After a wonderful month of learning about Hispanic heritage, students are now beginning to work on individual class projects. Projects extend from conversations that occur in the classrooms and they are often an idea spiraling from one or more students. In Mr. Jackson and Ms. Kim’s class, students have been showing much interest in learning about locomotives. Students have examined various types of trains, have been discovering their attributes, comparing and contrasting, and deconstructing them in terms of their lines and shapes. Inside the art studio, students have been focusing primarily on the elements of art (line, shape, color, texture and space). It is one of our goals and standards to have children understand that art is composed of the elements as well as have the students begin to discuss their works in terms of the elements. As students entered the art studio this week, they practiced identifying and cutting lines and shapes and then using those shapes to construct a train collage. Students pointed out that circles were wheels; the train car can be a rectangle, etc. Afterward, the students closely examined pictures of trains and began to draw the lines and shapes that they see. I was extremely proud of our three-year-olds as they focused intently on the lines and shapes to create a line drawing.
Ms. Shonte and Ms. Michelle’s class has been extremely interested in puddles which resulted in a conversation about water. In order to push their knowledge and understanding about water, the atelier was set up with multiple provocations for the students to explore their ideas. The light table was covered in plastic and a tub of bubbly water with liquid watercolor paints sat on top, inviting the students to play with the materials. Students also painted with watercolor paint as well as “paint ice cubes”. As students explore the water, bubbles and ice, they begin to construct meaning about the properties of water, ideas about reflection, volume, and flow. We will continue to explore water in the upcoming weeks and soon we will be creating our very own water representations!
Ms. Yolanda and Ms. Sincarey’s class is learning much about music! When students discover different instruments and the sounds they make, they also learn about noise (high and low, pitch), beats and patterns. Like Mr. Jackson and Ms. Kim’s class, we have really been focusing on line and shape with patterns mixed in! We hope to use shapes in order to create our own instrument collages and then choose found materials to make our own “noise-makers” or instruments. We will also look at artists from the Harlem Renaissance and begin to tell stories about their works of art!
Pre-K4 is beginning to talk about the idea of giving and why we give gifts to people in our lives. In Ms. Kate and Ms. Leslie’s class, a classmate and friend, Mia, left to go to another school. Students began to form relationships with Mia’s new class through a pen-pal program. As we learn about all of the different materials inside the atelier, we are also finding new ways to use them. In the upcoming weeks, the students will be using the materials to create a gift for their new friends. This week, we began to think about giving by reading, The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein and we discussed what kinds of gifts we like to receive and why - and also what kinds of gifts we would give -- and why! Students drew pictures of their gifts and then brainstormed on how they would give that gift to their friends/family members.
We are just in the very beginnings of project work! Please feel free to visit the atelier at any time to see some of the amazing creations your students have been working so intently on! Below are a few pictures of the students exploring water. :)
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