 Mister Seahorse is a warm and charming story about a Daddy Seahorse who looks after Mrs's Seahorses eggs until they are ready to hatch and then gives birth to them! As he drifts through the sea, he meets all sorts of other male fish who also look after their young until they hatch. This is a wonderfully positive tale for fathers everywhere. I quite LOVED the odd fish father's role subject of the book. It's so cool to teach kids things they wouldn't normally be exposed to in such a surprising and not obviously educational way. It makes it such a pleasure to learn then learning becomes natural!! WE NEED MORE BOOKS LIKE THIS! Totally recommend for home libraries!! I didn’t even have to draw a parallel to how our daddies help mummy take care of us... they volunteered that all on their own! Anyway, for our art we drew our Seahorse on painted paper and cut him out. The children created Watercolour backgrounds in the style of Eric Carle so they used light wavy lines to mimic the ocean currents. They stuck Mr. Seahorse down and decorated him as well. Happt Father’s Day!
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 This precious lesson focuses on a basic line drawing, painting and creating the illusion of space while telling the encouraging story of Number One Sam by Greg Pizzoli. The moral of this children’s book is a positive and uplifting one for young children: winning isn’t everything! They will finish putting all the pieces together and painting the background in an upcoming class! update: Our Number 1 Sam pieces are all done and they are as adorable as ever... even if Sam mostly looks like a mouse! 😆🤷🏻♀️ The English fairy tale “Jack and the Beanstalk” first appeared in print in 1734. Some literature researchers think the oral version of the story has been around for over 5,000 years! It is an endearing story of a poor boy who buys magic beans that grow a beanstalk of gargantuan size. Jack climbs the beanstalk high into the sky and discovers that it leads to the home of a mean giant. Jack manages to steal some valuable treasures from the giant which causes the giant to become very angry. Before the giant shimmies down the beanstalk to get Jack, Jack cuts down the beanstalk. Now we discussed this little tale at great length and it turns out that your children have a very firm moral compass! Congrats! They were all able to discern some important lessons...
This is all of course while they were working on drawing and painting their bird's eye view of Jack climbing back down the bean stalk! This piece drew their attention to different aspect of perspective in art. So far we have done 1-point perspective (poui trees), atmospheric perspective (winter landscape) and now bird's eye.  Inside hulking Horton dwells the soul of a gentle, steadfast caretaker, and Seuss uses the elephant's immensity to make a point about taking care of those more vulnerable than ourselves. Horton is so huge that there are only a few scraps of blue sky showing. In contrast, the dust speck on the pink clover is bitty indeed. (And if their planet is this tiny, how microscopic are the Whos?) Gigantic-eared Horton hears them all along -- perhaps his compassionate soul acts as a cosmic hearing aid? In any case this book (like all Suess books in my opinion) really appeals to children and they are quick to cheer for the Whos and get stark raving mad at the Kangaroo! My Doodlebugs then set out to draw and paint Horton complete with our fuzzy ball of clover that holds the entire town of Whoville!  It can be tough being the only funny-looking Monster in Cutesville, but this Monster is not one to hang around and feel sorry for himself, so he’s off – out into the big wide world to look for someone to love him. He looks high, he looks low and he looks everywhere in-between, but it’s only when he’s just about to give up that he finally finds what he is looking for… a friend to LOVE! This adorable monster teaches a big lesson... that even those who don't look like everyone else deserve to be loved and our monster friend had such a great attitude! He didn't get all mopey... no... he set out to find a friend to appreciate him the way he was! Take a look as the Doodlebugs draw and paint Monster.  Cat does NOT like Valentine's Day. It's much too mushy, and no way is he making anyone a valentine—especially not his new neighbor, Dog. Dog refuses to respect the fence. He keeps tossing over old bones and hitting Cat in the head! But just as Cat’s about to send Dog an angry "valentine" telling him exactly what he can do with his bones, Dog throws a ball over the fence. I know my Picassos enjoyed this simple picture book and it's partly because cat is so darn snarky, but it's also because of the great job the illustrator did! Cat's facial expressions are the greatest! So I tasked the Picassos to create a drawing of cat using their favourite expression from the book, or maybe even to make one up... then write a short poem on the card in his hands! This was sooooo much fun but they really had to focus on using simple lines purposefully! Last day the children listened to a lovely story Over and Under the Pond. The mother tells her son there's a secret world underneath their boat, a world of minnows, crayfish, turtles, bullfrogs, and tadpoles slowly growing into frogs, learning how to hop on newly developed legs. So today we are adding the details! Lots of drawing, cutting and sticking and they each decided what animals they wanted to add and where to place them. Then they cut them out and collaged them onto their background.  Based on the book The Honeybee by Kirsten Hall, the Doodlebugs drew a simple honeybee and created a beautiful soft pastel background. Science & Nature Connection: We talked about how honeybees are important in nature because they pollinate fruit, vegetables and flowers. They learnt that pollination causes plants to produce seeds, which is a key part of the life cycle of plants. We also discovered with the help of this delightful book that honeybees live in a hive where there is one queen bee, lots of female worker bees and male bees called drones. The worker bees are the bees that leave the hive to search for pollen and nectar. If you see a honeybee, you don’t have to be afraid. Though the bee has a stinger, she will only use it if she is threatened. She is out looking for food and she is not interested in people!  We're starting off the term with this gorgeously illustrated picture book as the inspiration for our art piece. The story follows a curious young boy and his mother as they paddle across a pond. We get the chance to talk about ecosystems and food chains and how the cycle of life is all connected. For our art piece, the Picassos have started to draw and paint their pond ecosystems and in our next class they will add details like leaves, rocks and of course some animal life! Check out what they've done so far!  My Picassos and Warhols are exploring the wondrous art of Klimt so of course my little Doodlebugs are going to get a taste as well! We talked about the main characteristics of Art Nouveau and how Klimt loved to use real gold in this his art work! They used all the patterns and the metallics characteristic of the man and created some gorgeously shimmering fish! |
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Be a fly on the wall in our art room! Take a look at what we do, how we do it and the smiles that I get to see week after week :) Archives
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