A Transparent Experience

We offer many materials at the light table. 
The children's ideas always shine through!

What might they do when we offered transparencies and 
thin, black markers?

As always, the children excited us with their ideas.

Isaac took so much time in creating his picture. 
He drew the lines with slow precision.

He had a definite idea of the story his picture would tell.

Luke was inspired to shine the light on all the numbers he knows. 

This inspired Addison to do the same.

Luke was quite pleased with his work! "All the numbers up to 30 and not even one backwards number!"

Harlow decided to stop by the light table and just doodle.

Lewam loves to draw pictures. It was a new experience for her to draw at the light table with only a black marker.

Donovan has practiced his name all year. He was sure to include hair in his picture so he 'wouldn't be bald.'

Kaiden is beginning to make shapes as he draws. Heads and legs and arms are connecting. He is finding a comfortable way to hold his marker and pencil when he is printing and drawing.

Aaiden's people have bodies and emotions!

When children work in the same space, they inspire each other with ideas...

...and abilities.

Many children are drawn to this activity.

 

  A simple black marker and light. 

Holding their transparencies, they see their work in a different way.

 
What makes them so intrigued to draw and create in this way?

 Isaac finishes his picture and is ready to share his story. 
"This is the happy alien. See, he is smiling. His hand is in his pocket.
The other guy is a bad guy. He's mean. Those are all his teeth. He has a pirate eye. It's a skeleton patch.
The bad guy has to jump over the candle of fire. It's like a rocket.
That's the dog. He's wearing the hat."

It's transparent to us that this will be a regular activity at the light table!

Sketching Outdoors

We've been talking about the details and what an artist notices and might think about when creating a drawing. Many of the trees the children have been drawing are filled with an abundance of green leaves. A great green ball is atop a brown trunk. 

But it is Autumn in our part of the world. When we reeeeaaaally look at the trees, is this what we see?

With sketch pads in hand, we talked about noticing and thinking about what we were seeing. Using only pencils, the children were invited to find anything they might want to sketch.

We talked about what a sketch is and how we notice details of what we are drawing.

 

The children are looking forward to sharing and talking about the many sketches of our great outdoors.

When writing happens everywhere

The children have been very interested in writing in the classroom and outside in the play yard. From writing on clipboards and recording what we see in nature, authoring our own books at the writing centre, labeling our creations during playtime, making signs for our the classroom, and signing up for sharing time, there are many times in our day where children can engage in purposeful writing activities.

Taking The Classroom Outside

The weather has been so amazing and we have been fortunate to have such a mild autumn so far! We've been making the most of our time outside and bringing many of the inside learning activities outside in our large play area and the big hill and backyard.

This week the children did a lot of writing outside! They recorded how many different objects they could find.  

They drew amazingly detailed pictures together on the easels and enjoyed read-aloud stories.

They explored straw and pumpkins and created some delicious autumn inspired dishes!

We took weaving frames to the hill and the children wove with natural materials. This is great for fine motor and hand-eye coordination... and it's really fun!

Building outside is a fun experience too! The fresh air and large space inspire imagination. The possibilities for the children are endless!

~ "I never teach my pupils, I only provide the conditions in which they can learn." ~ Albert Einstein

Our Little Artists

Art, art, everywhere! If you visit our classroom you'll notice that there are never two pieces of art that look the same! Unlike cookie cutter crafts (where children receive the same materials and each create the same thing), in our program we encourage children to be artists...designing, exploring, creating, and discussing their unique creations with others!

We create art inside at the art studio, and outside in the play yard.

Children are encouraged to work together in groups and explore many art materials including paint, pastel, chalk, crayon, pencils, dough, and cut and paste.

For young children art is a language and a way to tell us what they are thinking. This is also the beginning of writing down and recording their ideas.