Tulip Still Life

We had some beautiful tulips sent in as a 'sign of spring' this week. The children expressed an interest in creating still life paintings of the flowers. It's interesting to observe the children's growing ability to paint what they interpret. Many are showing great control over the artistic tools and are eager to engage in daily painting exploration.

We have redecorated the classroom and now have some large frames with which we will display children's art work. We think it looks great! Perhaps it'll inspire some of you to display the wonderful artwork your children bring home in frames in your homes too!

We are looking for many more frames (without glass) to fill our classroom walls. If you have any (any size, shape, colour) we'd be happy to have them. Some children are discussing the possibility of turning the dramatic arts center into an art gallery next, so the frames will come in handy for that as well. Thank you for your ongoing support of our children and program!

Sending in Signs of Spring

We are encouraging children to send in pictures of their 'signs of spring'. As they are brought in, the pictures will be posted near our calendar along with spring words. Why don't you and your child go on a spring hunt in the yard this weekend? We will happily post anything that is sent into the classroom. Any artifacts (e.g., budding branch) will be placed at the science center. Thank you!

Making and Flying Kites

The weather has been so nice this week! The children became interested in creating and flying their own kites after looking at some spring books.

First they had to figure out a way to make their own kites. We used materials from our art center.

Some of the children are still interested in making and flying planes. They have realized that if the wings are larger the plane appears to swoop for longer, and if the nose is curved the plane will curve when thrown.

Testing out the airplanes in the windy weather.

Flying our kites!

Welcome!

We welcome Miss O'Keefe who is with us on practicum from the University of Windsor until the end of April!

Fluttering Butterflies

We experimented with painting on acetate this week. The children were interested in creating their own beautiful butterflies using fine tipped paintbrushes and many spring-like colours.

The wonderful thing about the acetate was that the butterfly could be enjoyed from both sides since the paint was visible through the medium.

Children took their time outlining the structure of the butterfly and then filling in various colours for the body and wings.

We hung the butterflies in one of our new display branches in the room. The butterflies fluttered when the breeze from the open window passed through the room. They looked like they were dancing!

We had the children come up with some spring words to hang on the tree using the same materials for writing.

Paper Mache Letters

Inspired by our friends at the Bishop Strachan School in Toronto, we invited the children to help us make some artistic paper mache letters for the wall. The children helped us to form upper and lower case letters by using a paper mache medium that they placed on top of printed materials.

The paper mache material needed to be wet in order to be malleable.

Once it was wet it could be shaped and formed on top of written alphabet letters.

It was super messy and so much fun!

Mr. Mills stopped by to help out!

We left the letters out to dry all weekend.

Here are the letters on our word wall!