Apple Blossom Still Life

There is no glory in star or blossom till looked upon by a loving eye;

There is no fragrance in Spring breezes till breathed with joy as they wander by.

~ William C. Bryant ~

 

A beautiful collection of apple blossom branches were displayed in the art studio.

The children were invited to create a painting.

They were also invited to think about math!

The colour palette offered reflected the shades of the blooms, leaves and branches.

 

Thin brushes and cotton swabs provided the opportunity to have fine lines and represent 

opened and unopened blossoms.

 

 

 

But what does a still lie painting have to do with math?

 

The top of the vase is about half way up.

There are empty areas of the branches and full areas of blossoms.

The top of the branches are narrow and the bottom of the branches are wider.

The vase has a pyramid type of shape.

A thick line shows where the branch is wider and a thin line shows where the branch is narrower.

The vase is tall and narrow.

The apple blossom display is tall and wide.

A closed bud is shaped like a circle.

An open blossom has five round petals. 

How much math can you discover?

A Precious Gift for Mom

Life began with waking up and loving my mother's face.

~ George Eliot ~

Mother's Day was celebrated by our masterpiece artists. All the children painted something special for their special someone.

 

 

Once the artist completed their painting, it was mounted in a frame.

 

Then, the masterful gifts were carefully wrapped...and stamped with a hand of approval.

The love of a child...pure, perfect and priceless.

Painting with spices

 

Many children visited the spice painting activity.

Even after the paintings dried, the children could still smell the spices.

They were given the opportunity to mix the powdered spices with different amounts of water.

Thick     Thin    Dark   Light

Some of the spice paints were smooth and some were gritty.

Seeing     Smelling     Feeling     Tasting

A wonderful sensory activity!

The Mitten

We recently read The Mitten illustrated by the talented Jan Brett. 

It is a Ukranian folktale and Jan Brett has many picture clues throughout the book to help tell the story. A boy loses his white mitten in the snow...

and the mitten has quite an adventure!

Afterwards, the children made our handy dandy play clay. They fashioned many of the characters from the story. The next day, after they had been baked and were good and dry, the children painted the characters they had made.

Now they have their own characters to retell the story of The Mitten over and over again.

 

Our handy dandy play clay is the familiar salt, flour and water mixture that the 

children can make by themselves.

We brought a scale out to help with the measuring.

Each of the children tried to measure the same amount of dough.

The book was always near for the children to refer to.

Soon, animals were taking shape.

Carson enjoys to work in miniature.

The tray was filled over again to accommodate the many animals that were being made.

 

The cover also became filled with sculpted characters 

awaiting their turn to be baked and dried.

The next step was to paint the characters. Using colours that the children saw in the book and small paint brushes, the artists set to work on the fine details of their work.

Emmy made sure that the boy character was just right.

This was an exciting way to become familiar with the story of The Mitten!

We are wondering if The Hat, also by Jan Brett, will have 

similarities or differences to The Mitten.

What do you think is the same and different?

The Hat