I absolutely love our art study so today was especially exciting for me. We kicked off our study with Vincent Van Gogh, a Dutch post-impressionist painter. We learned a little about the life that he lived and about his works. We discovered that he completed more than 800 paintings in 10 years but that he really didn't become famous until after his death. Before he committed his time to art, he worked as a store clerk, salesman, and preacher.

Van Gogh never could find happiness. I'm wondering if he struggled to understand who he really was in the Father's eyes. The children and I talked about this and talked about how sometimes we struggle with how we feel about ourselves and how many times, we just need to ask God to show us how much he loves us.

I really enjoyed watching the children paint their own versions of Van Gogh's Starry Night. You'll see pictures of their masterpieces posted here. They began their projects by painting with cotton swabs and popcicle sticks. Once they completed their paintings, the cut buildings out of construction paper. I was very impressed with the process and the product! What do you think? Oh, and ask your child who he/she thinks Van Gogh was thinking about when he painted Starry Night.

I'm working on lesson plans for next week. I got a little carried away buying our art supplies this week so I'm changing my lessons plans now so that we can use what I bought. I've got a lot of ideas and supplies but we only have four weeks of school left.

Here's a link to a Van Gogh online game: http://www.surfnetkids.com/games/vangogh-sc.htm See you next week!

Mr. Al Concert and Homeland Creamery Pics

Pajama Day

Most of the children came dressed for a pajama movie party. Syan and Michaela came very prepared with sleeping bags and all! It doesn't seem to matter what I plan; the kids always get so excited about doing even the simplest things (I wish I was more like them).

We used the Resurrection eggs and an animated movie to learn more about Easter. I was impressed by how much the children knew about that first Easter. I really enjoyed the discussions. To top things off, we went on an egg hunt. Ms. Laura was gracious enough to hide the eggs while I kept the children busy playing in the woods. They had so much fun finding eggs that they wanted her to hide them again.

We won't be meeting for class for the next two weeks but there are a few field trips on the calendar. If you are interested in going to the Mr. Al concert, the link to buy tickets is http://www.mralmusic.com/. If I don't see you then, I'll see you back in two weeks. Happy Easter!

Making Pizzas With The Little Red Hen

Today was the last day of our cooking unit. Last week we read about the Little Red Hen. This week we read The Little Red Hen Makes A Pizza. Each child got to make his/her own pizza. We didn't use quite as many ingredients as the Little Red Hen did but it was fun, none the less. The story was very similar to the traditional story of the Little Red Hen but in the end, the Little Red Hen shares her pizza and the Cat, Dog, and Duck help her clean up in the end. The kids and I really liked this ending the best.

We graphed our favorite pizza toppings. The children were curious to see which toppings came ended up on top with the most votes. Pepperoni and cheese was won out! Along with adding and graphing, we also worked on counting by fives and we reviewed more calendar concepts.

We'll begin our art unit next week, a study that will take us through the month of May. Yes, this is our last unit of study. Can you believe it? I certainly can't. We will kick off the month of April with a pajama party, movie, and an egg hunt. The next two months are going to be filled with lots of fun and creative activities, which I am looking forward to.

The Little Red Hen- March 25

I apologize for being so late at posting for last week's class. Here's what we did last week:

*We worked on learning our phone numbers. We made mini phone books.

*We baked banana bread after reading the story, The Little Red Hen.

*Talked about measurements and being helpful.

*We had a special guest, Carissa, Michaela's sister.

Tomorrow, we will be reading, The Little Red Hen Makes A Pizza. We'll be making our own pizzas to eat for lunch. The pizzas will probably be more than enough for each child but if you'd like to pack a side of fruit or something else, feel free to do so. If your child isn't eating pizza then obviously you would need to pack a full lunch. Thank you! This is a fun activity that the children always look forward to. Our cooking unit has been a lot of fun. Oh, and I hope to have the recipe books ready to go home in about a week.

Did the Little Red Hen do the right thing? Here's what some of the children said:

"No because her friends didn't do the right thing and she didn't do the right thing." ~Michaela

"I don't know." ~Carissa

"She did because her friends did not help." ~Charlie

"She didn't do the right thing because you always need to be a nice person and give." ~Jackson

The Doorbell Rang

We had a very relaxing day. Only Charlie and Syan were present for the entire day! Michalea is sick with an ear infection. Andrew spent the day with his Granddaddy and cousin who is on Spring Break. Jackson spent the day with his Daddy working and visiting family out of town. That meant that Charlie and Syan got some extra attention and TLC today;-)

The first activity of the day was a computer program. Syan and Charlie worked on learning letter sounds and learning new words. I think that they enjoyed using the laptop. We worked on our delicious art project afterwards. We decorated cookies using food coloring and straws. Our cookies looked somewhat like edible Jackson Pollock masterpieces.

Our story today was The Doorbell Rang by Pat Hutchins. We used the abacus to help us add and subtract throughout the story. We also learned about sharing and the blessings that sometimes come as a result. After our story, we used the water table to help us learn about measuring using measuring cups and water.

We had a very small class but it was a great day nonetheless. Hopefully we'll have everyone return next week for our story of The Little Red Hen. Hope to see you then!

You Can't Catch Me!

It's the beginning of a new month and a new unit. We began our "Foods in Literature" study this week. We had such a great time working on Gingerbread Man activities! We read the traditional story of the Gingerbread Man and we also read Jan Brett's, The Gingerbread Baby, which had a very different ending. This led to our discussion on how things are alike and different in comparison of the two stories.

We decorated paper Gingerbread Men during art. We also baked Gingerbread Cake. The children enjoyed tasting something new and different. Finally, during music and movement, the children pretended to be gingerbread people. They each were pretending to bake until I opened the oven when they jumped out chanting "you can't catch me, I'm the Gingerbread Man" before running away. The kids wanted to do this activity over and over.

Some of the things that we will focus on this month are measurements. We'll also include concepts such as sharing, giving, and working together. Next week we will be reading the book, The Doorbell Rang, which includes problem solving, computation and data gathering.

I need at least two recipes from each child. We are making a recipe book which will also be part of our art project during the upcoming weeks. Please email me those recipes or bring them on Wednesday, at the latest. I would love for each child to be included in this project. Thank you!