Our First Art Experience With Sam

Today was the first scheduled art time with Samantha Matlock, our Lower School and Early Childhood art teacher.  Sam had visited with our class last week and made connections with the Cardinals playing and talking  in our classroom environment.  When Sam arrived early this morning  in our class, several of the children stopped what they were doing and came over to see Sam and to ask her if "she was going to stay in our class and play  today."  Sam explained that she was going to read  one of her favorite books about art to the class this morning.  The children were drawn to Sam's warmth and gentle manner and were eager to listen to her story.  We gathered on the Meeting rug and Sam began the conversation by asking the children if they ever had feelings or emotions that kind of felt like a color.  She asked if there was a color that they could name  when they felt very happy and full of laughter and joy.  "Orange", " Yellow ", "Pink" were a few of the colors the children immediately thought of.   Sam asked if there was a color that matched when they felt sad or angry  or frustrated.   One child called out I think it would be blue; dark blackish blue." The children were engaged in this brief discussion and this was a perfect time to introduce the book My Many Colored Days , by Dr. Seuss.  This rhyming story describes each day in terms of a particular color, which in turn is associated with specific emotions.  The book  is beautifully illustrated and the simplicity of the text helps the child to see the connection between feelings and color.

Sam invited us to visit her art room.  The children were thrilled to be invited to the art room and felt like such 'big kids' leaving our classroom, walking in the halls and sitting at the big art table on stools!  The Cardinals' were in their glory and so very proud....  they have passed the art room many times and have enjoyed looking in through the glass wall and have even watched as their 2nd grade partners have art! We  played a an I  Spy game where the children looked with their eyes at the student painted art tiles on the ceiling and Sam identified something that she spied and the children needed to find that tile and point to it. Through this activity the children practiced visual discrimination and appreciation for art.  We had a wonderful first experience with Sam, our art teacher today and look forward to our next meeting on Day 1 at 8:30.

CONSTRUCTION AND BUILDING
The children were so excited to re-visit the building tools that Wyatt had brought to school yesterday.  Measuring with the stick rule was an absolute favorite and it was fascinating to see how the children applied the knowledge they learned yesterday to their play today.  When asked what they were working on, responses such as " I'm measuring. I need to see how long this is" or " This is what you have to do if you are a construction guy. You have to know about measuring",  reflected the level of role play that was beginning to emerge.   The children experimented with the level, screwdriver and hammer.  They measured almost everything in the classroom and pretended to be reading the numbers when they finished!  We have observed a tremendous increase in interest and activity in the block area as well.

 Stella's Dad Andrew, gave us sandpaper to help us sand the wood radius that Marty gave us from the building site of our outdoor  classroom play structure. The children loved sanding the wood and working with  'real wood and sandpaper.' This experience was so authentic and using the materials that came from 'the real construction workers 'seemed to empower the children and connected them to building in a more meaningful way. 

 

Kindness Sticks 

The children are loving the experience of creating kindness sticks!  As we mentioned earlier this week, we have been talking about  our class community, our school community and actions that help to build and develop the communities that we belong to.  How we treat one other is an underlying theme in all of this work.  Discussions about acts of kindness have been on-going over the last several days and we wanted to think of a way to celebrate our acts of kindness.  The Cardinals love to collect sticks and we had an idea to combine their love of stick collecting, art and kindness into one project!  Our first few beaded kindness sticks are beautiful!  The children love working collaboratively on these sticks and they are beginning to appear in many parts of our classroom!  Stop in to see your child's work.