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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.
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 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!  I decided to do a lesson that puts a fun little spin on all the rain we've been experiencing in the beginning of this lovely rainy season! Of course, the day I decided to do this collage of a cute child decked off in raincoat and boots under an umbrella there was not a cloud in sight! In fact it might have been one of the hottest days ever! LOL We had fun never the less and the kids got to practice cutting... an activity I have to say the absolutely NEVER get tired of doing! They are always soooo excited to get their hands on a pair of scissors and truth be told, if I think really hard, I remember the feeling! The inspiration for the actual composition came from a book of the same name and the cover is pictured above.  The Sugar Skull is a symbol of El Dia de los Muertos or Day of the Dead, a holiday celebrated by Mexicans in November that honors the life of a loved one who has died. It's not at all spooky or scary. As a matter of fact the day is a festive one where family members make special foods, collect flowers and make yummy treats all in preparation of this day of remembrance. I paralleled it to All Souls Day which is a similar Christian tradition in Trinidad. I think it's important to expose my artists to interesting festivals and cultural elements from around the world, so they get a glimpse of life outside of Trinidad and Tobago. So they listened to the story Day of the Dead and then we got down to creating our sugar skulls which are really one of the sweet treats made for that day, but for our project we drew, painted and then collaged some flowers! Today we changed the pace a bit and the Doodlebugs learned all about volcanoes! We are going to spend the next 2 classes creating a beautiful collage set against a volcanic landscape... sooooo of course we have to learn what makes a volcano appear, we should know that there are different types and well... hopefully you'll hear all about it! They were intrigued to learn that the islands of Hawaii were formed by volcanoes erupting in the ocean and that the eruptions cooled and formed the land. We talked about how most Hawaiian volcanoes are now inactive, though there are still three active volcanoes on the islands which are constantly being watched to make sure the people of Hawaii stay safe. "Would you live on an island with an active volcano? " Resounding response... NOOOOOO MISS!! LOL This piece has several layers so it will take more than one class to complete but take a look at our progress!Last week the Picassos followed in the footsteps of Post-Impressionist artist Henri Rousseau and created some beautiful jungle scenes. This week watch as they bring these jungle scenes to completion using a variety of different techniques and take in their animals! Point of Note: Rousseau painted a variety of 'zoo animals' in his jungle scenes because he never actually left Paris and created his paintings from his research at the zoo and the botanical gardens... so the children are aware for instance that a giraffe's habitat is actually the savanna! LOL  Artist Henri Rousseau painted lively jungle scenes, but he actually never traveled outside his home city of Paris, France and friends there are no tropical jungles there! So how did Rousseau come up with the scenes for his paintings? Well, he visited the Paris Botanical Gardens and embellished what he saw using his very wild imagination! Today the Doodlebugs started creating our version of what Rousseau might have seen on one of his visits. They sponge painted some flowers and leaves today and we talked about what a greenhouse is and what it is used for as well as how it is different from the jungle! Next week we will add the greenhouse gates and some more plants to make our Rousseau piece complete!  From contemporary artist Sandra Silberzweig we're moving to 19th Century Post Impressionist artist Henri Rosseau! Rosseau was a self-taught artist who became famous for his jungle scenes. All his artwork was created from his imagination because he never actually left his home of Paris France. The children started creating their leafy backgrounds today using a combination of techniques. They learnt all about positive and negative space and created their own stencils, they sponge painted for texture and also drew and collaged some leafy foliage to give their jungle scenes some depth. Next week they will finish off their backgrounds and our jungle inhabitants will move in, so stay tuned you don't want to miss that!   I thought I would usher in Christmas at the studio by reading this great little book "A Bucket of Blessings". While it is not a Christmas story it certainly has some beautiful lessons that tie in well with the season of giving. In the story they see that one person ( or monkey ha ha) can make a big difference just by doing something relatively small and it also underscores that you can find great joy in helping others. Of course, the colours are vibrant and the pictures appear textured so it is very visually appealing. They created the peacock from the story using a collage technique which they approached in the manner of a puzzle! Lots of fun and lots of learning and the art isn't too shabby either!  So today we finished off our collages and wrote a greeting inside our cards and we also worked on a little surprise that I had up my sleeve! The Doodlebugs painted some little clay pots to add to their Mother's Day gift! All I did was put the pots in front of them with the paints and told them to make them pretty for mummy so you each have a unique pot complete with seeds made by the hands of your little darlings. Happy Mother's Day! For the first part of this lesson see here. |
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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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