A Wishful Thinking Snowman

We have no snow and open water in MN!
So these snowmen are wishful thinking!

I love the different art eye on this stamp

She chose to turn it side ways and make a face!

Bedazzled Letters For the Board!!

Fill the Snowman Fine Motor

Kandinsky Circles and Dots...

Triangle Creatures....

Wayne Thiebaud Cakes

I had this image hanging on the board this week and we have been discussing patterns, lines and shapes that we see....
They picked up the markers on their own and began to make cakes!

More Ephemeral Art Exploration.....

Beach Art in November......

We have been looking at work by Andy Goldsworthy lately. I think it inspired our beach day today....

Ephemeral Fall Art!

Spiders!

We have been talking about spiders quite a bit lately and looking at many different spider books

Here are some drawings that came out of our group discussion on shapes and lines of spiders....

A Study of Sunflowers

In my 3s and 4s class we have been looking at Van Gogh's sunflowers closer and took some time to work on drawing our own....

More Rainy Day Science Magic

Ice Fishing!

First get a piece of string wet in a glass filled 4" hight with water. Next, put the wet string on the ice cube, sprinkle salt on the ice cube. Hold the string on the ice cube for 20 seconds. Then, lift the string! The salt helps lower the water's freezing point!

 First make a lump of playdough in the middle of a plate and put a candle in the center. Next, pour water around the lump of playdough. Light the candle and place a glass over the top of the candle. The candle will slowly go out and the water will get sucked up the side of the glass!

All of these experiments came from the book
"Magic Tricks with Science" by Samantha Bell

Rainy Day Science Magic

All of these experiments came from the book
"Magic Tricks with Science" by Samantha Bell

First blow up a balloon

Next, place a piece of tape

Then carefully and slowly poke 2 pins through the tape

You will see that it doesn't pop!!

Salty Egg Experiment....

First, scoop 5 scoops of salt into a glass of water

stir to dissolve

In another glass of water just use plain water

Placed the egg in the salty water and it floated!

Placed the egg in the clear water and it was a sinker!

You will see that salt makes the egg float!

Try more or less salt and see what happens!

Powerfully Strong Egg Experiment.....
We placed 4 eggs in the center and put 4 books on top without a crack!
Next We moved the eggs to the outter edge and no cracking again!
You will see how strong egg shells are!
(See how many books you can stack on the eggs before you crack!)

Summer Ephemeral Art

Recycled CD Spacers Turned Window Art

Adding some color paper to our window art.....see finished product drying below...

Paper Nest Forms.... BIGGER!

Our nest making inspired some bigger nest making! We experimented with different types of paper to see what would work to make our nests. The kids enjoyed tearing, soaking and playing in the water with the paper before we formed a bowl shaped nest... It's drying for a couple days and soon we will need to add some eggs or birds to the nest.....

Birds Nests

Today we started a bird nest project. The students counted 15 squares of toilet paper and bit of craft crinkle paper and put it all in an empty apple sauce jar. Next, I added a little water and put the lid on. Then, they shook and shook and shook it to mix it up! The process turns the toilet paper into a pulpy mess and makes it easy to pour into little cup shapes (here we used an old fruit container). They will need to dry over the weekend and then we will make the little birds to in them!

Little Green Drawing Activity

Today I read the book Little Green. It's a book about a boy watching a humming bird's flying patterns through the garden. While he watches he paints. Today while the kids listened they drew the pattens of the flying that they heard me describe. This was such a fun activity to watch them do. They have grown so much!

Collaboration - Update*

4/10/15
We are working on building, creating and collaborating together. During group time today we took turns placing on block at a time. Once everyone had a turn we took an art look at the project and discussed what it looked like or reminded us of. We heard lots of great ideas like dragon, boat, space ship, playground... It was a great activity and inspired some block building later in the day!

5/8/15
This is several weeks later and we are continuing our collaborative exercises during group time but no we are taking a closer look when it is complete to not only discuss but also draw what we see....

 

Early Spring Flower Stamping...

An old ice cube tray from IKEA painted for stems and a variety of lids and cups and other shapes used to stamp the bloom on the flower.....

Bowls of Ice Cream

The question of the week is "Do you like your ice cream in a bowl or cone?"!
I mixed shaving cream, glue and liquid water color to make our arty ice cream. The children created a design on their bowl first and then filled the bowl with their "ice cream"! Some added sprinkles too.....