April 29, 2008

We learned about the artist, Georgia O'Keeffe. Georgia liked to paint flowers so that's exactly what we did today. We painted flowers on canvas. We found a lot of flowers in bloom outside today so it was a wonderful way to extend our study!

We have fuzzy visitors in our room! We've got 8 caterpillars which will soon be Painted Lady butterflies. They have grown a lot since I got them on Monday. I'll keep blogging about the changes if there are any between now and Wednesday. We read a story today about the metamorphosis that will be taking place. The children are very excited!

Impressionist Vincent Van Gogh

Well, we finished our pinch pots today. The pots had several weeks to dry since we were off so we were able to paint them today. They look great!

We learned about Vincent Van Gogh today. We used paint and shaving cream to recreate our own renditions of Van Gogh's "Starry Night" painting. The paintings looked much like the marble paintings that we did a few weeks ago.

We talked a little more about how colors make us feel. Van Gogh's favorite color was yellow because is made him feel hopeful. From what we read, he needed a lot of hope because he often felt sad. The son of a pastor, he spent part of his life as a preacher among other jobs. It was said that he lacked self-confidence. Allyson asked if Van Gogh knew Jesus. We talked about it and I think that we all agreed that he probably, like so many, spent most of his life trying to find the love and acceptance of the Father in things that he did. He eventually took his own life (not something that we discussed in class). His 800 paintings did not became popular until after his death.

We missed Syan today. She was out with Strep throat. We hope that you feel better soon, Sy! Hopefully, we will all be back together next week.

Farm Days At NC State

Thanks for coming out today. I had a wonderful time! I asked Jackson what his favorite thing was from today and he said, "all of it."I especially enjoyed holding the baby chicks and watching all of the children hold them. Feel free to post your own comments about what you and your children enjoyed most about our field trip today. See you next Wednesday.

Jackson Pollock

Today, we learned about the life and paintings of Jackson Pollock. We went outside and made splatter paintings. We even decorated the picket

fence:-) For a wonderful extension to this activity at home, click on this link: http://www.jacksonpollock.org/. You and your children will love it! Here are comments about the activity: "The art made me feel good because it was messy. "Allyson "I liked splattering paint" Syan "I liked splattering my paint picture because it was fun." Halei "The art project made me feel happy." Michaela "I liked painting." Andrew "I liked that it was colorful." Jackson (Because I was so busy helping the children with today's art activity, I forgot to get a snapshot of every child. I apologize.)