Fruits and Vegetables

 

Giuseppe Arcimboldo, an artist from the fifteen hundreds, was our focus this week as we move along to the art show.  His name is difficult to pronounce , but our class rose to the occasion and by week's end, everyone could say it.  Try asking your youngster to recite this name,  You will be very impressed!  This painter had a great imagination and sense of humor.  At one point the Emperor Rudolf of Italy commissioned Giuseppe to paint his portrait four times, one for each season of the year.  The group is called "The Four Seasons".  The art work we attempted to imitate was probably for the spring season as the gentleman in the portrait has a face covered with fruits, vegetables and flowers.  Luckily the emperor was accepting of this kind of portrait.  

The teachers extended this topic to one about healthy foods.  Over the week the class played games at circle time.  Everyone chose an item, sight unseen, from a bag and told us what the food was and whether or not it was a fruit or vegetable.  The adults found themselves checking resources.  Did you know that an eggplant, a zucchini and tomato are fruits and not vegetables?  Our group knows now.  Another day picture cards were placed in the bag and used for a game.  We listened to lots of stories about fruits and vegetables such as "Stone Soup", Growing Vegetable Soup" and "We Eat Dinner In the Bathtub".  Our library area was filled with books similar in topic.  

Rolene made up a song about making vegetable soup.  All of us added different vegetables and seasonings to the pot.  Jackie created a pot to color that could be filled with decorated pictures of vegetables.  These simple songs and art projects were quite popular and enhanced the learning about our artist.  

Our blog is filled with photos of our friends painting a canvas , shopping for veggies for their own portrait and gluing them on a canvas.  (Pictures are not in order of the text.)  Others are working on their pots full of vegetables.  In between these pictures you will see Lucas presenting the letter box for "W".  He is showing us his watch, a washing machine and a whale.  Each week the teachers fill a bucket with books that have the letter of the week somewhere in their titles.  The books about Waldo were a tremendous hit.  You will see some friends enjoying this hunt in the beginning of the blog.    Once again we completed a fun filled week with lots of learning taking place.

We need your cooperation once again.  The teachers are trying hard to keep us all safe.  Your child's mask must cover both nose and mouth to complete this task.  Please check!  Some masks coming here are too big for a child's face or are stretched out from constant wear or laundering.  The year is close to being over.  The Whole Notes have been fortunate as everyone has been safe.  Please help us all to reach the year's end with this same goal of good health.  

Rolene and Jackie

Time

Our week brought us lots of fun and learning as we discussed the artist Salvador Dali and his famous painting called "Melting Clocks".  This was our second venture looking at surrealism.  Salvador Dali had a great imagination.  Sometimes he used his dreams and nightmares as subjects.  He liked to put objects together that were either too small or too big to fit together.    Therefore the viewer would be made to think, which was his goal.  The class chuckled when seeing his long moustache and hearing that he once had a baker on a ship make an eight foot long bread and filled his limousine with cauliflower.

There are views on the blog of our friends molding a clock shape of their own choice using model magic.  Others in the group are painting their clocks.  The last part of the project is the gluing of numbers, also shown here.

The teachers tied in the study of time with this clock theme.  We read books and saw pictures of the different ways to tell time.  Some things included were how a sundial was in use a long time ago, the phases of the moon, a stop watch in particular for sports, Roman numerals on clocks, how night turns into day and more.  Everyone saw Big Ben from London.  Our discussions also centered around how the time in far away places may be opposite from our time.  Our journal topic this week focused on ways to tell time.

Ruby is featured for the letter of the week which was "V".  She did a very good job and is on the blog holding a valentine, a violet colored bear and some fresh vegetables.

Martina celebrated her fifth birthday in class.  It was quite the party.  The decorations on the tables all featured the theme "Frozen" which she loves.  Since pink is her favorite color, the delicious cupcakes had pink frosting on them.  All of us will miss Martina for the rest of the month while she is in Argentina.

You will also observe children at play.  Remember this is their work and how they learn.  There are elastic boards to create designs, play sticks for building, pretty ponies for dramatic play, number match ups to learn to count from eleven to twenty and sewing cards for eye-hand coordination.  As you can see, there is a purpose for every thing we offer here.  That is all of our news this week.  

Watch for an email forwarded from the mandarin teacher.

Rolene and Jackie

Another Artist

As we are moving right along to prepare for our upcoming art show, our class spent the week learning about Rene Margritte who was born in Belgium and lived from 1898-1967.  In particular the class focused on his painting titled "The Son of Man".  This is actually a portrait of Rene himself with his face hidden behind an apple.  The children of course loved to hear that this man painted objects of odd shapes and sizes and put things together that really did not relate to each other.  Objects were floating.  He switched sizes around in order to challenge peoples' minds.  The name for these types of art work is surrealism, creating a dream world.  A few friends can actually now define the word surrealism.  Margritte painted over one hundred pictures and became more famous as he grew older.

Ask your preschooler what Rene always wore on his head.  The answer is a bowler hat.  On our blog are pictures of children making their own version of "The Son of Man".  Some are painting a background on their canvas.  Others are tracing, cutting and gluing the five pieces needed for their own version of this famous art piece.  We cannot tell you more so you can be amazed when you come and see our contributions for the art show.  We had fun with the bowler hat idea and read stories about hats.  In our journals the youngsters drew pictures of hats and wrote appropriate names such as a nurse's hat, a French beret and a top hat.

Also on our blog is a photo of Ruby coming up to tell us the date and day of the week and the number of the year.  She told  us if there were any hidden words involved and was the leader that day.

Riya filled the letter box for "U" which is a challenge for anyone.  But Riya rose to the occasion and wore her UGG boots and pants with unicorns on the knees.  She is holding her own drawings of a ukulele and a unicorn.

We recently told you that we are learning about the artist Frida Kahlo.  So at the end of the blog are friends painting a special flower as part of our study.  You will see more on this later but for now enjoy the cooperation shown here.

Finally just a gentle reminder:  the weather was beautiful the last few days so we did not need your bags of extra outerwear.  However this coming week we will apparently not enjoy this warmth.  Please send your bags of winter clothing once again every day.  Thanks so much!

Rolene and Jackie