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