Kids' Workshop |
Today's Quick Take......The KW bakers got to work today to make brownies for the parents tonight! Maisie said, "They smell like brownies but they don't look like brownies," before they went in the oven today. We hope a lot of parents will show up for the talk by Amelia Gambetti and a chance to taste our treat! Here's some pics from the rest of the afternoon. Once again, Lou Lou sent a lot of messages. Some of her friends were aware that she has a birthday coming up.... we think she will be pleased when she checks her mailbox in the morning!
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A Quick Look at KW!
Canal Adventures
Another experience that was available in the studio was printing directly into art books. Tommy made this discovery Tuesday, and was happy to show others how to incorporate the technique into their books. The process is similar to an ink blot.... you add the paint to one page and press the book closed, resulting in a mirror image on the adjacent page. Tommy had previously printed each page of his book, so he did the demo in Jessica's book. While many children worked in their own books, a few friends added their contributions to Jessica's as well. Lily was impressed by Tommy's work, and copied his design in her own book. Monoprints and BeyondBefore the snow on Tuesday, several children worked on monoprints. They applied printers ink to glass and printed from the glass on to paper. Today several children worked with mono printing again. We also added a related experience known as dendritic monoprints. The word "dendritic" refers to the plant-like or tree-like pattern that is (sometimes) created through this process. Children place dots of paint on a piece of glass. A second piece of glass is then pressed on top of the paint. After separating the two pieces of glass, place paper on each to create a print. This produces a mirror image, much like the ink-blot experience mentioned above. We all enjoyed experimenting with this new way to print! Everything Else....Along with printing and painting, children found other opportunities to engage with each other. Being outside led to making "snowy stew" and collecting melted snow for water. Hugh and James had a chance to build in the middle room. Lily was inspired by classroom experiences to make a new art book at the sewing machine. Of course, Lou Lou made messages. Today she and Grace joyfully exchanged messages, and remembered to send some to Louise who went out of town today. Adventures in Printing
Adventures in PaintingChildren also had the opportunity to use the paints they mixed in a new way today. The studio area featured "scrape painting," where paint was applied to one edge of an old gift card (or credit card, etc.) and the paint was draped across the paper. The excess paint could then be used at the easel to make a large collaborative painting. Tommy also used the paints to print each page in his art book. he carefully applied paint to a page in his book, and then pressed it shut. This resulted in a mirror-image print, much like the old school inkblots. He will be sharing his expertise with this process with his classmates later this week. Assorted AdventuresAfter a long weekend, the children were vary happy to be back together. Outside, they enjoyed riding bikes and making "stew." The message center was popular once again. Lou Lou continued in her role as message center ambassador.... she now seems determined to send a message to every child in the Brown Room. Hugh worked in his art book while spending time in the message center. In sprite of all the painting and printing, some children still found time to build toward the end of our afternoon. We will continue with many of these adventures tomorrow..... unless it's a snow day. The KW forecast from Caleb and Hugh calls for 4 to 6 inches of snow! Finishing Valentine's Week with Messages & a Field Trip
Since it was such a beautiful day and Cate and Will haven't been with us to see the ducks yet, we walked down to the canal. The children spent some leisurely time feeding, observing, drawing, and painting the ducks, It was clear the children delighted in one-another's company and in the ducks. Cate told us what she knows about ducks and the children tried to figure out more from their observations, such why some ducks didn't come over right away to eat the snack and what they were doing when they stuck their heads in the water. The children were very observant as they captured what they saw in their art. Cate noticed the different colors and details in the ducks feathers, Tommy was sure to capture the red brick building next to the canal, and Will was sure to make the water brown. All in all we had a wonderful time together! Enjoy the photos and have a wonderful long weekend! Happy Valentine's Day!The children were in high Valentine spirits today. On this day that celebrates friendship, our KW crew had a great time just being together. In the outdoor classroom, Tegan, Maisie, and Dagny developed a game of jumping over a crocodile lake with the rope swing. The girls encouraged each other as they were swinging, all hoping to get past a line drawn in the wood chips. Lou Lou, Louise, and Grace started the day by climbing on the rope swing and swinging from the hanging bar. After these feats of strength, they chose to draw outside. Drawing quickly turned to printing invented words (along with some real ones). How would you pronounce, "AEOLIOPEDD?" Many giggles ensued. Tommy and Hugh were hard at work in a cafe. This required some all night cooking sessions as they had to deliver to 42 customers. Inside, children continued to use the Valentine-inspired materials to create messages for good friends, family members, and Brown Room children. The materials have been so popular that they may extend beyond today! Valentine TreatsAfter lunch, children worked to make a special snack for tomorrow's Rainey and Tucker classrooms. They measured and mixed agave, peanut butter, protein powder, and oats to make protein balls. The stickiness of the dough presented a challenge, but the children persisted! Some children worked the dough into small heart shapes. The children are eager to share them with their classrooms tomorrow, and enjoyed the small sample that they had today! Paint and Print WorkshopToday children made two types of prints with the beautiful colors that they mixed last week. In one experience, they children applied the paint to the bottom of muffin tins, and placed a piece of paper on top to make a print. As Tommy and Hugh swirled the blue and green paint together on the circles, they imagined they were creating a solar system. In the other experience, children painted on a plastic bag, and pressed a piece of paper on top of that to make their print. While engaging in these processes, children are learning new properties of paint. They enjoy exploring new ways to use this familiar medium. We have more ideas in store for the coming days and weeks! Painting WorkshopsOur painting workshop continued with two options for painting today: printing with the paper towel tubes at the low table and painting with our mixed-colors at the easel. Lou Lou, Grace, and Tegan worked with printing. Caleb and Lou Lou chose to paint on large paper at the easel. The color white was added today and it was a popular choice in both the printing and easel panting. Caleb said, "You know why I want black paper? Because white will look good on black." While Caleb painted, he made other remarks about color and contrast, "Oooh pink, that's my favorite," and, "of these colors, the pink and the green are bright and the black is dark." "You know how I got this color? (The mustard color at the bottom of his painting.) I mixed orange and white." Lou Lou worked for a long time on her painting, first filling one large painting, and then beginning a second which she plans to attach to the first when she is finished. While working, Lou Lou explained some of her process, "I need Blue...I'm making a sunset. It (the painting) needs lots and lots of red because it (the sunset) has lots of red. And then, it just needs a sun. Once I saw a sunset on Gibson Island. I want to hang this on my house at Gibson Island." Fabulous FashionAs our fashion-inspired designs continue to spark an interest for the children, Grace and Louise decided to continue working on their designs today. Tegan, who returned this week from her vacation, was just beginning her design and spent much time experimenting with how the materials work. She hand-sewed part of her design and gave Louise feedback when trying to solve a problem. Another example of working together to create the designs happened when Louise asked Grace, "Can you hold this while I clip it?" Grace agreed, "Yes." Children used various strategies including Grace who used wire to go through holes on jewelry and then wrapped the wire around the figure. Louise sewed a paper cupcake liner onto the figure and clipped earrings onto netting. When adding the jewelry, Louise said, "She's going to wear this when she's getting ready for the ball." Later, looking at Grace's design that now included pieces of jewelry, Louise declared, "Oooh...expensive!"
Creating and Exploring New Paint ToolsWith Tegan back from Costa Rica we had our biggest KW day ever! The group got right to work with making new tools to use with the paints they had mixed last week. On the large, low table, children cut cardboard tubes and used them to print with on large paper. Tommy chose black paper and said, "I'm making fireworks at night." Several other children thought the printed effect looked like fireworks as well. Dagny chose yellow, orange, pink, and violet, colors that reminded her of a sunset. Children used the paper in various ways as well. Some compositions were crowded while others were more sparse and spread out. Will's approach was to systematically frame the paper with red prints and fill in the middle with orderly lines. No matter the approach, all were stunning. At another table, Cate, Hugh, Caleb, and Will made paint brushes from natural materials. These were then used to paint on the large paper. Still interested in an organized approach, Will made a pattern with the tape he used to create a brush. Fashion and Valentine FunChildren are still dressing the drawing figures with Rodarte-inpired outfits. They have discovered that foil is an easily manipulated material for these creations so we're seeing a lot of shiny dresses. Cate and Dagny completed new designs today, both employing the strategy of using pipe cleaners and/or yarn to hold things in place. We have quite a runway on exhibit on top of the Tucker Room cubbles! Message center was an area that everyone visited at some point during the afternoon. The area featured a lot of Valentine-y materials, as well as a list of Rainey and Tucker children who didn't have messages in their mail boxes. Children enthusiastically created messages for their friends. In fact, Lou Lou made messages for all the Rainey children, her teachers, Brooke, Melanie R, and Cannon! Will and Caleb created messages that featured patterns; in this case stripes of alternating colors. There will be a lot of happy classmates at the mailboxes tomorrow! These materials were such a big hit that we've decided to include them all week! |
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