Art on Fridays - Finger painting

Individually, the children added their ideas of what a tree can be to the mural. In the end, we gathered and described what each of them had painted. The children were surprised to see what fun it can be to add more to a picture. They each looked at what the other children painted before they added their own ideas. A beautiful story was created.

The story: 

On a beautiful sunny morning, a little girl decided to take a nap under a tree. She ate a freshly picked apple first and listened to the birds while falling asleep. After she wakes up, she will invite her friends to play together in the tree house. Going up the wiggly ladder was always scary, but also exciting. 

Trees can be a beautiful place to spend your time."

 (by Grace, Luca, Andrea, Kesler and Janet) 

Grace "A tree can be a place to rest in the shade. Can you spot the girl sleeping under a tree?" 

Being generous can help us connect with one another

This week we brainstormed ideas based on the past six weeks of inquiry, discussions and books we've read. 

* What is generous and what is not generous? 

The children drew a picture that represented generous things that are important to them and one picture of something that is not generous. 

We will have a potlatch tomorrow, where there will be speeches on what generosity is and the importance of it, dancing, food and presents. (Def. "Potlatch" = is a gift - giving feast practiced by indigenous people of the Pacific Northwest Coast and the United States)

Thoughtfully, the wind group children made presents for the children in the water group. They all thought of the colours that each child in the water group likes and from there, they came up with the present that they made.

Here is the list of presents:

For Sophie - beads (Kesler "Sophie likes a lot of colours")

       Theo - craft supplies(Grace "because he always likes to draw”)

       Olympia - butterfly 

       Sasha - a lemon and a yellow butterfly

                               (Kesler "Sasha's favourite colours is yellow")

        Charlie - lady bug (Esme "Charlie's favourite colour is red")

        Jayla - blue chest (box) (Grace "I play with Jayla all the time and I know that she would like a blue chest to put all her things in")

         Lucas  - marble (Alexia "Lucas likes to play with the marbles")

Apple cookies will be served at the potlatch. The children spread the peanut butter and sprinkled mini chocolate chips and granola to help prepare them. 

Esme "Yummy. They look so delicious."

Art on Fridays "A Tree Can Be..."

Inspired from the story "A Tree Can Be..." by Judy Nayer, we created a mural of trees.

The story sparked conversations about nature and the importance of it. Appreciating the wonderful things it does to people and animals as well as to the environment. From this conversation, the children described many different uses of a tree. Their ideas will be added to our mural next week.

Some ideas the children had:

Luca "A place to sit."
Grace "A place to climb."
Andrea "A place for a bird."
Janet "A place for a nest." 

Ribbon Rescue by Robert Munsch

After reading the story and discussing the rewarding feeling of generosity, we reenacted the story by sharing ribbons with others and using them to decorate our bodies. 

For Art, we used ribbons to paint! The children dipped the ribbons in paint and drew long fluid strokes with them.