Clay Fun

This Friday, the children had a chance to explore and manipulate a new art material - clay.
The teachers showed the children some picture books and illustation about shapes that can be made by clay. Then, the children had plenty time to manipulate and be familiar with clay.

The children gained some tactile experience; as well, they learned the skills to work with clay, like rolling, punching, squeezing and pinching.

I can stack little pieces of clay up!

I can pinch clay into small pieces.

My clay became long and narrow
when I roll it!





Squeeze the clay with two hands!

Punch! Punch! I can make my clay flat.

With the tactile experience and practice, the children started to make different shapes and to create thing they want to make!

Look! I made a spiral!

"I made a circle!"

"This is a flat dress!"





We all got white hands at the end!

More Art with Shapes

Mary read "Architect of the Moon" by Tim Wynne-Jones to the children; the story was about a little boy uses his imagination and different shapes of blocks to re-build the Moon.  Then, we talked and learned more shapes in our environment. A half circle is called a semi-circle. Pentagons have five sides. A stop sign is an octagon!

Then, the children had a chance to visit three different art stations about shapes. Mary and children traced the foam blocks on the big paper. Children combined different shapes to create a huge painting!

Ann and children used yarn to do lacing with different shapes. the yarn goes up and down around triangles, circles, squares, and rectangles. Children got to use markers to decorate their shapes as well.

Anamaria and children used the overhead projector to trace shapes out on the whiteboard. Children enjoyed tracing the contour line of different shaped shadows.

Creative shapes

This Friday, we reviewed the shapes we know, triangle, square, circle, and oval. We categorized these shapes into two groups: shapes with points or corners & round shapes without points or corners.

 

We also made a connection with our environment. Kathryn played "I Spy" game with the children to find some shapes we have in our classroom. The children were very creative; they said their cheeks are like two circles. As well, we can make oval shapes with our mouths!


Children also watched a clip of "Mouse Shapes" story. We all enjoyed the creative pictures the three mice make in the story. Here is the link that Brian tells the story: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_9_AmQAM1g






Then, children used their creativity like the three mice do in the story to make picture with shapes. We glued triangle, square, circle, and oval to make colourful pictures.

We glue  triangle, square, circle, and oval!

I made a house with a triangle and a square!

Form shapes with lines & strings

For October, we are going to learn about shapes. As a transition, we started with the story "Just how long can a long string be?!" by Keith Baker; therefore, children were able to move to our new topic "shapes" slowly and smoothly. Children learned the concept that strings (lines) can wrap around object or create the outline of a shape.

Children used yarn for contour lines

Ann also read "Mouse Shapes" by Ellen Stoll Walsh. Children learned about the characters of shapes. For example, "any shapes with three sides is a triangle." It was also interesting to see what the three little mice can make with triangles, circles, squares, and rectangles in the story.

We can create our own pictures with triangles and squares!

Children had the chance to trace triangles, circles, squares, and rectangles with their fingers or markers in small groups. Then, children glued yarn to make contours of different shapes. Children were familiar with triangles, circles, squares, and rectangles; as well, they enjoyed creating pictures with these shapes.

Line them up!

We talked about the kinds of line we learned from the previous weeks; children moved their arms to make vertical, diagonal, horizontal, curved, wavy, and zigzag lines.
Then, we had a discussion about that connecting dots or lining up objects do make lines! Ann read "The Line Up Book" by Marisabina Russo with the children. Children were able to recognize what type of lines that the boy made by lining  objects in the story. Children had a chance to use pom-poms, toys, and wooden blocks.




Using wooden blocks to make a diagonal line.

Two parallel pom-pom lines!



We can stack the blocks to make a line as well.

 

Children were able to grasp the concept that dots make lines. Enxin: "My buttons make a horizontal line!" Children also enjoyed tracing horizontal, zigzag, wavy lines with markers. It was a great chance for the children to practice their fine moter skills.


Garter Snake & Chimera

As many of you might already know, there is an event called Stories Along the Trails taking place in the Pacific Spirit Park this Sunday. The teachers at Creative Minds are also volunteering at this event. Mary gave a sneak peak to the children by telling them a story of two creatures, a common garter snake and a chimera. Children learned about where garter snakes live, what garter snakes eat, and how garter snakes look like.

Having talked about garter snakes that live in the forest, we brought in the concept of curved lines for our art activity this week. Garter snakes have long slithery bodies, generally dark bodied with blue, green, yellow, or white stripes on their backs.

 

The children made a collage of the forest by ripping construction paper. They created vertical, horizontal and diagonal lines, which reviewed the line concepts they learned last week.
 

The paper collage became the forest--a home for the garter snakes








After the collage, children created snakes using green and yellow paint. By using their fingers and paint brushes, children have experienced curved lines with the movement.

It was very interesting that some children even tried to camouflage their snakes!

 

Lines

Hi everyone at Creative Minds

This is Ann. I will substitute for Kathryn and Mary every Friday from now.
Some parents might remember me; I was a practicum student at Creative Minds in this May. I had a great time and learned a lot from all the teachers and the children here. I am glad that I have the chance to come back to Creative Minds now. It will be a wonderful learning experience for both children and me!



This Friday, we continued learning about lines.
We reviewed the concept as moving our arms to make "vertical" lines and "horizontal" lines.













Children enjoy using sticks and twigs when they play in the forest.  As a result, we collected natural materials, like twigs, leaves, pine cones, and rocks for our art activity. Children used twigs and leaves to create patterns.

Children were able to recognize what types of line they have in their artworks.
"I made a long straight line!"