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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.
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 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! I got this gorgeously illustrated and colourful book from my subscription to The Little Bookworm and both my children and I enjoyed it so much I knew I had to read it in class! It's a picture book version (with a twist of course) of how Ganesha came to write the epic poem of Hindu literature the Mahabharata. Reading through the pages of this book gave us the opportunity to talk about lots of things. like Hindu sweets, Hindu Gods and the bright and beautiful colours of India. Take a look as they use collage to recreate an image from the book. Each child hit the pieces to make Ganesha in a little jumble and they had to sort through and put the pieces together to make the complete picture, then they stuck and decorated! My Doodlebugs started off the term listening to Not a Box by Antoinette Portis! From mountain to rocket ship, a small rabbit shows that a box will go as far as the imagination allows and I thought... what a perfect way to set the tone for the term! To send the message that we must all dig into our imagination and let ourselves dream! They followed a directed line drawing of the simple rabbit illustration from the book and then we talked about what they wanted to turn their boxes into. They got to see how they could transform their 'box' into a number of different things just by adding more lines and shapes! Hooray for expanding imaginations and stretching the creativity of our kids! |
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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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