Line Art

At the Art Gallery of Alberta we learned that there are four components to art: line, colour, shape, and texture.  This artwork is an extension of our learning. 

The children created their artwork by using different kinds of lines.  They first had to make their line with glue, and then chose the colour/type of string to use and carefully laid the string over their glue line.  The children came back to their artwork over a one-week period to add lines.

When we first discussed lines at the AGA, the children were asked, “What is a line?”  They came up with the following:
·      “A line of string.”
·      “A line of square and rectangle.”
·      “A line that makes shapes.”
·      “It could go straight or all over.”
·      “Feet can be a line.”
·      “Like a circle, that’s a line.”

At the AGA we learned how to describe lines, by using words such as:
·      Straight
·      Curvy
·      Twirly
·      Swirly
·      Zig Zag

 
After coming across a science post about bubbles freezing and shattering in cold temperatures, I decided we needed to try this!  So yesterday we went outside (it was about -5 C) to blow bubbles.  I have never thought about doing this activity in the colder weather.

In order for the bubbles to freeze and shatter (as described in the science post) the bubble needs to be caught on a wand and held for a few minutes... needless to say our bubbles only lasted long enough for a child to reach them and pop them with their hands!  However, we found that the bubbles lasted longer - in the sense that they did not pop on their own - they would float through the chilly air until a child popped them or they landed on a nearby tree.  

We will try this experiment again, maybe on Thursday, and this time try to catch out bubbles on our wands and wait for them to freeze.  I hope you also try this experiment at home and let us know how it works out! 
 
Here are our self-portraits for the month of February.  This is one of my favourite activities to complete with the children!  They have shown great improvements in their fine motor skills.  Also included in these photos is a great picture of Jenn and Jenny drawn by Luka :)
 
What fun we have had with Stone Soup!  At our Stone Soup literacy counter the children can look at different versions of this tale and also retell it as they mix up their own stone soup with manipulatives.

We have read the following versions of stone soup:
  • Stone Soup, by Jon Muth
  • Stone Soup, by Marcia Brown
  • Fandango Stew, by David Davis
  • Bone Button Borscht, by Aubrey Davis

Thank you to everyone for sharing your veggies so that we could enjoy our own stone soup at school!  Sitting around a circle, the children shared what they had brought to contribute to our soup.  We then sang the stone soup song (sung to the tune of Frere Jacques) as we took turns putting our veggies in the soup pot:
We have ______________
We have ______________
In our stone soup
In our stone soup
Thank you for sharing
Thank you for sharing
Yum, yum, yum!
Yum, yum, yum!

In the soup pot was also one large stone (boiled on my stove prior to entering our soup... and I use the same stone every year so it's really clean by now!), a bay leaf, salt and pepper, and vegetable broth.  The morning soup ended up very spicy as there was too much pepper in our soup.  You will see this reflected on the children's faces in the photos below!  The afternoon soup had less pepper in it, making it much more enjoyable!
 
Welcome to our new student, Anna, who is starting in the afternoon class today :) 
 
Thank you to Luka's Mom, Miep, and baby Jude who came for a classroom visit on Wednesday!

We sat in our community circle with Jude lying in the middle.  We then went around the circle and the children had the opportunity to ask Miep questions about Jude's development.  Many children also told us about "their babies" (aka younger siblings) too.  We used building blocks to measure how long baby Jude is - 9 blocks long.  Next time when he comes for a visit we will measure him again to see if/how much he has grown.  At the end of our visit we sang Jude songs while Miep took him around the circle to let the children hold him if they wanted.