We should share the bread with all our friends." Esme 

"I think they will really enjoy it. It feels good to share and make others happy." Grace 

The children demonstrated an understanding that it is more likely for someone to share with the others when the workload is shared amongst friends. 

The smell of the bread baking in the oven was delightful. 

Esme couldn't stop herself from checking from time to time to make sure that the oven was on and that the bread was rising. 

"I am so excited to eat the bread..... and to share it with everyone. Let's do a show for all our friends and tell the story where everyone helps each other."

"I would like to share some bread with my mommy." Luca 

Art on Fridays - Glue and Tissue Paper

Driven by the story "The Rainbow Fish" by Marcus Pfister, where the sharing of shimmery scales awakens the happy feeling of friendship, the children enjoyed working with tissue paper. They created a mural that can be hung by the window. The sunlight will stream through their artwork and create a beautiful reflection of the vibrant colours of the tissue paper they chose.

Friendships Everywhere

Transdisciplinary Theme: Who We Are 

Central idea:  Friendship is an important part of a healthy community. 

For the formative week the children shared their knowledge on what they know about friendship. In the upcoming weeks, we are going to be learning about how friendship functions in our lives. During the formative week I gathered experiences of friendship that the children have shared.

"I play with everyone. It feels good." Alexia 

 "Playing with your friends." Kesler 

"Including people in your games." Esme 

"Being nice to each other." Esme

"Caring for each other." Grace

"Playing with my friends."  Angela

"Sharing toys with my friend Grace." Andrea

After reading the story "Friends" by Helme Heine, the children were inspired and the story sparked more discussions about the role friendship plays in our lives. 

"We are all different. It's a good different. We don't always need to be the same." Grace 

"Friendship matters. Otherwise there would be no friends and everyone would be mad at each other." Esme

"Sometimes friends can't be together, but they are still together in their hearts and they are still friends." Grace 

"I like my friends. They make me smile." Kesler 

I am looking forward to exploring more about friendship together with the children in the Wind group. Their bright minds and kind souls will help build strong relationships with each other and spread their kindness to everyone in our surroundings.

Enjoy, 

Anamaria