Outdoor Adventures with Morah Jessica (Tuesday)
What a wonderful week of weather! This week, during our Outdoor Adventures Enrichment, the children were artists, making pictures using spray bottles filled with water and liquid watercolor paint. Paper was hung on the wall and the children mixed colors and discovered that when they sprayed close to the paper, a smaller amount came out but was darker. When they sprayed a little farther away, the color was lighter and spread further out. The final pieces were beautiful and the children really had a blast painting in a new way!
Amazing Artists with Morah Larissa (Wednesday)
This week, we continued our shape exploration by looking at squares in art. It was exciting to delve into the intersection between art and mathematics. We began by looking at prints of paintings again. The children feel proud to look at and discuss real “grown-up” art, and they have come to be able to enjoy aesthetic qualities in art for adults. This week, we viewed some cubist works as well as some of the works of Piet Mondrian. Then we looked for squares in the world around us. We found square blocks, square tiles on the floor, and even tiny squares on plaid clothing. Next, we created art with squares in three ways. Some of the children chose to use geo-boards and rubber-bands to create “temporary” art. Others experiments with markers and graph paper, creating patterns and other designs. We also tried some simple weaving with paper, noticing the squares appearing as we worked. We discovered much mathematics in weaving, as the children used a pattern “over-under-over-under” to guide their work, and then discovered that their work created a color pattern! One of the children even noted that weaving was a little like braiding a challah, in that we need to move our hands in a pattern.
Around the World in 8 Weeks with Morah Rhona (Friday)
On Friday, we visited the far away land of Kenya! We read a book called Planting the Trees of Kenya, which tells the story of how this country was once filled with beautiful trees – fig trees, olive trees, crotons and flame trees. We then heard the tale of a girl named Wangari. She came to the United States to go to college. When she returned to Kenya, she sadly discovered that most of the trees had died or been cut down, which destroyed the land, the animals and the ability to grow food. She set out to replace the trees, first one by one, and then in large groups. She got help from mothers and farmers and their families. We talked about the importance of preserving the land. As our craft, the children first planted a “seed” in modeling clay and then they made a collage with helping hands in grass seed. We even got the chance to plant our own grass seed!
