little acorns

Bridges between Art and Science: Arches

2012-02-21T15:01:00.000-06:00

For the last few weeks our class has been learning about the lovely and very interesting work of Claude Monet. The children have been especially interested in works containing the Japanese bridge.

After a few weeks of study about Monet (and his bridge), I challenged the children to look at an arch from a different point of view. This time I asked them to look not with the eyes of an artist, but with the eyes of an engineer!

Why did Monet choose to make his bridge an arch shape? True it is a lovely and graceful shape, but with all the different bridge shapes in the world, why this one? What is so great about an arch anyway? I am blessed enough to have a parent in my class this year who is an engineer. She kindly came to visit our class to help us figure out . . .

What is so great about an arch anyway?

Well, an arch is SUPER STRONG! It has this strength because of compression. Mrs. A-L showed our class an easy way to see how this works.

She laced the fingers of her hands together and held them flat under her chin. Then she rested her chin on top of her fingers. What happened? Her fingers broke apart!

But when she laced her fingers together and made them into an arch shape . . .

she could have rested her chin there all day!

Mrs. A-L showed us some photographs of arches that have been around for a really long time. I told the children these arches had been around since before I was born! WOW! That means they have been around a really long time! Of course the children asked if the arches had been around since before the dinosaurs. I said they (and I) hadn't been around quite that long.

Of course, Mrs. AL was referring to some arches made by the ancient Romans.

Like this . . .

I asked the children if they could think of any arches they had seen around their homes or around our school. Then I asked them if they had seen any . . . in their refrigerators! Hahahahaha! They thought that was a silly question until I pulled out an egg.

What shape is the top of an egg?

The children agreed that it was an arch. But then I said, "Wait, but eggs are so fragile! If you drop it, it breaks! How could it be fragile and strong at the same time?"

I did an experiment with the children to see how strong the arch of an egg really is. I found this experiment years ago, in a book I have from The Exploratorium in San Francisco. The book lists Science Snacks. I can't find this experiment on their current web site, but it is explained very well here, at the web site of the San Diego Zoo.

With the children, I carefully placed an egg in a section of egg carton. Then I placed a block of the same height opposite it. We guessed how many books the egg and the block could hold before the egg broke. The children's guesses ranged from 2 to 10000! I carefully began placing books, one at a time, on top of the egg and block. I used exaggerated care and facial expressions. I successfully placed 6 books on top of the egg, and then it began to crack! The children began shrieking! I placed on 2 more books totalling 8, and with the addition of the 9th books, the egg broke! The last time I did this experiment, it took 23 books! Maybe I had an old egg this time, but it was still wonderful to see the amazement on the children's faces!

The only problem with this experiment was that the children didn't get to participate. I don't know what I was thinking, but if I do it again next year, I will do it outside and let each child try it out for him or herself!

Here is another egg experiment to try out. It looks fabulous! Click on the picture to go to Steve Spangler's "Walking on Eggshells" experiment.

After we did the egg experiment, Mrs. A-L showed the children some other arches that occur in nature. She had a book with fabulous photographs. One of them was of a shell like this . . .

See the arches? The children did too!

After that Mrs. A-L brought out a gift she and her family had made for our classroom! It was 4 sets of PVC pieces with stands, for the children to make their own arches! The children went to work immediately, building away!

And of course, we had to use the arches to make a rainbow fort.

After the weekend, we went on an "Arch Walk" around our school, looking for arches. The children found so many! I made an "I Spy Arches" book (from the photographs that we took during the walk) so the children can revisit arches outside of the classroom, anytime they wish to do so.

And my daughter kindly loaned me her Curvy Board!

The children experimented with an arch rocking . . .

acting as a back stretcher . . .

and as a bridge! Sorry, this isn't Monet's Japanese bridge. It is the troll bridge from The Three Billy Goats Gruff. See the troll under the bridge?

How do you create bridges between disciplines?

Feel free to post a link in a comment so we can share bridging ideas! Thank you!

Once upon a time . . .

2012-02-19T13:55:00.000-06:00

Once upon a time . . .

there lived a mother who really wanted to write a story. She wrote and wrote and wrote - ideas, inspirations, and snippets of conversations, in a notebook. She wasn't much of a painter so she used her daughter as a model for the illustrations.

She sketched . . .

and sketched some more . . .

doodling and erasing a lot of the time.

She used watercolors to add color to the sketches she liked,

and then started typing and typing and typing.

Wish me luck!

Painting with Light!

2012-02-18T10:48:00.000-06:00

So . . .

Thomas Kincade may be the painter of light (or so I read), but the children in our class are the painters with light! I have seen this project on a few blogs, and have been waiting for just the right time to try it out.

Before we began we discussed how a camera works. I said it works like an eye and the shutter works like an eyelid. It is closed until someone presses the button. I said to the children that usually when I take a picture of them, I open and close the shutter quickly! That makes the image clear. The children opened and closed their eyes quickly and I asked them what they saw. Then I asked them what they saw when they left their eyes open for a longer time. What if their friends were moving around? This got a little confusing for the children I think because they started to think about video, but I think they got the general idea that by leaving the camera's shutter or eye "open," I could take a picture of something in more than one place. This time, I explained, the something would be light!

I told the children I had never done this before, so they would have to be patient as we learned together!

We closed all the curtains and doors, and cracked open some glow sticks. Thanks to the help of another teacher (Thanks, Jay!) I was able to adjust the shutter speed on the camera (to between 3 and 6 seconds) and the children began to "paint!"

They waved and spun their glow sticks

made letters (see the Os?)

and waggled them all around

I was able to show the children the results of their work, on the camera's screen (even if they weren't very big), and this child was particularly happy with her results! I think it looks like she is visiting with Tinkerbell!

Then we went down to the conference room - where there are no windows!

We turned off all the lights and . . .

WOW!

Lightsaber battle, anyone?

The next day the children worked with a flashlight. This made even more distinct lines and was a bit easier for the children to manipulate. It is a big heavy flashlight, and I think its weight made "painting" (rather than simply swinging the glow sticks) easier.

Plus it has a setting which turns the light red! Cool!

Then we worked with our string our lights! These pictures are spiffy, don't you think?

All in all this was a pretty interesting project. I am going to print all these pictures over the weekend so the children can look closely at the results!

We worked on this project to practice making Os and circles, to tie in with our learning about different art mediums, and as a way to experiment with light. This would also be a great way to make rainbows - maybe for St. Patrick's Day?

Extension Activity for Older Children:

It would also be interesting to mix colors of light - which mixes differently than pigments. Red and green for example, do not make brown, but instead yellow! Hmmmm. This is perhaps, a bit advanced for young children, but would be a good extension activity for older children. If you want to try this extension, visit one of my favorite museums, The Exploratorium or if you don't happen to live in San Francisco, their website! Here is fun page where you can experiment with light!

Enjoy!

Ex-berry-menting

2012-02-15T14:46:00.000-06:00

This week our class took a little detour from our planned activities and instead began investigating berries! The children’s interest in berries began a few weeks ago, when C began gathering the berries that had grown through the playground fence. Soon everyone was gathering berries, and using them for “food” in the pilgrim house’s kitchen. Another teacher told us she thought they were mulberries, but upon further investigation (and some help from an old friend of mine - thanks Liz!) we discovered they are beauty berries. As we suspected, they are not good for people to eat, but birds and deer have been known to graze on them especially during the winter months.

During one particularly beautiful day our class ventured out of doors and into the woods beyond the playground. Once there, the children picked even more berries!

We brought the beautiful purple-ish beauty berries inside, intending to make recycled paper with the berries and the purple juice they would surely contain. The next day we added hot water to the berries, put them in a special non-food items blender, and . . .

it was a total bust! The water turned frothy and grey, and the seeds floated to the top. Rats!

I was so disappointed! The children were however, undaunted and turned their questions towards more familiar berries. Earlier in the week a child and his family had brought in blackberries for snack. The children enjoyed them very much and also noticed their fingers turned purple-ish when they squished them on their fingers. They wondered would happen with strawberries, blueberries, and raspberries. Would they make a better dye?

So naturally, we did some ex-berry-menting to find out!

The children squished, squeezed, smashed, juiced, mixed, poked, and added water to the berries, and then put some of the juicy results into the freezer and refrigerator overnight.

Some of the questions I asked the children to think about while they were working included . . .

Which berries floated and which sank?

Which berries had the biggest seeds?

Which had the most juice?

What happened to the berries and seeds when they froze?

Did you think the results of the squishing, squeezing, and freezing were tasty?

Did you think the mixtures tasted different from one day to the next?

What was your favorite kind of berry?

Nature Play

2012-02-11T22:30:00.004-06:00

As our school community embarks upon the journey of incorporating more nature play into our daily schedule, we have a few hurdles to overcome. Whenever I find myself flipping out about how we are going to . . .

get the trash out of the woods
manage to clear all the debris
deal with tons and tons of poison ivy

or a myriad of other sometimes seemingly insurmountable obstacles, I remind myself that we must take one step at a time. Then I look at the steps we have already taken, and remind myself how wildly successful they have been. Then I know we can only move forward from here!

This year we have created a new play space on our playground, using a little nook between three trees. We added some large branches and as many stumps as we could find.

Later we added some metal plates, sand shovels, stones, and a few tree cookies.

It has been a much frequented play spot, in all kinds of weather!

We added some old plant display tables, left over from a 2008 Spring fundraiser. They are great for holding shovels and plates, and also for making pumpkin soup, from our leftover Halloween pumpkin. Yummy!

And a little sand soup was the perfect complement.

One day as we were playing outside, the tornado sirens began to sound. Naturally we scurried inside, but once the storm had passed we returned outside, and discovered our house had suffered some damage. It wasn't too bad, but the children were distressed to see all the large branch roof sticks had fallen down!

Over the course of a few weeks, they worked hard to repair it. They were unable to reattach the large branches, but worked out a new roofing system - with the help of the children in grades K - 4.

Children in grades PK - 4 move these stumps and plant stands all over the place, almost daily. Sometimes my students get upset, and say "the big kids" wreck their work!

But today my students were happy with the older children's arrangement, and even added to the older children's roofing materials.

And on another nature play note . . .

This week, as the unseasonably warm weather persisted, we headed back out to the woods behind the school, for a picnic. The children picked beauty berries! (And yes, before any of you remind me these are not for human consumption, the children knew this, and just picked them for their pretend play value. We later did some ex-berry-menting in the classroom, with strawberries, raspberries, and blackberries. I will blog about that in a day or two.)

The children tramped happily through the woods, finding fungus and insects. They maneuvered across the leaf covered ground with confidence. Even our most nervous child only tripped and fell once, and he recovered with only a few tears.

They climbed trees and bounced on low hanging vines,

balanced on fallen branches,

and climbed up fallen tree trunks.

So when I feel overwhelmed by the tasks ahead, I will try to remember what we have managed to accomplish so far this year, even amongst some trash, debris, and poison ivy. It's all manageable, if we take it one step at a time.

How will you get your students outside to play in nature?

Silly Valentines

2012-02-10T19:34:00.000-06:00

If you are looking for a way to make your students laugh so hard they weep . . .

try this!

Oh my word! These were hilarious! Just add googly eyes to a photo of your child (or your students), and fun and frivolity will ensue!

This Moment

2012-02-03T17:08:00.000-06:00

This Moment, courtesy of Soule Mama . . .

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see.

A Happy Marriage: Driftwood Bead Chain Hanger

2012-01-23T19:50:00.001-06:00

Hello dear readers,

As you know if you have been perusing my blog, I use and love many ideas from various philosophies of teaching. I use whatever seems to work best for me and my class each year, although of course I have some "tried and true" favorites to which I return, time and time again.

I think I have recently created a new soon-to-be "tried and true" favorite, a driftwood (for me this is a Waldorf education-inspired, natural material) hanger for my Montessori bead chains!

In the past, I have always hung these "square" bead chains with cup hooks, from a wooden chalk board ledge. It was practical and it worked, but it wasn't especially inviting. This year however, I find myself in a new classroom space with a new classroom layout. Plus my math materials shelf is not against a wall. I thought about attaching the old cup hooks to the side of the shelf, but somehow I just hadn't gotten around to it. I think I was simply uninspired.

Then I found this beautiful piece of driftwood over the Winter holidays, and I knew just what I should do with it! I sanded, smoothed, and polished it, and added my old cup hooks. I attached a piece of picture wire to the back, and hung the whole thing on the side of the math shelf. It looks lovely if I do say so myself, and it seems every child who comes into the room cannot help but run his or her fingers along the chains. Toddler siblings seem especially enchanted by it.

Now, if only my bead chains were made from glass beads through which sunlight could shine and sparkle!

How have you "married" two or more philosophies of teaching?

Art Pieces in our Classroom Art Museum

2012-01-22T13:36:00.001-06:00

Our class, once again, has been learning about the beauty of Art and the artists who create it.

We have looked at art collages, specifically the work of Lois Ehlert . . .

and created collages of our own.

And now we are learning about the beautiful Impressionist works of Claude Monet . . .

These are not quite finished yet, but here are a few pictures of the beginning of the process. The children chose colors they wanted to use in their paintings, considering if they wanted their Impressionist painting to represent Fall or Spring. (We looked earlier in the week at different works of Claude Monet, noting the feelings and seasons his colors seemed to represent. For example, the children thought this work looked distinctly Fall-ish . . .

The Rose-Way in Giverny

especially in comparison to something like this

Water-Lilies-and-Japanese-Bridge

which seemed to them to look much more Spring-ish.)

After selecting colors, they squirted away . . .

and then rolled the paint in all directions!

After the paint dries, the children will be adding their own Japanese bridge and a small photo of themselves standing upon it. I will post some photos of these lovely works, when they are completed.

Update: Here are a few of the children's finished works!

We have also been creating art with "ice" crystals, using salt painting . . .

and drawing a plethora of penguins.

All these pieces have been installed in our classroom children's art museum!

To build our museum we first used a box of laminate flooring I had lying around in my attic. The children slid the pieces together like a giant puzzle, and I used tiny pieces of duct tape to ensure the pieces stayed connected. This is clearly not a permanent solution for a laminate floor, but it worked perfectly for this "temporary installation."

Next we turned our house area kitchen around, and mounted art pieces on the back of it. It made a great display space. I also used the house area mirror as a freestanding display stand (which can be viewed from either the front or the back.) It looks fabulous with all the crystal art pieces!

After hanging the children's art museum sign, we were ready to go! Siblings and parents were invited, tickets were created and punched, and a wonderful visit was had by all!

Coming soon to our museum and this blog:

Completed Monet Impressionist Art Pieces!

My latest felting projects

2012-01-06T21:38:00.001-06:00

Over the Winter vacation I took a little time out to work on some felting projects. Here are the results:

Inspired by Brother Acorn from A Donsy of Gnomes by Sieglinde De Francesca

Inspired by a trip to The Lake District, England

and inspired my own imagination . . .

Finding Snowdrops

and . . .

A fairy ring around the moon

I have had lots of fun making these, and I hung Brother Acorn up in my classroom. Now, I just need to figure out what to do with the rest!

Learning to Knit: A Knitting Rhyme

2012-01-06T21:20:00.000-06:00

I learned to knit with my oldest daughter, when she was in Kindergarten. Her teacher was offering a class after school, to children who were ready to learn. Her readiness criteria was, "If you can tie your shoes, you can knit!"

I sat in with the Kindergarteners once a week, for about 6 weeks, knitting and re-knitting. Learning with children was the perfect way for me to learn. My daughter's teacher, Sarah, broke the process into clear steps and made it as simple as possible. And she taught us a wonderful rhyme that made the knit stitch as easy to remember as "Little Miss Muffet."

Under the fence

Grab the sheep

Back under the fence

And off we leap!

My youngest daughter recently learned to tie her shoes so yesterday we embarked upon the "learning to knit" journey. I taught her the rhyme, and we worked together for about half an hour. It was a lovely bonding time, and a great first lesson!

And we even got in some sweet puppy snuggling whilst we knit. : )

If you are learning to knit, consider using this rhyme! It worked for Kindergarteners and for me, and it will work for you too. Good luck!

FLOOD!

2011-12-10T20:35:00.002-06:00

For the last few weeks it has been raining . . .

and raining . . .

and raining some more.

Our city has had a record amount of rain this year so far, 66.62 inches! That's the most rain recorded in this city in over 100 years! Yikes!

Normally, our playground looks out on a mildly sloping hill, that goes quite a ways down and then ends up at the edge of a small creek. I would say it is usually about 10 - 15 feet across. But with all this rain, it had flooded - and in a big way! Now we can see water from our playground, and though it is not quite up to the jungle gym yet, it has been creeping closer and closer each day!

Of course, our class had to go down to check out the creek and see how different it looked from the last time we visited - about a month ago.

Yikes! Look at all this water, and this is just a small channel off of the main creek!

Of course, the children explored the water with sticks, poking them into the water to see its depth.

And we did some other exploring while we were in the forest.

One little guy made his own tent

while some other children tested the strength of various branches.

The we brought the flood indoors, to our classroom water table.

Here the children used sand, rocks (big and small), water, and toy animals to shape and channel their own waterways, and then flood them! They also made animal homes which they moved to higher ground when the floods arrived!

What did the children learn through these two experiences?

Math

measuring water levels - with sticks
testing strength and thickness of sticks
adding water to existing amounts of water and discovering how much more water it took to "flood" the water table
weight of dry versus wet sand
testing height of branches versus height of legs (Can you climb over a branch or will you have to go under instead?)
how to maneuver up and down various sizes of hills (degree of grade)

Science

speed of flowing water
learning where the flowing creek water goes (heads to the Ohio River)
"big sticks make a big 'plonk' while smaller ones make a little 'plink,' when you throw them into the water"
evergreen versus deciduous trees (leaves that had previously been on trees now cover the ground)
area of flood plain
how animals seek higher ground in a flood
floating and sinking (sticks and rocks)
how to tell if bare branches are alive while"resting" through the Winter (breaking open a small stick to see if it is green inside)
judging best routes to take to get past or around water - how to get around obstacles and which areas seem to be the most clear
listening to sounds created by sticks banging on different tree trunks, bark, and on the ground

Art

shapes created by bare branches
reflections created in muddy and still water
textures visible in bare bark
ripples created when throwing stones or sticks in the water
envisioning groups of sticks as "houses"

Language (vocabulary terms)

flood plain
flood
higher ground
murky
beaver lodge and beaver dam
crawfish
nocturnal and diurnal
channels
slope

Not to mention the gross motor skills required to maneuver their way through the forest (without a path), cooperation skills (working and keeping track of buddies), and who knows what else I have forgotten to mention!

My point here is rich learning experiences such as these bring learning not only closer to the children's homes, but also closer to their hearts - as they experience the joy of learning!

Fostering Communication: Newsletters for Parents

2011-12-04T10:43:00.000-06:00

Parents and Teachers . . .
Teachers and Parents . . .

We are partners in the education of children. Research shows children learn more and understand more of what they learn at school if they are able to discuss with their parents, at home.

Knowing that, how should we as teachers communicate most effectively with parents?

My students are dropped off and picked up in the classroom each day, by their parents. I try to use those few moments to share any momentous events that may have occurred throughout the day, but clearly I cannot speak with every parent every day. I therefore frequently communicate with parents through e-mail, and I also use a weekly newsletter.

I have written weekly newsletters for almost every class I have ever taught, and truly I cannot imagine how I would manage without doing so. True, if you ask me every Friday afternoon what I am going to do that evening, I might grumble a bit about having to write my newsletter, but after it is written, I am always so glad to have done it. I feel it is an invaluable way for children to recall the events of the previous week, and share with their families. My hope is that families can read the newsletter together in order to hear and discuss . . .

stories
discoveries
jokes
snacks
news about friends
new learning
problems
frustrations

and on and on.

I write my newsletter every Friday afternoon or evening, and e-mail it to the parents of each child in my class, and the head of our school. I include photographs of the children at work and at play, photographs of their work and artwork, and other news about our week. From time to time, I also include links to external web sites that relate to a topic our class might be studying or news about local events I think parents and children might enjoy.

So without further ado, here is a sample. I hope by reading this (my most recent newsletter) you will see how I try to communicate with parents, and make it possible for them to share as fully as is possible, in their children's education at school.

How do you communicate with parents?

Food on The Mayflower: Bringing the Story to Life

2011-11-23T13:12:00.000-06:00

In preparation for Thanksgiving, our class has been learning about the origins of the holiday.

Similarly to last year, I made our classroom housekeeping area into The Mayflower, and the children have had great fun looking through telescopes for land, putting our classroom babies to bed in hammocks, pretending to be seasick (yes, this is a favorite), and surviving a terrible storm at sea! We have also spent some time during our morning circle retelling the story of how and why the group of people we call "the pilgrims" climbed aboard that ship in 1620. I like to tell the story with sound effects (a thunderstorm at sea track), and act out some of the parts such as when the sailors repaired a main beam of the ship which had broken during the storm, with a "great iron screw."

Another way I brought the story to life was with food. The passengers and sailors on board The Mayflower ate food preserved without the aid of refrigeration. (This is something my four and five year old students can hardly imagine.) We discussed together what foods the children had at home today, that would keep well without being refrigerated. They thought of food like crackers and potato chips. I thought this was good thinking, and it led well into introducing some of the foods people had eaten on The Mayflower!

Okay, people on The Mayflower didn't really eat beef jerky and sardines, but again the idea here is to eat some of the kinds of foods they had. Our food is listed below, and in parentheses are the foods people actually would have eaten on The Mayflower.

dried edamame (dried peas)
dried green beans (dried beans)
beef jerky (salt horse)
dried apples (dried fruit)
hard wheat crackers (hard tack)
caned sardines (dried fish)
Oh, and I also gave the children water as everything was so salty, but I also explained to them that had they been on board The Mayflower they would have had to drink beer! Yes, even the children drank beer because the water became brackish. Yuck!

Almost everything we ate was dried and very salty - similarly to some of the food available on The Mayflower. We ate without the lights on in the classroom (to represent how dark it must have been below the decks on the ship) while we listened to the sounds of a thunderstorm at sea!

I think this was a great way to bring a bit of The Mayflower's journey, to life. Hopefully it was a memorable experience for the children - even if it was not necessarily a delicious one.

Wood Polish!

2011-11-23T08:01:00.000-06:00

Dear Readers,

As requested, here is the recipe I used for my handmade wood polish.

I found THIS wonderful and truly easy peasy recipe online. It is so clear and the pictures made it look so easy, I knew that even I could do it!

I tweaked the recipe a bit. Jojoba oil was nearly $11 for 1/2 cup, and grape seed oil and apricot oil were $5 for 1/2 cup. Amber says (in her tutorial) that jojoba oil is good for longer than other oils, but since I had so many items to polish, I figured I shouldn't have any problems using it up before any of the oils became rancid. So I used . . .

1/2 cup grape seed oil
1/2 cup apricot oil
1 cup of beeswax (broken into small pieces)
about 8 drops of lavender oil (this makes the polish smell heavenly)

Amber also mentions in her tutorial that she stirred the polish a few times over the course over an hour or two when it was cooling, but I found I needed to stir it often over the course of about 1/2 hour or 45 minutes. So when you try this recipe on your own, I recommend not leaving it unattended. You wouldn't want all your hard work to go to waste! : )

Now, what wonderful things can you find to polish, your classroom blocks, your doll cradle, your library bookcase?

Or maybe you can take a trip out to the woods and find some fabulous hidden treasure - as I did!

Happy Polishing!

Reclaiming and Recycling: Wood from our School's Forest

2011-11-22T20:31:00.000-06:00

Our school playground backs up to a large wooded area which leads down to a creek. Isn't that fabulous? (We are working on plans to de-poison ivy as much of the area as we can so that we can spend much more time out there. The planning is very exciting, and I hope to blog about it more extensively soon.)

In the meantime however, I have spent some time after school tramping around the woods. On one of those tramps I found a gem, hidden amongst the wet and soggy leaves. I wish I had photographed it "before," but I didn't - so you'll just have to accept my written description. It was a piece of an old tree that was hollow in the middle. I was particularly intrigued by the holes in the sides. They seemed to me to be perfect "windows." So I picked up the piece of wood, and brought it home.

Inside the reclaimed wood piece

I washed it out thoroughly in the bathtub, removing lots of dead leaves, dirt, rotted wood bits, and ants - oh so many ants! Then I dried it out in a low temperature oven (with the oven door slightly open so I could check on it often) for about thirty minutes. Later on in the day, I began working on the wood with my dremel tool. I sanded and sanded and sanded . . . and sanded. Then I sanded more the next day, removing loose bark, bits of left over rotted wood, and bits of embedded dirt. I then sanded it by hand for a long time! It was hard work, but it was so rewarding so see such a gorgeous piece of wood emerge from that work! I polished the wood with my handmade wood polish, added a moss colored needle felted roof, and voila!

Don't you just love the windows?

I'm writing a story about a little tree sprite who lives in the hollow of an old oak tree, and this seemed to be just the home for her. What do you think?

I wonder what other treasures are hiding in the woods behind our school?

What We See and What They See

2011-11-08T17:06:00.000-06:00

This quick post is to remind you that what we see is not necessarily what they see . . .

Case in point: A few weeks ago my daughter discovered this piece of an old, somewhat rotted stump next to my son's soccer field. She happily drummed on it throughout his game, and then asked if she could bring it home. After she brought it home I started really looking at it, and noticing the beauty in the wood. I asked her if I could work on it a bit and "spiff it up." She kindly agreed so I sanded and polished it, with my handmade beeswax, grape seed, apricot, and lavender oil wood polish. Later, of course, this piece of wood made its way to my classroom. Not only did the children ooh and aah over it, but I also spied them rubbing the smooth parts of the wood and smelling the nooks and crannies, where bits of the wood polish lingered.

This old piece of wood that had been sitting in that field for who knows how long has now been . . .

a castle,

a bridge,

part of a beaver lodge,

a cave,

a mountain,

and

a drum!

And who knows what it will become tomorrow?

What some adult saw as yard work is now a much beloved part of our block area.

What is lying around your yard, your child's soccer field, or your school playground? Try to look at whatever you find not only with your eyes, but also through a child's.

How I Bring Nature Inside the Classroom

2011-11-06T09:24:00.000-06:00

I recently attended a Nature Explore workshop, at the beautiful Shaw Nature Reserve in St. Louis, Missouri. The workshop was about documenting children's learning outdoors and how to bring nature indoors, to the classroom!

Here are photos of some of the ways I bring nature and natural elements indoors, to my classroom!

I cover my windows (which overlook the parking lot) with sheers. They somewhat obscure the cars coming and going, allow the natural light to stream into the room, and also give a good view of the lovely trees and other greenery, beyond the parking lot.

I covered the bulletin board with natural burlap.

We observe, document, and make labels for creatures we bring in from the playground

I store materials in natural felt bowls

We use natural materials in our art projects

Display natural objects

and use them for other purposes

I have added a bit of nature to our daily sign in sheet area

I added handmade tree blocks to our block area

Here they are in action, along with baskets of burr acorns, and small stones

Plants basking in filtered light add loveliness to this area

Pieces of birch wood may be shaped here, with rasps. There are also pine cones and sweet gum "gumballs" for other projects.

Bamboo wind chimes make a lovely sound when the weather allows me to open the windows

Rainbow colored felt creatures fly from this grape vine wreath

And a stump outside the door serves as a welcome to our room

We sometimes sing songs by candlelight

And use babies made from all natural wool. They smell so good!

How do you bring nature indoors?

Autumn Onomatopoeia

2011-10-24T14:56:00.002-05:00

Our class has been enjoying this poem, October by Elsa Beskow. You can find it in her collection, Around the Year.

Golden, you are,

October.

Golden soverigns on your trees.

Golden guineas on your floor,

golden coins of leaves

that fall

for us to scuffle through

and rustle

and rattle

and hustle

and scrabble

and dabble

and paddle

as they fall

into an October carpet

which hides

our shoes.

The children seemed interested in the words that I pointed out in the poem that seem to make the sound they represent, words that are onomatopoeic. (I highlighted those words so you could easily see which I meant.) We discussed what onomatopoeia meant, and then went on our own Autumn Onomatopoeia walk, to see if we heard any sounds we could describe with such words.

Here is the book our class made, based on our walk. Enjoy!

The End

If you take a Fall walk, what onomatopoeic words will you "hear?"

Halloween fun: Pumpkin Surgery

2011-10-20T16:48:00.000-05:00

This activity started as a "decorate your pumpkin with hardware" exploration.

However as work commenced, one child said he was a doctor, performing surgery on his pumpkin! The other children quickly picked up on this idea and soon the work table became a "trauma center", and poor injured pumpkins everywhere came running to be worked upon.

Our doctors worked very hard, and performed lots of operations!

This child used a screw driver to remove pulp and seeds.

It took a lot of work, but she was very persistent!

How cute and funny is this guy?

Wooden mallet in action

Push pin and tiny spoon work

Wow! That is a busy work table!

This was a fun exploratory activity, and a bit different than the usual pumpkin carving. If you would like a little change in your pumpkin activities, I recommend this activity. Who knows, maybe your pumpkin decorating will turn into pumpkin surgery too!

Tall Fall Painting

2011-10-20T09:36:00.000-05:00

A few weeks ago, I came upon a Youtube video, Tall Painting.

I thought it looked like an excellent project to tie into our learning about Fall and gravity. (Here is my post about how we started this investigation.)

I prepared for this group project by gluing a tall and thing cardboard box to a flat piece of cardboard, and filling 10 cups (one for each child) about half full of different colors of paint. I used washable tempera paint. Some of the colors were a little goopy so I added a bit of water to those to ensure they poured relatively easily.

Our class ventured out of doors into the lovely Fall weather noting how many leaves had fallen. "Wow! The trees are almost naked," one little girl commented.

All the children sat in a wide circle, and we discussed what we were going to make and why. The children formed hypotheses about what would happen to each of the different colors of paint as other colors were poured on top of them. (All the children thought the colors would mix and make brown or grey. )

With all these thoughts in our minds, we began our work. Each child came into the center of the circle and poured his or her paint onto the top center of the box.

Please note: When planning for this project I debated and debated with myself about whether to let the children pour the paint without any assistance. In the end I decided since a key part of the project was about watching the paint fall in layers I should help them - to ensure it actually worked the way it was supposed to. With more paint, boxes, and time it would be wonderful to let each child make his or her own tall fall painting and experiment with pouring. I thought this worked out pretty well though - for a first try.

The children really enjoyed pouring the paint, but they also seemed to love watching it fall! They oohed and aahed over the colors and were very interested when the layers of colors did not mix, but instead stayed quite distinct. Our only difficulty was keeping everyone from investigating the finished product and smearing it about before it dried. Well, that would be a different project!

If you are interested in exploring how objects fall, and how gravity works, try this out! You might just fall head over heels for this project! : )

Fairy Tale Tree Blocks Castle

2011-10-10T17:11:00.000-05:00

Since I am so happy with these recently made swap items, I thought I would share some pictures of them before I send them away next week.

These items are for a fairy tale swap. I thought and thought about what story to represent when making my items, and finally decided to make a fairy tale castle complete with a prince and princess and of course, a mother and baby dragon. I hope these can serve as props for numerous stories and other imaginings.

You can make a castle like this too! Here's how I made mine.

My tree blocks are made of birch wood. My neighbor had the bad luck of losing the top half of his birch tree, a few weeks ago. But his loss was my gain as he kindly gave me the branches! Thanks, Ted! My DH kindly cut the branch into small and medium sized slices, and I put them on a wire shelf in a sunny window for about 5 weeks, turning them over once a day.

I removed most of the bark from each slice using a belt sander, and then hand sanded each block. This took a while, but it was worth it!

I worked for about half an hour stacking the blocks this way and that, deciding how to make them look sort of castle-ish. I chose 10 blocks of varying sizes. I thought they could all be stacked together as one tall tower or stacked in pieces like more of a village.

Then I pondered the problem of how to paint them without entirely covering the wood grain. I finally decided to make the biggest block the base with large wooden doors with lion door handles. I also added some greenery "growing along the castle walls." Then I chose a few other blocks to have minor details. Two have windows and some stones with moss. One has a coat of arms (with a tree - to represent a little bit of me), and one has just stones and moss. The other blocks just have a hint of greenery to represent the covered walls, and to show they are part of the set.

I wood burned the designs into each block, and then painted them all with non toxic watercolors.

I used steel wool to smooth out the blocks one more time, sealed them with a natural beeswax polish, and added the fairy tale characters to the scene. Magical!

And my swap partner played happily ever after.

The End

After our field trip to the pumpkin patch . . .

2011-10-05T18:34:00.000-05:00

Language learning is everywhere!

Yahoo! : )

Leaf Art circa 1975

2011-10-01T17:46:00.000-05:00

Picture yourself in 1976 . . .

If your life was anything like mine was, you greatly enjoyed the fashion of the day, and showed up to Kindergarten in groovy corduroy bell bottom pants that perfectly matched your swinging Dorothy Hamill haircut. Oh yes, this was a good year.

It was such a good year in fact, that I remember a really fun art project we did - even now that I am (according to my children) as old as the dinosaurs. Well, I may be old, but I can still be groovy!

Here is the groovy art project I recreated this week, from my amazing-even-though-old memory:

Wax Paper-Melty Crayons-Leaf Art

First go on a lovely Fall walk to gather leaves. You can press them (in a book with paper towels - for about a week) afterwards if you like, and honestly this project works a little better with dry, pressed leaves. We didn't dry ours and it worked fine, but the water from the leaves repelled the wax paper a bit.

Next peel the paper from Fall colored old crayons, then peel or scrape the crayons to get small bits (we used a peeler and a fork. I thought the fork was actually easier to use.)

Then arrange your leaves on a piece of folded wax paper. Be sure to only arrange them on one side of the fold. (The other side will be folded over to make the top of your project.) Sprinkle bits of crayon onto and next to the leaves. The more crayon you use, the more exciting the project! At least that is what we found!

Fold the blank half of the wax paper over the side with the leaves and crayons, and iron gently on low heat. Make sure your child watches as you iron. The colors melt and ooze and become very intense! It is so much fun to watch!

Ironing advice: I ironed these projects with and without a towel on the top, and I honestly think it worked better without the towel. The melting crayons and the wax paper were a little smelly though so be sure to open a window for this step.

My daughter's 1976 leaf art . . .

Mine (all that's missing is a lava lamp, right?)

and my students! Look how gorgeous they look with the sun shining through them!

Pretty groovy, right?

Why is it called Fall anyway?

2011-09-27T17:00:00.001-05:00

The thought provoking questions:

Why is this season called Fall?

What falls?

Why?

If you drop any two items at the same time, which falls first? Why?

Can you control where something falls?

Can you control how fast something falls?

and the biggie . . .

How?

I thought you, dear readers, might like to see few photos of the aftermath of today's Fall exploration. Mess means good learning experience, right? : )

I wonder what tomorrow will bring?!?!

Update:

And the next day . . .

And the children used up all the masking tape. I need to buy that stuff in bulk!

Next week's Fall work, Tall Fall Painting!

Whistle with an acorn cap!

2011-09-25T14:35:00.000-05:00

Do you know people who can whistle through their fingers? I do, but sadly, I am not one of them. Sometimes I so wish I could though. It would be a handy trick to be able to pull from my "pocket." I can however, pull an acorn cap from my pocket and use it whistle - loudly! My children and my students are always so impressed and it is sometimes the only way I can call them in from outside! : )

You can whistle with an acorn cap too! Here's how:

Find a whole, unbroken acorn cap.

Make a fist with both hands, and place your hands, knuckle to knuckle.

Place the acorn cap on the top of your pointer fingers and hold it in place with both of your thumbs.

Separate your thumbs slightly, bending them into a "v" shape. (Make sure the rest of the acorn cap is covered with the bottom part of your thumbs.)

Blow on your thumb knuckles.

A little tip: Okay I know this sounds gross, but it works so . . .

Sometimes it helps to lick the insides of your thumbs. It makes the whistle more clear.

Oh, and don't give up. When you finally get the hang of this, the resounding whistle is worth all the work, I promise!

Enjoy!

Displaying Children's Art: Self Portraits and Self Sculptures

2011-09-22T14:33:00.000-05:00

Displaying art work is not my strong suit, but I feel like I am improving, slowly but surely.

Here is my most recent artwork display, my students' self portraits.

As you can see, each self portrait has been mounted on black construction paper, to better show off the portraits' colors and shapes. Additionally, each portrait is hung directly below a photograph of each child. The portraits have been attached to window screens which I picked up at a consignment store, for $3 each. That was a little more than I wanted to spend, but the screens were brand new, and I thought they would also be useful for paper making, later in the year.

On the back of the screens, I hung the students' self sculptures made out of colored wire.

The wire was a difficult medium for the children, but they seemed to enjoy working with it, and I feel that it was a good challenge. Afterwards I placed the left over colored wire on the art shelves, and now that the children have some experience working with it, I hope they will feel free to try it again - for more open ended projects, perhaps later in the year.

How do you display your students' work?

My classroom (after one month)

2011-09-17T19:45:00.000-05:00

Okay, so after a month I am starting to feel a little more settled into my new classroom. It is looking a little less bare, and a little more messy, but also is beginning to reflect the personalities of my students!

Without further ado, here is a peek into some of my inside space, mess and all! Enjoy!

our Science area

Housekeeping (with the new roof)

View of the roof, from below. The children beaded all the diagonal wire pieces!

Awwww. Our classroom babies

More Housekeeping

Dress up silks

Some of our loose parts, in action!

Magical potion, created in our Art area

The story stump

Refrigerator for snacks and food works

Carpet for stories and individual work (also excellent for jumping from continent to continent!)

a rather unattractive but useful table, just the right height for the children to kneel at for writing, working puzzles, or whatever! This is actually the writing area, with mailboxes for each child. It hasn't been too busy yet, but I am anticipating lots of work going on in here later!

Cozy Library and small play space

Block area, in action!

Working with aluminum foil, in the block area

Sometimes lessons are learned the hard way (at our reflection table)

Rocks and glass bowls do not mix well!

Light exploration, at the reflection table

So there you have it. I wonder what the next few months will bring?

How is your classroom shaping up?

More Reflections

2011-09-14T19:29:00.000-05:00

Today our class went for a walk around our school, searching for reflections. Check out what we found!

The children found their images in . . .

the water table,

a gravy boat,

a trophy,

hallway windows,

the upper school's microwave,

the common room fireplace,

outside windows,

cars,

doors leading outside,

and glass ornaments!

We also spied this fabulous reflection! No, it is not a giant moon hanging in the forest behind our school. It is a reflection of a large circular window that is above and behind where we sat when I took this picture. The children especially loved this reflection.

Tomorrow we will start constructing a book with these images. The children will add the dialogue, and soon we will have a new book for our classroom library!

Reflections

2011-09-13T14:47:00.003-05:00

This past week my class has been very interested in the idea of reflections. The interest started when one of my students returned home from a trip to Chicago, talking all about his experience at The Bean. He shared photographs and told the whole class all about it!

What is The Bean? Well . . .

Cloud Gate (the sculpture's real name), a public sculpture by Indian-born British artist Anish Kapoor, is the centerpiece of the AT&T Plaza in Millennium Park within the Loop community area of Chicago, Illinois, United States. The sculpture and AT&T Plaza are located on top ofPark Grill, between the Chase Promenade and McCormick Tribune Plaza & Ice Rink. Constructed between 2004 and 2006, the sculpture is nicknamed "The Bean" because of its bean-like shape. Made up of 168 stainless steel plates welded together, its highly polished exterior has no visible seams. It is 33 by 66 by 42 feet (10 by 20 by 13 m), and weighs 110 short tons (100 t; 98 long tons).

Bean recreation, after Day 1

After the exciting and enticing explanation about his trip to The Bean, E and a group of students headed over to the block area, to begin work on recreating it. This naturally involved LOTS of tape and aluminum foil, and the project is still underway. Much of the students' discussion while they were working centered around reflections, what a person would see if he was under The Bean (his own reflection), and what people saw when they look at the side of it (the reflection of the sky and the city of Chicago.

The students have lost a bit of their steam in The Bean block recreation so I was happy to be able to introduce some reflection exploration into our Science area.

This table (as you can see in the photograph above) has a section that lights up. This adds another element to the exploration. Students may examine the relationship between reflections and light as well as simply reflection. It is especially nice that this table can be placed in front of a sunny window. That way the children can have light from two very different sources. Bonus!

Materials on the Reflection Table:

silk scarves
mirrored trays
acrylic "ice cubes" in magenta and orange
set of nesting mirrors
plastic cocktail stirring sticks
a hologram-looking paper hanging star (I don't think you can see this in the picture)
feathers
mirrored tongs
hanging set of green glass ball Christmas ornaments
sea shells
translucent bathtub suction treads
acrylic blue, white, and orange gems, sorted into a wooden and a felted bowl

and of course, the piece de resistance . . .

the disco ball!

I hope to have more photographs of the children's exploration of this area, later in the week and hopefully beyond. I have more items to add as time progresses, so I hope that will keep their interest up. I am excited to see where this reflections work goes!

Have your students explored this topic? What kinds of projects did you do? Please share! Thank you!

Update: Here are a few photos of my students, hard at work at the reflection table!

Ooops. They learned (the hard way) that dropping big rocks in glass bowls is not such a good idea!

Fish Faces

2011-09-04T13:51:00.001-05:00

This year I am teaching Handwriting Without Tears, for the first time. It seems like it is going to be a great start for the children, learning about writing. Anyway, the program starts with the letter F. Hence I wanted to include an F activity in our week's work.

After a bit of deliberation, I decided on an activity that will include some watercolor work, some opportunity for open ended art, and one which will lay some groundwork for later map skills. Want to know what we made?

Fish Faces!

We started with some basic fish shapes, cut from white construction paper. Each child spent some time using the watercolor paints (which a few of the children had never used before) to color his or her fish. Much discussion about fish and their colors ensued at the table. In the end, the children decided there really are fish of every color, pattern, shape, and size. This was a great discussion, and it did make the children who are more interested in accurately in their representations of wildlife, more free with their choices of colors.

These fish dried overnight, and the next day our class had a discussion about symbols. We talked about what a symbol is, what it can mean, and how with the use of a key, a person can make a symbol mean anything she wants! I explained that a key can "unlock" the mystery of symbols. (See where I am going here? This is hopefully something the children will remember when we get to map reading.)

After our discussion, we checked out the key I had made, for our fish faces. Here it is (with the name of our school removed for privacy.)

The children had great fun adding these symbols to their fish faces, reminding each other which symbols to choose, and talking about where they were going to place each one and why.

After everyone finished, I hung the fish along with the key, on our "fish bowl" bulletin board, and invited parents and children to see if they could tell which fish belonged to which child, by deciphering the symbols! (The children's names were only on the back of the fish.) The had a ball, and loved showing their parents the fish bowl!

All around this worked out well - as an F project, a pretty open ended art project, but with some following of directions required, and a new skill, key reading, thrown in! Excellent!

Plan B

2011-08-27T16:19:00.001-05:00

Teachers deal with "Plan A" failures better than anyone I know. Hmmm, maybe that is because it happens so often? Please do not think this is because teachers often fail. Rather it is because we have gone with the interests of the students, embracing teachable moments!

Example: Just last week, I had planned a nature walk with my students. We were going to explore a specific area of the school grounds, and look for lovely leaves of all shapes and sizes - which we were then going to glue onto pieces of card stock, and press. The results were to be the covers of the children's nature journals. I pictures them sort of like this:

Instead of gathering simply leaves, my students joyfully gathered everything they could find that was interesting: leaves, berries, cicada shells, pebbles, nut shells, seed pods, flowers - pretty much everything but the kitchen sink. I didn't want to stop their investigatory work or dampen their enthusiasm so I encouraged them to pick up whatever they found that interested them. We discussed the flowers, looked at the shapes of the rocks, picked up some leaves (being careful NOT to pick any poison ivy), and generally learned a lot about our school environment. The children were thrilled with what they found and happily glued for all they were worth, sticking all the items to their "nature journal covers."

Now clearly, creating these fabulous pieces of art was a wonderful experience, but the items were never going to survive the pressing process nor would they make very good nature journal covers.

So I went with Plan B.

I photographed each of the students' creations, and printed a copy of each one on card stock. Okay, it is not quite as fabulous as having real items grace the covers, but it preserved the integrity of the students work, and they were very pleased! Plus, now I have their original work too, which I think I might have them make into a wood collage piece. Bonus!

So if Plan A fails, consider the failure a teachable moment, and go happily with Plan B. It will probably work out just fine.

Watercolor Sun Prints

2011-08-27T13:30:00.000-05:00

A great way for children to get to know each other is to go on a walk, exploring the school grounds. We did this, and as we walked we gathered materials to create sun prints! We visited, explored, and searched and came back with lovely shaped leaves, twigs, and whatever else struck our fancies!

When we returned to the sidewalk area near our classroom, we set the gathered materials aside, and began creating the base of the print, the paper.

I set out a large tray with lots of individual containers of liquid watercolors, each with its own pipette. The children "made little rivers" and squeezed beautiful mixtures, of the colors. Then each child placed his or her found treasures onto the pieces of paper. I covered each one with plastic wrap (squishing down the rivers a bit - in some cases.)

We weighted down the papers with sticks and rocks so they wouldn't blow away, and left them in the bright sunshine for the rest of the day.

The next day, I unwrapped the papers, and the children removed the natural objects, revealing . . .

I asked the children what they thought happened to make the paintings look this way. One child said the leaves must have soaked up all the paint underneath them, and another child said that he could still see the leaf shape because the leaf was somehow stuck inside the paper!

I typed up their explanations, glued them to the back of the pictures, and put them in our Nature Journals for safe keeping!

I wonder what we will put into our Nature Journals next!

Creating the Classroom Environment, the Third Teacher

2011-08-10T22:30:00.000-05:00

In Reggio Emilia classrooms and Reggio Emilia inspired spaces educators speak of three teachers: parents, classroom teachers and the school environment.

The educators of Reggio Emilia view the school as a living organism. A place of shared relationships among the children, the teachers, and the parents. The school produces for the adults, but above all for the children, a feeling of belonging in a world that is alive, welcoming and authentic. (Malaguzzi, 1994, p.58)

Keeping this ultimate goal in mind . . .

In my new classroom, I have been striving to clean out enough to make the space fit my teaching style, while also saving some of the fantastic materials that were there already. I have also been working on making the space somewhat of an amalgam of Montessori, Waldorf, and Reggio-Emilia inspired spaces.

Here are a few photos of what the classroom looked like when I arrived. It was very colorful, vibrant, and full of exciting materials.

The problem was that the materials were not my own so I wasn't comfortable with them. I needed mostly my things along with a few of the previous teacher's things, to get the year started. With the blessing of my new school, I cleaned out, reorganized, and began afresh. I stored some of the old items for later use, and brought out some of my old favorites.

I used my natural materials, Waldorf-inspired items whenever I felt it was appropriate.

Housekeeping

Block Building

I have some Montessori practical life exercises, and some Montessori math and language materials.

And some (hopefully) invitingly displayed art materials, ready for Reggio-Emilia inspired project work. I also have a fabulous magnetic board in the block area ready for building project work! It is to the right of the plain wooden blocks, on the wall. It is 8 feet tall! WOW!

and dear readers, the best thing of all is that my new classroom HAS A SINK!!!!!!

So I have 6 more days until school starts, but I have a few things ready to go! What do you think?

A New Perpetual Calendar

2011-08-10T20:57:00.001-05:00

The huge news in my life is . . . drum roll please . . .

I have a new job!

I will be working in an independent school, in one of the two PreKindergarten rooms! I am thrilled and very anxious to begin setting up my new classroom. I have been working like a busy bee cleaning out and preparing, and tomorrow I will begin moving in my own materials! Fabulous!

One of the things I will be moving in is a brand spanking new, magnetic dry erase perpetual calendar. I made it myself for very little money, and not too terribly much time. You can do it too!

Why did I make it?

The real reason is that I am really picky about my classroom calendar. It has to have certain elements, and not have others. I know this is really picky, but honestly I have good reasons for each "required to have" or "required not to have" element

Required to have:

Dates must be listed for the entirety of the month at the beginning of the month

This is so the children can see all the dates (numbers) in order any time they look at the calendar, and aren't fishing in a basket for a number they can say, but not identify in its written form. That skill comes later in the year.

Each day of the week must be written out in its entirety (Sunday v. Sun or "S")

This is so the children become familiar with the days as they sounds and are written. Abbreviation work also comes later, after children have learned the full names of the days

Each date must have room to write any special events that may occur such as field trips

This is so the children have a reference point for upcoming events as well as past events. "How many days is it until . . . ?"

Required not to have:

velcro circles on empty circles, waiting for the children to put the date on

The velcro circles bother me from an aesthetic point of view, but as I said earlier, I think it is vitally important for all the dates to be visible right from the beginning of the month rather than having the children find the date each day

lots of bright patterns and colors

The individual markers for each day can be more fun and change with each month, but having the whole calendar decorated is too distracting

So with these self imposed guidelines in mind, I have always created a new calendar each month, like this one (below.)

I used poster board and wrote in the dates leaving room for any necessary notes. Somehow however, the end of the month always seemed to coincide with 800 other things to do in the classroom, and making a new calendar was never very high on the "to do" list. Likewise making 10 months of calendars, over the summer, didn't appeal to me very much.

So this year I finally worked on a new perpetual calendar! It has all that it should, and none of the things it shouldn't! Perfect right?

I made it with sheet metal left over from a recently closed manufacturer. The sheet metal company gave it to me! How fabulous is that? I am so grateful to them for donating to teachers. Thank you ESM! After I brought it home I . . .

peeled the protective coating from the metal
marked off the calendar grid with black artist's tape
sealed the grid with ModPodge
used number stickers to mark 31 wooden disks
glued magnets to the disks
sealed them with ModPodge - I am a big fan of the ModPodge as you can tell. : )
marked the days of the week with stickers
added the month to the top with magnets
decorated with edge of the calendar with the "marker" magnets - to be used to mark individual days

Oh, and did I mention it can also be marked with dry erase markers? Perfect!!!

Poof! The whole thing cost me less than $10, and now all I have to do each month is adjust the dates, and make a new month label. 'Cause all teachers have better things to do than mark out a new calender grid each month. Right? We have baking projects to prepare, and paint brushes to wash, and children to inspire! : )

What projects have you ticked off your list this summer?

Later this week: Preparing the Classroom Environment: The Third Teacher

The Woes of Summer

2011-07-23T19:32:00.000-05:00

Yes, the summer season is all about the joys of eating watermelon, swimming every day, and vacation from school. But at our house unfortunately those come along with the woes of summer . . .

bug bites and crazy heat!

Bug bites are the bane of my existence in the summer. My children learned to count into the double digits by counting their insect bites, I get huge, red, ridiculously itchy welts every time I am bitten, and our family can see the mosquitoes hovering outside our home's windows, just waiting to get in and bite us. Truly, they hover out there in wait. Ugh!

So, here's what we do to deal with this "woe of summer."

As soon as we realize a pesky bug has sunk her teeth into us, we run for the kitchen. There we grab the bottle of meat tenderizer. Yes, you read that correctly . . . meat tenderizer! It contain papaya enzyme which dissolves the proteins mosquitoes leave behind when they chomp on you! Seriously, it works like a charm - if you put it on within about half an hour of getting the bite.

So, when I or my children get a bite here's what we do:

Run like Junie B. Jones (that is speedy quick) to the kitchen, and grab the meat tenderizer
Sprinkle some into our hands
Mix the powdered meat tenderizer with water until it makes a medium to thick paste
Rub the paste liberally to the bite and if it seriously itches, we have been known to sing this little ditty as we rub:

Well, there was a little chigger

And he wasn't any bigger

Than the wee small head of a pin,

But the bump that he raises

Just itches like the blazes

And that's where the rub comes in

Oh the rub

That is where the rub comes in

'Cause the bump that he raises

Just itches like the blazes

And that's where the rub comes in!

(to the tune of Polly Wolly Doodle)

Leave the paste on as long as possible. Eventually it will dry out and rub off, but hopefully by then, the bite will have been "tenderized." That is, the proteins will have been dissolved, and the bite will be nothing more than a tiny red bump that does not itch! Or at least not even close to as much as it would have otherwise.

And when you are sweltering, sweaty, and generally miserable from crazy summer heat, you can try this little pick-me-up.

Lavender mist

Take that unused plant mister - because surely your plants are outdoors in the summer anyway - and turn it into a people mister! Fill it with fresh water and about 3 drops of pure lavender oil. Put the mister in a shady spot in your house or better still, in the refrigerator! Spritz yourself and/or your children liberally whenever the urge strikes you. It is very refreshing!

Aaaaaahhhhhhh!

What's your favorite way of beating the "woes of Summer?"

Wet Felting with a Salad Spinner!

2011-07-05T21:01:00.000-05:00

On a recent hiking trip to Ireland, my friends and I decided it would be fun to leave our mark in a few places along the way. We created temporary art, cairns, using beautiful stones we found along the Dingle Way. We liked the idea that someone might come along one day after we had left, and notice them. They were great fun to create, especially since we found such beautifully colored stones!

We wanted to bring some stones with us as souvenirs, so we could create cairns at home too. However, the stones were heavy and packing them up in our suitcases seemed a vastly impractical idea. Once I arrived home, I consoled myself by making some stones (and a cairn) for my friend Sharon. Of course, I used my favorite material, felt! I did this using the wet felt technique and . . . a salad spinner! Yep, a salad spinner!

Here's how I did it:

First I chose the wool, in the colors of the stones we had seen in Ireland. I rolled the wool into a ball, using side to side and up and down winding motions. (For some stones, I used multiple colors of wool.)

Then I stuffed the ball into some of my daughter's old ballet tights.

(I think thinner stockings might have worked even better, but I used what I had handy.)

I knotted the stockings with slip knots so they would be easy to untie at the end of the felting process.

I filled up the salad spinner about 1/3 to 1/2 full with hot

water and about 2 tablespoons of liquid dish soap . . .

and dropped in the stones.

I put the top onto the spinner and pulled away. I discovered I had to pull pretty hard to get the spinner to work. If yours is too difficult to pull, empty some of the water until it is a bit easier. Lots of water and suds will sop out of the top of the spinner, and you may need to add some hot water and more soap about half way through your spinning time. I spun the stones for between 10 and 15 minutes.

After removing the stockings, I rinsed them with cold water, and wrung them out. I took the stones out of the stockings, rinsed them in cold water, and squeezed them out with a clean, dry dish towel.

I have to say, I think the stones turned out very well! Don't you?

After they dried overnight, I sewed the stones together in a cairn formation. The stack is a little wobbly as it doesn't have much weight, but it is much lighter than bringing a cairn home from Ireland!

Happy wet felting, and Slainte!

My Five Stages of Designing and Creating

2011-07-04T15:10:00.000-05:00

Little Red Riding Hood characters

I am not an artist.

I do work towards becoming one, all the time. I create, I am inspired, and okay, maybe what I create is art - sometimes. I do not however, have innate artistic talent. Therefore creating something I like, can use, or that I would consider giving away or someday maybe even selling, is a bit of a process. How do I do it? It takes a few steps.

The Idea

Ideas of specific items I could use in the classroom or with my own children, come to me all the time. When I am able, I write the ideas down. I use whatever is handy when I think of the idea be it post-its, napkins, my hand, or whatever! The trick of course, is finding those pieces of paper later. : )

Research

This is the "Google" and picture book stage of the process. I google the name of something I am trying to create, and see if someone else has created anything like it. If someone has, great! I can look at her design, and see if it is something on which I can build. (Please note: If I borrow ideas from another person's designs in order to create my own, I do not sell that item! For example, this past Spring I was teaching my class about the life and works of Claude Monet. One afternoon during this time period, I was visiting Etsy and looking at the work of one of my favorite artists on Etsy, Mamakopp. I saw and simply fell in love with one of her designs for a little man called Crinkleroot. I thought he would make a perfect model for Claude Monet. I borrowed her design and created a little wooden figure of Monet to go along with a wooden bridge and felted pond with lily pads. I used this only for my own classroom. You can read about it and see pictures on one of my earlier blog postings, here.) If I don't find anything similar to my idea using Google and sometimes even if I do, I also look at children's book illustrations. There are so many amazing children's book illustrators that provide me with fabulous inspiration!

Scribble

After the idea and the research have percolated for a while, I move to the scribble stage. This is the stage during which a "real" artist could work on design. I scribble as I work on the design, and try to figure out how to make an image that looks at least somewhat like the idea in my head.

Case in point: A friend asked me recently to create a set of wooden figures depicting the story of Adam and Eve. I am still in the scribble stage, even after cutting out some first drafts. My figure drawings have this habit of leaning the same way as my politics - precipitously to the left! I had to throw my first Adam away. He looked like he was fighting a very strong gale, but I didn't realize it until after I had cut him out (of wood!) Sometimes I have to draw half a person, fold the paper in half, and then cut it out - to make sure the person is symmetrical and not too liberal (lol, left leaning) for his own good.

Below: My Scribble stage of dragon creation

Final design

I'd like to say that once I have scribbled sufficiently, I always come up with the final design. The truth of the matter is that sometimes designs still need quite a bit of tweaking. Sometimes I have to work through all the steps of making a piece, and let the final project "speak to me" before I decide if it works. I know this is sort of ridiculous, but it is the only way I have found that works for me. A piece has to look like I made it (if that makes sense), for me to be really happy with it.

Acceptance and Use

Once I have deemed the final product useful and "looking like me" enough, I have my Consumer Product Safety Testers (my children) check it out. If it meets with their approval, I photograph it (for archival purposes and of course the ol' blog), and put it out in the classroom. Finally!

And the sometimes necessary Sixth Stage: Revisiting

Of course, sometimes later I come up with a better idea, and so then I have to start the process all over again. Ah well, such is the life of a teacher and "wannabe" artist.

What is your favorite classroom material you have made?

Blogs are Fabulous!

2011-06-08T12:16:00.000-05:00

How fabulous are blogs?!

Last summer, at the urging of a friend, I started this blog. My plan was to use it to document my work in my PreKindergarten classroom and my work at home with my own children. I have done that, but my blog has been useful for so much more!

Case in point: For a few months now I have been exchanging comments with a teacher/blogger in County Wexford, Ireland. (Here is her blog, Montessori Preschool. Check it out!) We seem to share similar teaching philosophies, and it is wonderful to get support and great ideas from each other. So when I was pondering and planning my upcoming vacation in Ireland, I thought how great it would be to meet her. Unfortunately, County Wexford is pretty far out of our way (as we are headed to the Southwestern coast), but I thought of another way I could connect with her, continent box materials!

Now if you have read my blog from the beginning, you know that I participated in a continent swap at this time last year. (You can read all about it if you like. Start here, and scroll down for the rest of the posts.) It was fabulous, and I not only have new learning materials as a result, but also some great new friends. I thought I could help out my new friend in Ireland by gathering some items from my city and country, and putting them in the Irish mail upon my arrival. She could not have been nicer when I asked her if she could use some American items for her North American continent box. She said that would be lovely, and asked if I would like anything from her native country in return. She even additionally offered to show me around her village and her classroom! How lovely, generous, and generally marvelous! Thank you Aude, for all those kind offers. Even though I cannot take her up on any of them, the fact that she would offer is so encouraging and wonderful.

Here's a picture of a few of the things I have collected.

Aude, if you want your box to be a surprise, don't look! : )

What's in this little package:

a pop up book, America the Beautiful
an American flag
an American dollar, quarters from 3 or 4 states, dimes, nickels, and pennies
some tiny pretend bills (one dollar bills, fives, tens, twenties, and a fifty)
glittery American flag stickers
a few (unfortunately very few) stamps
red, white, and blue beads
an American flag bandana (can you tell our country is gearing up for July 4th?) : )
a North American animals "toob"
a handmade wooden deer, red squirrel, and a black bear
a CD with some of my students favorite songs
a suction cup thingy (what are these called?) for Practical Life works, a rubber duck (~~My state is apparently the highest producer of rubber ducks in the world! Who knew?~~) Okay, I heard this from my mother, but I am unable to verify it. Anyway, there's a duck for practical life.
more brochures and travel magazines than you can shake a stick at

Our blogs and our love of children and teaching children connected us, even across an ocean! As I said, fabulous! How has reading and/or writing a blog connected you to others? Let me know! I'll read your comments - after I get back from Ireland! : )

My First Public Art Sale

2011-06-06T13:32:00.000-05:00

Well, I was a first time vendor at a local public art sale this past weekend, and while I wouldn't say my items were received stupendously, no one said, "What is that?" I did sell a few things however, and my dear friend Frances sold a bunch of items. Go Frances! And I met a potential new friend! So generally, it was good all around.

I am seriously considering putting my leftover items on Etsy. I think they are pretty good, and that most of my problem was that people in my town don't really know about Waldorf education and Waldorf inspired toys. (Plus, they were too distracted by Frances' gorgeous jewelry to look at toys for their children. )

Sooooooo . . . here are some of the items I have. Any thoughts?

Felted forest play mat with little Spring painted peg people. People also have felted cloaks for colder weather. Cloaks fit well onto fingers so they also work well as finger puppets!

Felted "Story of the Root Children" play mat. Root children are separate,

but this mat will include one wooden girl and 3 felted insects.

Felted ocean play mat with wooden mermaid, dolphin, and seal.

Wooden Queen, Princesses, and Ladies

Winter Woman

Mother Earth (She has grass, river, trees, and sky on her dress. Her hair represents the clouds in the sky.)

Fairy

Wooden child with mushroom cap

Some large felted acorns

Twilight Princess

I also have some play silks. So I guess you might see me this summer on Etsy!

Mixed Emotions

2011-06-04T19:35:00.000-05:00

Dear Readers,

It is with very mixed emotions that I must report I have decided not to return to my current school next year.

I have been thinking about this decision for a very, very long time. I have discussed it at great length with my husband, my mother, and my dear friends. It has been truly agonizing trying to decide what to do. In the end, the school just didn't feel like quite the right fit for me, and I had to do what I thought would be best for me now and in the future. I hope to find a new school that is just the right fit for me, where I can settle in and stay for many years to come.

It saddens me greatly to leave my current position as I will really miss my students, their parents, and some wonderful faculty member friends. However, it is also exciting (if a bit nerve wracking) to venture into the unknown and search for something new. I am choosing to focus on the positive and so I am sprucing up my resume and moving forward.

I hope you will continue to follow my blog as I have many exciting summer plans. I am going to continue making Waldorf inspired toys, work on my sewing skills, and learn to bake bread! I am also going to work with 3 fabulous friends on developing an e-book about 25 famous artists! That will be a huge project, but we are hoping to have it ready for publication by this Fall.

And I hope to have a new classroom and class about which to blog, soon.

Monet in the morning and at noon, Claude Monet by the light of the moon

2011-05-13T17:14:00.003-05:00

Hey! Look at this post!

When looking at images of Claude Monet's water lilies, you are sure to notice some of them look very similar, but have differences in color.

See?

Or look at this example.

Our class has learned that Monet liked to paint at many different times of day,

looking at the same objects or places in many different kinds of light.

Hmmm, I thought to myself. How could the children paint the same thing, in different kinds of light?

Ah ha! I've got it, glasses!

I rescued an old cardboard box from our recycling bin, and cut it into three rectangular pieces. I cut two eyeholes into each piece, and then taped some pieces of lighting gel over the eyeholes. I pulled the pieces out of some sample books my DH brought home. I used some darker blue pieces for one pair of glasses, a warm orange for the second pair, and a rosy magenta for the last pair.

My hope was that wearing these glasses would simulate the light of different times of day. The magenta was to simulate the cheerful morning, the orange, the fading afternoon light, and the blue, twilight.

I demonstrated how the children could do as Monet did, and paint the same thing at "different times of day," by wearing the glasses. I set up our little Monet scene, with the little wooden Japanese bridge and the felt pond with water lilies next to some paper, water color paints, brushes, and of course, the glasses. Each child could choose which time of day he or she wished to paint.

The children loved wearing the glasses!

Here is one of my students (whose mother happily gave me permission to use his picture. Thanks, F!) He wore the dark blue glasses.

Here is his painting. He told me it was raining on the pond, in his work.

Here is another student, working on bridge shapes.

The children were also very interested to see that the colors of paint in the watercolor box were difficult to distinguish, when they were wearing the glasses. They kept looking at the colors, pulling the glasses up and down again.

The children also wore the glasses when checking out our visiting turtle,

"cooking" in our housekeeping area, and while block building!

If you need to simulate times of day or different lights, indoors, I would recommend this "glasses" method. It worked out very well, and boy the children loved these glasses!

Happy Weekend!

We made quite an IMPRESSION

2011-05-13T13:58:00.000-05:00

This week, our class continued our study of Claude Monet and his Impressionist works. The children have been especially interested in his paintings of water lilies.

The children created their own Impressionist works, "ponds" with water lilies. They are gorgeous! Here's how we did it!

First we headed outside, with more gear than you can shake a stick at. (We spent the whole morning out of doors, so we needed quite a few supplies.) For the Impressionist "ponds" art project we brought these materials:

large white construction paper
squirt bottles of white, green, yellow, and blue paint
a couple of sizes of rolling pins
a clothes line
clothes pins
and a hose for the clean up! : )

Directions:

Each child chose how much paint, which colors he or she wanted, and in which order they should be squirted. (I actually did the squirting, and although I would have chosen for them to do it themselves in other circumstances, we didn't have any small squirt bottles, and our paint is almost gone as it is so close to the end of the school year. So, we made do and all went smoothly.)

After the paint was applied, each child chose a large or small rolling pin, and rolled away. The look of the paint when it is rolled is fabulous, and if you have never tried this, please do so immediately! The children love it and the results are too great to be missed!

Check these out! Nifty, right?

The next day the children used liquid watercolors and crumpled tissue paper to make lily pads and flowers. Each child "floated" his or hers in their "pond" from the previous day, and voila!

I think even Claude Monet himself might be

impressed by these Impressionist masterpieces!

Monet Math

2011-05-09T17:49:00.000-05:00

Here is a little Monet math activity I whipped up for my students. It goes along with our study of Monet and his various paintings of water liles, and with this song:

5 Green and Speckled Frogs

5 green and speckled frogs,

Sat on a speckled log,

Eating some most delicious bugs.

Yum! Yum!

One jumped into the pool,

Where it was nice and cool,

Then there were 4 green speckled frogs.

Glub! Glub!

Then there are 4 frogs in the next verse, then 3 etc etc.

(If you don't know this song, here's a link where you can hear it.)

The idea here is that students can do a variety of activities, based on their ages, interests, and abilities.

Younger students can:

Place the cards in increasing or decreasing order,

or place the cards as they sing along with the song.

Students can place our toy frogs on a log too
(if we can tear them away from the sensory table frog pond!)

Slightly older students (almost everyone in my class falls into this category now that we're nearing the end of the school year) can do a little bit of subtraction work, with these cards and a little "worksheet."

While singing 5 Little Frogs, students can place the card with the

beginning number of frogs, to the far left.

For demonstration, I started with the 5 card.

Then the students place a card to represent the frog jumping into the pool.

It reads," - 1 = ."

Then the students have to count how many frogs remain on the log, and place that card at the end of the equation.

This also has a "worksheet" portion of the activity, where students may write their answers. Even if they don't recognize the subtraction symbol, it is good writing practice, and it is fun to tie in with the 5 Frogs song. It also doubles as a sort of "song sheet," reminding students of the words to the song, as they sing.

If you would like to use this little math activity, to further your students learning about frogs and Monet, feel free to download it here. Happy subtracting, and happy singing!

Monet manipulatives

2011-05-03T19:25:00.002-05:00

Our class is continuing our study of Impressionism and Claude Monet so I have made some new materials, and put out some old favorites.

First, what's new:

This set (pictured above) serves a few purposes. Firstly, it is a game I call Monet Memory Matching. It actually isn't quite finished yet, but I am pretty excited about so of course, I thought I'd share. : )

The game is a simple version of Memory. There will be 12 lily pads with little creatures who live in ponds, needle felted onto the back. (So far I have finished dragonflies, fish, and ducks. I have frogs, frog eggs, and turtles still to go.) Two children can take turns turning over 2 lily pads at a time, trying to find the match. The child with the most matches at the end, wins. (I have a plan to make a digital version, probably over the summer, so watch for that on this blog!) Children can also move around the little Claude Monet. ( I made him based on an adorable creation of Mamakopp's on Etsy, Crinkleroot. He looked so jolly and just as I imagine Monet would have looked when he was enjoying time in his gorgeous garden.) The jolly old Claude can cross his Japanese bridge and admire his beautiful pond, paint water lilies, or look for pond life.

The last piece of this set is matching cards of some of Monet's paintings. You can see that currently in our set, Monsieur Monet is hard at work on The Waterlily Pond. He might want to work on something else though, so the whole set of cards is a basket next to the pond. If you would like to download your own set of these cards, feel free. (They are pictures of paintings with the title below each one. I cut the titles out and pasted them on the back, but you could also print 2 sets, and easily make them into Montessori style 3 part cards.) Here's the file link. If you like the cards and find them useful, please let me know. I love feedback. Thank you!

And some old favorites:

Here is Linnea, fresh from her trip to Monet's garden. She has some clothing into which she can change, and a little basket for her lunch.

Linnea can also have a spot of tea, perhaps with a couple of frog friends she may have met in Monet's water lily pond. I found this tiny set at a thrift store last year, and the children love it!

And a few more frog friends. They could join the tea party, but they usually end up in the block area, completing complex frog obstacle courses.

And here are some of my favorite children's books about Claude Monet. I have linked them to Amazon.com, so you can look at a few of the pages. I own a couple of the titles, but the others I check out every year, from our library.

The Magical Garden of Claude Monet by Laurence Anholt
Linnea in Monet's Garden by Christina Bjork and Lena Anderson
Katie Meets the Impressionists by James Mayhew
Once Upon a Lily Pad, Froggy Love in Monet's Garden by Joan Sweeney
Philippe in Monet's Garden by Lisa Jobe Carmack

I al also waiting with great anticipation, for the paperback release of Katie and the Waterlily Pond by James Mayhew. It comes out this summer! I adore the Katie and the . . . series, and can't wait for this title too!

I'm sure you got the impression (pun intended! lol) that I am a huge fan of Claude Monet. If you did, you're right! Although I must confess it was not always so. I used to think his work was way too overexposed for me (not art savvy) to really appreciate. It just seemed to be everywhere. I even saw a Water Lilies shower curtain, for Pete's sake!

But then I went to see Monet's work displayed at the Musee de l'Orangerie in Paris, with my then 10 year old daughter. We waited in line outside the museum for our scheduled time to view the works, so when we walked into the round room it was not too crowded. It was quiet, tranquil, and just the way you would think it should be. Honestly and without trying to sound too cheesy, I was converted to a believer. I hope if you fall into the category I did a few years ago (and you too have seen too many soap dispensers, umbrellas, and shower curtains) you will give Monet another look. Look at a high resolution image online of one of his works (this is one of my favorites), visit your local museum, or head out the door to Paris! Bon voyage!

Without Supervision

2011-04-30T19:49:00.001-05:00

A few months ago I went to a wonderful workshop about ways to incorporate more nature play into teaching. It was truly fantastic, and gave me many ideas, but that isn't my main point here. The speaker started the workshop by asking each of us to recall one of our best childhood experiences in nature.

Each table of teachers began discussing our childhood stories, and then we shared them with the room. Without exception, each teacher recalled a wonderful time she had outdoors, when she was (and here's the kicker) unsupervised. The speaker went on to tell us children today spend far less time outdoors than they did 10, 20, or 50 years ago, and that children are suffering for it. (If you are interested in reading all about this, please read Last Child in the Woods by Richard Louv. It is fantastic!) Our speaker further explained that children need unsupervised and unstructured time to explore their surroundings.

He wasn't suggesting we abandon our children and head out for the day. Rather he was showing us how children revel in the sense of adventure they get from being without adults, how they use their imaginations in astounding ways, and work together to learn wonderful things.

Why do I mention this? Am I suggesting here that we as teachers, leave our children unsupervised? (Parents have more leeway here, but teachers do not.) So nope, not for a minute. What I am getting at here, is that we as teachers and parents, can give our students and children that sense of freedom that comes with being unsupervised, in a safe and secure way.

Here are some little "nooks" in our classroom where children can go when they need to get away from the hustle and bustle. They can read, rest, or day dream in . . .

the DEAR bathtub

or in a small trunk, (as Pilgrims, of course.)

A big box makes a great Pilgrim house,

or a child sized observatory (too big for adults to fit inside!)

Children can also create their own private places.

They can make a snug little fort, under a rainbow,

a house of sticks . . .

or leaves.

A cloth makes outdoor play equipment a place for a new adventure.

That same cloth, tied to a bit of fence, makes a great hiding place.

Sometimes a few bushes do the trick,

or if children are very lucky, their dad builds them their own special spot, in a favorite tree.

Just right for your best friend

and you.

However you do it, please be sure to give your students or your child a place to feel, dream, and
imagine - and feel unsupervised (even if they really aren't!) : )

Impressionist Sculpture

2011-04-30T19:21:00.000-05:00

Who says Impressionism is only a style of painting? Okay okay, I know that is what the movement was really about, but for our purposes, our class has been exploring one basic idea of Impressionism, with a variety of materials and art forms.

Recently, our class has been studying the life and work of Claude Monet. We have specifically looked at his work in the context of Impressionism. For the purposes of my young class, we have been focusing on Monet's use of "overall visual effects instead of details."

As I said in my post about Impressionist self portraits, we have looked at Monet's water lilies as an example, and noticed that he painted them like this

rather than like this.

The children have noticed that Monet didn't focus on every single little detail of the flower, but rather on the colors in the flower, and the mood he seemed to want to convey in his painting.

Some children did some painting of their own, in a sort of Impressionist way, using the "wet on wet" watercolor technique.

Others went right to work creating "Impressionism inspired" flower sculptures, focusing (as Monet did) on the overall idea and shape of the flower, and the mood the wanted to convey. Most of the children said flowers made them feel happy. I'll bet you feel happy too, when you see their flowers!

Here's the Impressionist flower making area. It contains baskets, trays, and bowls for all our materials including:

pipe cleaners
black walnut shells
paper flower cut outs (with a hole in the middle)
cardboard box pieces (pre-cut into small squares with a hole in the middle)
egg carton pieces
lids from my recycling bin
raffia pieces
plastic pony beads
buttons
left over plastic cup flowers that never got shrunk (from a previous project)
pieces of silk flowers (I pulled them apart into their individual layers and pieces)
vases for their marvelous designs
pieces of an old bamboo blind

Put these all together and tah dah!

Now perhaps if Monet had painted one of these, it would look a little more like this . . .

But I like it just as it is, and looking at these flowers certainly makes me happy. How about you?

The children also used a new material, pool noodles (yup pool noodles - which my DH sliced into pieces for me) to make more "Impressionist inspired" sculptures. The children used pipe cleaners, pieces of the old bamboo blind, and toothpicks to stick everything together. Here are a few of their pieces I particular enjoyed.

This artist entitled her work, Sun Over the Ocean

This is one of my students and her mother

a caterpillar

a cannon

and some hanging sculptures

I hope you have gotten an impression (lol) of what we have been up to lately.

Have a happy and creative day!!!

Impressionist Self Portraits

2011-04-25T14:55:00.000-05:00

As our class embarks upon this year's study of Impressionism and specifically upon the works of Claude Monet, I am reminded of a project my students completed last year, before I had a blog on which to share it. I thought I'd share it now as it worked out very well, and was quite well received by the children and parents. I hope you find it interesting and useful.

As you read this, please keep in mind that over the years, I have had students do self portraits in all sorts of different ways. We have used pencils and mirrors, magazines for collage work, body outlines, and body painting and printing (although this I did only with my own children). We have used paints, markers, chalk, spray bottles, rolled up paper, fabric, and lots of other materials too.

Last year, I thought we would try something a little bit different. Instead of focusing on the children's specific facial features and body parts, we rather worked on the very general shapes of the children's bodies or shapes of the parts of their bodies. This tied in with our study of Impressionism as the children had been noticing that Impressionist painters did not focus on details, but rather on the overall shape and mood of whatever they were painting.

Let me use some visuals, for clarification. We had learned for example, that in his work, Claude Monet's water lilies don't look exactly like real water lilies. They do not show each petal of the blossom and each vein of the lily pad, but rather show the idea of a water lily, its "mood", and its overall shape.

So, Monet painted this

instead of this.

With this in mind, I prepared the children to make self portraits by telling them we were going to focus on the overall mood and shape of their bodies, not specific features or characteristics.

Because this was a Mother's Day gift, I wanted the portraits to be somewhat recognizable as each child. I feared that if the children were given free rein, the results would have been interesting and a good learning experience, but might not have looked much like self portraits. I debated and debated about this problem, but ultimately decided that the children had completed many open ended art projects during the year, and this could be a more specifically directed work. So we began this project with photographs.

I chose one of each child, and used iphoto to blur it as much as possible. I printed the blurred image, covered it with a piece of tracing paper, and taped both to our light table. Each child was given a cotton swabs and paint tray to which I added the colors the child requested. You can see this child requested green, blue, and yellow.

The child was then to paint the general shapes in the picture, filling in her face, clothing, and background if she wished.

Check out some more of our portraits, completed!

The mothers were given the tracing paper with the Impressionist self portrait in a colored mat (which each child chose) along with a copy of the original photo. The children were very proud to show what they had done, and explain why it looked the way it did.

I hope that explains how and why we made our Impressionist self portraits. If you decide to make some the same way or in a different way, please let me know. I'd love to see your work too!

A Basket Full of Eggs

2011-04-22T16:06:00.000-05:00

Today the rain held off, even if only just barely, and our class had an Easter egg hunt. The children had a wonderful time!

When we returned to the classroom, we sang a new version of A Basket Full of Nuts, a song we have been enjoying this year. What? You don't know this one? Well, you can listen to it here or order the whole CD (Come Follow Me Volume I by Lorraine Nelson Wolf) here, from Bella Luna Toys. My students and my family love every song on it, and on those days when the children are a little over excited (we have had quite a few of those lately), Wolf's voice is so soothing.

The regular version of A Basket Full of Nuts goes like this:

A basket full of nuts,

I gathered from the hickory nut tree.

And I am going home,

And I am taking them with me.

Tra la la,

Tra la la la la la la

Tra la la,

Tra la la la la la la

But of course, today after our egg hunt we sang . . .

A basket full of eggs,

I gathered from my school, look, see!

And I am going home,

And I am taking them with me.

Tra la la,

Tra la la la la la la

Tra la la,

Tra la la la la la la

The children loved singing this new version, and even sang it joyfully to visiting parents! If you need a little song to go along with your egg hunting, I'll bet your children will love it too.

Happy Easter!

My Little, little acorns Sale

2011-04-22T14:38:00.000-05:00

This past Wednesday my kind friend Frances hosted a party to sell my little handmade items. Some of my favorite people in the world attended, and we had a truly delightful evening. We laughed, had delicious food, and chatted about everything under the sun. I am so blessed to have such extraordinary friends in my life who support me through thick and thin, and who are also so dedicated and enthusiastic about their children's lives, education, and play.

Here are a few photos of Frances' home with my items displayed.

Look at this bench she has! How fabulous is that? And by the way, Frances is

a fantastic artist and jewelry designer. You can check out her web site here!

Oh, and as an extra added bonus, I made enough money to cover the set of Waldorf play stands I have been wishing for - since about um, 1999! Yippee! Here they are in Frances' home, but look for photos of them in the classroom very soon.

Thank you, and I'll hope to see you at the next little acorns sale!