Space: A New Frontier

This week the theme was Space. What fun! The kids made this which is proudly hanging in the classroom:
This was a great project all around. The "Sun" is a wreath purchased at Dollar Tree. It was painted with yellow tempera paint and sprinkled with glitter. Lots of glitter! The planets are different sized styrofoam balls also from Dollar Tree. I purchased them last year, knowing I wanted the kids to do a mobile at some point. Much to Isabela's relief the day finally came when I said, "Yes you can open the bags with the styrofoam balls!" The kids tore different colored tissue paper. They sorted (a math skill) the planets according to size. Mercury is small, Pluto is tiny, Jupiter is huge. Then they decided what colors to do each planet. Earth is blue and green. Mars is red and Uranus is green due to the gases, Neptune is blue because the gases are different. (That's what I was told by the kids. They used problem-solving skills to come to an agreement, reasoning and deductions to come to their conclusions) The kids used big brushes to spread thinned glue onto the balls and covered them in tissue. (motor skill) We had to let the sun and the planets dry for a couple of days. (Patience) Then we used a screwdriver to put screws into each planet and someone suggested adding glue around the edge of the screw to make it extra secure. (Fine motor skill) Finally with some help from me, the silk thread was tied to each planet and I hung them from the sun as the kids called out the order. We even had a discussion about whether or not Pluto is in fact a planet. So much to learn from such a fun, simple project.

The kids also painted these:

The one above is our Solar System painted by I who is 7 years old.


This one is a star going Supernova painted by L who is 8 years old.


This one is a galaxy painted by D who is 7 years old.

The fun, exploring and learning didn't just happen while doing arts and crafts. I managed to save some pretty big boxes and the kids made a really cool spaceship! Unfortunately it was destroyed while re-entering the atmosphere. Who knew it would be raining in Oregon in July? Finally our hula hoops served as costumes. Each child pretended to be Saturn and see how fast they could make their ring spin. According to the kids, the rings around Uranus must spin faster than the rings around Saturn because it's easier to spin the hoops vertically around your arm than it is to spin horizontally around your waist. We also check out this site.

I love watching the kids get excited and love that they are eager to learn. I can't wait until next week. Stay tuned for Fairy Tales old and new.

The Science of Art or The Art of Science

The after school program has been bustling lately. We have two weeks of a subject, so we can get into the nitty gritty of things and really explore without too many time restrictions. The weeks usually overlap each other. For instance, we did art for two weeks. We explored how moods can be interpreted through art. We then turned our attention to the weather and how that could be interpreted through art. We moved on from art to science. We explored clouds and weather patterns. Then we moved into flowers. Now we are working on art and science. We are doing scientific illustrations of flowers in our Science Journals. Next week is a one week program on spring and Easter. We are studying the colors of nature and how to showcase those colors in our art work. I'm loving it, but even better, the kids are really enjoying themselves.


I love these pictures. The weather or time of day is depicted through the use of water colors. This little girl usually uses lots of bright colors. Her pictures always have names like "Rainbow Unicorn Glitter!" (The exclamation mark is a must.) For this picture she explored using more somber colors. I don't remember the exact name (It's on the back of her painting) but it too was toned down. It was something along the lines of "Seagulls in a Storm."


The colors of these watercolors are much more vivid in real life. This one below has quite a bit of pink in it. The young artist told me she was depicting Spring. ("See the flowers?" she said.) She also feels love blooms in Spring. We been watching the birds busily getting their nests ready. The kids say it's because soon they will be getting married and having babies. This girl wanted to convey all that in her painting. She named it, "Love is in the Air."



This young man worked very diligently at getting his colors just right. He drew his house with precision and cut it out very carefully. I love to see the individual personalities come through as they work. He named his art "House at Sunset."


I was surprise by how much work this next boy put into his art project. He is not one to really enjoy painting or any project that may lead to getting messy. He was so into this project. He really did a great job choosing the paper for his castle and putting it all together. He named his, "Sandcastle in a Storm." We even talked about what his picture would look like after the storm. He said, "Well, the sandcastle won't be there, that's for sure!"



Luckily for us daffodils are blooming all over our garden. We used them for our flower studies. We picked them, we dissected them. We viewed them under a microscope. We took some pollen from some cut lilies I had and viewed that under the microscope too. We put the daffodils in water with blue food coloring and watched as the petals got some green spots on them. The kids spread themselves out all over the class to work on their journal entries. This girl wanted to make a poster. I'm so lucky to have the dollar down the street. Poster boards are two for a dollar, so I always have some on hand.