Nests

We have been talking a lot about nests at home lately. We have looked at who lives in them, how big they are, where they are built and read so many books. It is really an endless topic and such an interesting one to explore! With Spring beginning to show it's signs we have also been talking a lot about flowers and we have looked at some of the giant blooms that bleed off the page painted by Georgia O'Keeffe. On her own, my little one combined our topics and let part of her nest go off the page. When I asked her to tell me about her work she said It's the "big blue sky" in the background and that she was flying in her mind above the nest.

Rain, Rain.....

Rainy day art today.....

Cat Bird

Today we read a wonderfully illustrated book called Cleo the Cat by Stella Blackstone. Then we looked at Paul Klee's Cat and Bird for inspiration today.
The dark lines and simple shapes display a sweet close up of the cat's head.

Egg Surprise!

We read An Extraordinary Egg by Leo Lionni today and discussed how eggs are created, hatched and what other animals come from eggs! What a great conversation!   
Next we created our own egg and cracked it (cut it using scissors). Then, on the next page made a decision about what might be living in the egg. This one says "In my egg is a... Macaroni Penguin!" It seems only fitting because today is actually World Penguin Day! Here are a couple Penguin blogs for inspiration.... Centralpenguinworld.blogspot.com and penguinworld.com

Snakes!

My littlest one had a snake lesson at the nature center today. Not only did she help catch a little snake but she also found a flying squirrel tail on their hike! While we waited for my older one to finish his music lesson she and I did a little snake art!

She started by drawing a snake and used her fingerprints to create the scaly pattern.

 This one she started with an eye stamper and then added the bodies and scales afterward with colored pencil.

Bird Art

This morning we took a look at Charley Harper's book Birds and Words for inspiration. We made impressions into foam and printed some amazing bird prints!

Penguin

Penguin

Snowy Owl

Happy Easter!

We cut some old fabric into shapes of bunny heads....

Drew some cute little faces and stitched around almost all of the bunny except where the "forehead" would be.....

Filled them with treats and tied the ears!

Fraction Art!

My first grader is working on fractions at school. This morning we were inspired to do a bit of fraction art. He started with circles and cut them into halves and then quarters.....

A Wordless Book

My son found a wonderful wordless book at the library last week called Journey and we have fallen in love with it! We have looked at it several times in the last week and each time we spend at least a half hour discussing what we see. The illustrations tell a beautiful story of an imaginative journey. The ending will leave you wanting to create your own story through illustrations.....

Fuzzy Little Birds

We are talking a lot about Spring and focusing on birds yet. My little one has also been interested in the basket of wool and yarn that we have sitting out and how it all comes together lately. Today we read the books Knitty Kitty and Woolbur for inspiration and help to understand how wool becomes yarn through illustrations. Then we took some of the wool we had in the basket and felted it into egg shapes. This was so fun to play in the warm soapy water. After they dried just a bit, my daughter decided we needed to wrap them in some "funky' yarn that looked like feathers. She added paper beaks and eyes and the little fuzzy birds are resting with the one that didn't hatch yet. Tomorrow we will work on a nest!

A Pefectly Warm and Cozy Reading Fort

The snow is melting but it is still a bit chilly in the morning outside. This made it a perfect morning  to do a little baking project and cozy up in the reading fort with some good books.
You can find directions here for a version of this quiet reading space.

Coyote Class

My little one goes to coyote class today at the nature center. Before class I thought we'd do a couple coyote projects!
We looked at a few videos of coyotes howling before we did this silhouette. I cut out the coyote image for her and then we talked about why and when these animals howl. To add a bit of literacy she wrote what her coyote was howling at. I love that she added a little Van Gogh wind and snow to complete the scene!

And a mask project......

Collaborative Spring Bird Art.....

We have been reading a few art inspiring bird books this week that I wanted to share. 

Birds by Kevin Henkes has lovely illustrations and ideas for background painting....

Another sweet and simple bird book is Nest by Jorey Hurley

We have been waiting so patiently for our little bird friends to come back singing.....

It's delightful to hear!