Antarctica and Africa!

Antarctica

The snowy, blowy cold of Antarctica could have frozen our plans for learning about art from all of the seven continents, but with a little fancy,"happy feet" work we were able to "chill" and do some learning too! 

Penguins!  Playful, funny, and beautiful.  These amazing creatures taught us quite a few great lessons last week. The children loved watching the youtube videos, looking at books  and hearing stories about those finely dressed feathered friends of Antarctica.  Later, they created their own penguin, using a water bottle, black tape, construction paper, cotton balls, and their creativity.  Fine motor skills were sharpened with tearing, cutting, and wrapping and each child told a story about their penguin, using prior  knowledge and what they learned in school as their guide. You will love reading the stories and seeing their perky penguins when you visit our Exploratorium and see the Antarctica display.

You will want to check out the white sculptures, and "Snowy, Blowy" art that the children had fun experimenting with last week as well, all featured in the Exploratorium!

Relay For Life

The school kicked off the Shorecrest race for the cure for Cancer with the annual Relay For Life hotdog lunch fundraiser.  It was great to picnic together in the sun for a good cause.

AFRICA

Wednesday, we continued our journey around the world with a visit to Africa.  After reading about awesome traditions and beautiful art originating in parts of the second largest continent, the children got to try their hand at replicating some of the art styles.  They learned about the ornate jewelry that came from Egypt and how hieroglyphics were carved into beads, etc. telling stories and more about the people who wore them and their beliefs. Each child made their own beaded necklace from salt dough, etching their own symbols onto and/or painting each bead to be unique. The children will have the opportunity to wear the necklaces on Activity Day.

African Masks

African masks are a very important art form that takes on a spiritual sense.  The children learned that each mask is representative of the inner self.  Masks are used for many meaningful rituals in Africa.  The art of mask-making in our JK class also taught the children a good lesson in symmetry as well as tapping into their inner creativity. You can see how the children are scrolling through the iPad pictures of African masks we pulled up on Google.  They loved seeing the many masks in all different sizes, shapes and colors coming from the heart of Africa.

iPads are very helpful for showing the children examples of and allowing them to scroll through many African masks. 

Learning about and creating art from around the world has been a wonderful experience.  This week, the children will travel to their last artistic stop on the globe, the continent of Europe.  They will experience painting on tiles and tracing and cutting out silhouettes of themselves, among other creative activities all in preparation for our Thursday Activity Day.  We are all sooooo excited about the upcoming day of art that is the culmination of our whole month of learning about Art Around The World.  I can't wait to see the family sculptures that I know you have all been working hard on these past weeks.  They will be showcased in our classroom...the museum and cafe of Activity Day.  Please have them to school no later than Tuesday this week so we can properly prepare them for the big day!  Thank you, to all of you, for your hard work!!!  

*See you on Thursday! Prepare to be blown away by all of the amazing artwork of your amazing children! The children will have Tie Dye t-shirts that they made last week to wear on Activity Day.  They can wear comfortable bottoms that day too.

I hope your spring break is full of joy and happiness!

Happy Spring!