Artists

This week the Whole Notes began our first project for the annual art show.  Hopefully this event will take place in the spring.  Deb will keep you posted.  Our first artist work was to create a piece similar in style to those of Dale Chihuly.  For those who do not recognize the famous name, Chihuly is best known for his glass blowing.  He made pieces with unusual shapes and bright colors.  Some of his most notable ones are gorgeous glass chandeliers and beautiful ceilings.  Our group focused on his macchia bowls.  The class was fortunate to be able to watch a short video featuring Chihuly at work, along with a view of the more than 300 colors he chose to work with.  On the blog are photos of friends painting with water colors on coffee filters to create our own bowls in the style of those of Chihuly.  You might ask your preschooler to tell you about him.  They will certainly mention the eye patch worn on one of his eyes.

It is most interesting to see how much 4 and 5 year olds absorb about artists when taught a little art history.  From Chihuly the Whole Notes went back in time to learn about Frida Kahlo.  She was a painter who loved to wear fancy earrings and Mexican style dresses with lots of colors.  Frida loved flowers and therefore wore them in her hair.  Remember the facts taught have to appeal to children!  Monkeys were also a favorite, so she had one for a pet.  Her paintings sometimes included this species, but were mostly self-portraits.  Unfortunately Frida was not a well woman and learned to do these paintings while recuperating from surgeries.  As a group project, the class is creating a large portrait of her.  This includes making flowers for her hair, the process being shown on the blog.  You will see others creating facial features.  More to come on her at the art show.

Not shown on the blog was a fun game played at circle in preparation for our journal writing on artists.  Ask your son/daughter about it.  All eyes were shut as each child reached into a bag to take out one item.  Some of these included a paint brush, scissors, paper, marker, shaving cream, colored pencil, oil pastel and more.  The idea was to brain storm and figure out why the teachers would put these all together.  What did these things have in common?  Did you guess correctly?  Ada was the first one who did.  These are all materials an artist might use when creating his/her work.  The journal topic was to choose from word cards showing many tools related to artists, draw pictures and write matching words.  The class loved the idea of both the game and journal topic.

Emily was our letter person with "P".  Here she is with the letter box along with a plane and a wonderful drawing of a princess on a piece of paper (3 P's).  Emily loves to make pictures at our art/writing center.  A few friends built a fantastic castle out of magnatiles by using team work.  Noah, Brigitte and Margot asked to have it put on the blog.  Great work with planning, sharing and cooperating skills.

Tomorrow Ruby Diecidue  will become part of our Whole Notes, making us 13.  Some of your youngsters were with Ruby in the half notes last year.  The children were very excited when learning of her arrival.  Margot said Ruby was very nice and Brigitte told us she was excited to play with her.  The teachers have no doubt that Ruby will receive a warm welcome.

Rolene and Jackie