Thanksgiving

This week we have begun to focus on Thanksgiving. We learned about the Teepees (that the Native Americans lived in. We learned that the Native Americans used many colors and patterns to decorate their beautiful homes. To have the children have a full experience of teepees we constructed their own life size teepee. The children helped by decorating a sheet of butcher block paper with different colors and patterns. 

We decided it would be fun to investigate a pumpkin. We each had a turn to feel and smell the outside and inside of the pumpkin and described what we saw and felt. 

We decided to leave a few seeds inside the pumpkin and we added soil and water to our pumpkin. We are conducting an experiment to see if anything will grow. Only time will tell. We plan on taking such good care of our pumpkin. We will water it and sit it by the windowsill to give it sunlight. 

We also made Thanksgiving turkeys to share with our families, saying what we are thankful for. 

We finally, at the end of our week, shared a Thanksgiving feast with the class next door. We ate candied yams, pumpkin pie, roasted potatoes, and pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. It was all delicious. 

Painting Class 

This week we created Mondrian inspired art. We glued on black strips of construction paper and painted with primary colors.

Painting Class 2

This week we did not paint. It was the day before Thanksgiving and I wanted all the children to be able to take their artwork home for the long weekend. We learned about how Michelangelo painted on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. We then, with Cray-pas, created our own artwork using the same technique. We made our own pictures by coloring underneath the tables instead of on top!

Fall

This week we have been focusing on the changing of the season. The weather changes and the trees start to look different. The leaves on the trees are changing colors and falling to the ground.  We asked the children to bring in leaves and we sorted them so many different ways: color, shape, and size.

 After sorting the different types of leaves we looked up the different names for the leaves in the book Awesome Autumn by Bruce Goldstone. 

We read Leaf Man by Lois Ehlert and made predictions of where Leaf Man was going to travel next in the book. As a fun art project the children created their own leaf man using leaves cut out from fall color construction paper. After assembling their leaf man they got to write where the wind was going to take him. This gave us an opportunity to have the children practice writing. 

   

Since the wind took Leaf Man to all kinds of interesting places we decided to next focus our attention on wind. We read The Wind Blew and we explained that when air moves it is called wind. Air is invisible to the human eye and impossible to feel until it moves. We asked the children to hold up a hand in front of their mouth and blow into it. This way they were able to feel the air.  We did a science experiment using straws and various objects, including: pom poms, leaves, Legos, a tissue, and a block. The children experimented, by blowing through a straw, to discover which items they were able to move with their breath (the wind) and which items they were unable to move. 

Lastly, we baked leaf shaped sugar cookies.

Painting Class

This week we focused on Andy Warhol. We specifically concentrated on his Marilyn Monroe series. We noticed that he used repetition and bright colors. We then created our own pop art work. 

 

Noah's Ark

This week we focused on Noah's Ark. In conjunction with the water of the flood, we did a wonderful science experiment. Noah’s ark was built of wood. Why? In order to find out why we conducted a Sink or Float experiment and we charted our predictions and results. 

     We also learned that Noah lined the different animals two by two and brought them into the ark as pairs. We played a matching game with pictures of different types of animals. The children took turns matching/pairing their animals to their friends’.

     For a project, each child decorated their own rainbow and raindrops. On each raindrop the children shared something nice that they can do for friends and family. We want to make sure we treat others nicely, just like Noah did.

We then learned how rainbows are made. We read What Makes a Rainbow? by Betty Schwartz and did a science experiment, using a flashlight and a CD. We discussed that the sun (our flashlight) contains all of the color of the rainbow and when the sun passes through the water (the CD) the colors separate and we see a rainbow. We first turned off our classroom lights, and then turned on the flashlight, and then the light refracted off the back of the CD in order to create a lovely rainbow. 

        Additionally, we baked yummy rainbow cupcakes!

Painting Class

This week we focused on Pablo Picasso and his “Blue Period.” Picasso was sad during this period and chose to express himself through painting with blue. We noticed that he used a variety of blue shades and we decided to make our own expressive “Blue Period “ masterpieces.