More Colour Mixing

We placed various colours of paint and fine painting brushes out for the children to use this afternoon. They expressed an interest (again) in mixing the paint and creating new colours on their individual papers. The ice cube trays worked well to hold smaller amounts of paint and provide easy access for multiple students to share at the same time.

The Trucks are Stuck!

We read a great book today called The Trucks are Stuck by Judy Sierra. In this story a variety of vehicles become stuck in some very deep, sticky mud. The children were able to chime along with the story and predict what would happen next due to the patterning nature of the book.

First a pizza van gets stuck.
Next a police car gets stuck.
Then a tow truck gets stuck.
Then a backhoe gets stuck.
Finally a fire truck gets stuck.

At the end of the story a group of preschool children who are nearby race to the recue and help dig out each of the vehicles.

To extend our literacy experience and integrate some math into our circle time, we asked the children to vote for their favourite vehicle from the story. The pizza van overwhelmingly won with a vote of 13!

We are focusing on helping our children to understand the comprehension elements of stories (who, what, where, when, why, and how) and retelling the events in proper sequence. We use the words first, next, then, and finally to help describe the order of events. To enrich your literacy experiences at home, why don't you consider using these words too when reading stories with your children?

During play time we decided to create the setting of the story in our sand table - the perfect place to have a large, messy mud puddle!  The children helped us gather the various vehicles from around the classroom. They carefully observed the vehicles to make sure that each matched the description in the book. They also made sure that the preschool children used at the center were animals (and not our little people) as the children in the book were animal figures. One child made a pizza van because we did not have one.

The children spent time working together exploring the mud and retelling the story with some adult prompting.

Some Ontario Curriculum expectations these activities fulfilled includes:

1.2   identify and talk about their own interests and preferences

1.6 use language to talk about their thinking, to reflect, and to solve problems

2.9 retell stories, in proper sequence, that have been read by and with the EL–K team, using pictures in the book and/or props (e.g., use props such as finger puppets or flannel-board characters; use plastic models at the sand table to tell the story “The Gingerbread Man”)

DM5.2 collect objects and data and make representations of their observations, using concrete graphs

Print Making with Grade 2C

We worked together with Mrs. Cipkar and her Grade 2 class again today!  Each buddy pair (one grade 2 student and one of our JK/SK children) were given a piece of plasticine, sculpting tools, paper, and an ink stamper.

First the pairs worked together to sculpt a unique stamp out of the plasticine. This proved to be tricky for the children as plasticine is a much firmer material than play dough and it really requires both hand-eye coordination and fine motor control to achieve the design desired.

Once children had carved their stamper they used them to create some really interesting pieces of artwork!

Colour Mixing

We put out a variety of paint pots today and invited the children to use empty palettes to mix their own shades. They created a number of wonderful colour combinations!  The activity was so popular that many of our children shared their palette with another child (or two), ensuring that all who wanted a turn could do so!  We were so proud of this cooperation!  Some of the shades that were created were just lovely!

The children quickly figured out that they needed to wash their brushes in between mixing the colours together or the paint on the brush would affect the new shade they were attempting to create.

In the children's words:

"We were making grey - we mixed a whole bunch of colours together and made new colours."

"I painted a picture using a big, long, skinny brush and my new colours."

"We mixed it up. I mixed up black with purple and it made black. I mixed white with yellow and it made light yellow."

Some children decided to use the new colours to paint a picture at the easel.

Others just enjoyed the experience of mixing colours together!

Some Ontario Curriculum fulfilled by this activity includes:

V2.1 explore a variety of tools, materials, and processes of their own choice

to create visual art forms in familiar and new ways (e.g., use natural and recycled materials at a learning centre)

V2.2 explore different elements of design (e.g., colour, line, shape, texture, form) in visual arts

Amherstburg Walmart

Many, many thanks to the local Amherstburg Walmart for their donation of birdseed to our classroom!  Thanks to this kindness our children will now be able to feed the birds outside our classroom windows for many, many months!  Support of our early years program is greatly appreciated!