Friday, March 15, 2019

A Special Thank You

There has been so much excitement about the wonderful visits we had to The Lantern bookshop and our book art since, we knew we had to take a moment and write a “Thank You” message. Before lunch we asked the children what ideas they had about materials and the format of our thank you message. The children had many ideas which related to the work they have been doing with books, ultimately deciding to make a small book that all of the children could add to in order to show our appreciation.

Here’s a peek into what the children have created so far. We plan to continue the work with our other KW friends next week!

Building and Book Art Continues

The children have spent many days preparing their altered books for a day like today. Using glue to strengthen the pages and adhere multiple pages together, the children had prepared their pages to withstand heavier media such as paint! So today we brought out the paints both for use in our altered books and on the easel. Children were able to use hairdryers as a tool to help speed up the process, allowing the children to do more in their books during one session. The hair dryers were very popular today as children used them to dry pages in their book so they could turn the page and continue working. Also available today were glue sticks, Elmer’s glue, collage materials, and fibers. 


Tommy, Lily, Hugh, James, Abby, and Cate all worked in their altered books. Will and Abby painted at the easel. Lily and James worked at mark-making in their books, Hugh painted in large blocks of color, and Tommy created his ink-blot-type paintings in his book along with experimenting with mixing colors. Abby and Cate worked for an extended period of time mixing colors, creating layers, and adding multimedia to their books. Many of the children noted the letters on the book pages showing through the paint. 


Cate said, “I want to make it lighter,” as she painted a layer of white glue over her work. She also added some foil she had saved in her book pocket beneath a layer of paint. She studied these areas of the page where she had “hidden” the foil as she dried it with the hairdryer. She also lightly rain her finger overtop as if feeling the difference in texture the foil and paint created. Abby started with white paint on her paper then slowly added one color at a time and mixed the colors slowly, describing the changes as she went. She dripped a few drops of color then mixed it in. Toward the end of her work she also used a small tear of paper, running it overtop of the paint, watching the way it caused a sort of swirl effect in the paint. Abby and Cate added felt fibers to their pages, then added more paint overtop.

Today every child showed interest in engaging with all of the opportunities presented. Even in our building workshop, where only two children could work at a time and the children had to wait for a turn, a large group of children were found engaging with the experience in one way or another. Though many children realized they would not get a turn building today, they remained observing, asking questions, and sharing ideas about the experience. And, once again, the children were intent on going straight to building structures with the hammers, nails, and pieces of wood despite obstacles like difficult wood to nail into. We made plans for future structures to be built and ideas about what types of materials we might want to achieve the children’s ideas. We’re looking forward to giving more children the opportunity to build next week and after the break.
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