Winter Showcase

The Winter Showcase was fabulous. A sampling of the kids work from the first half of the year was displayed, we had éclairs, cream puffs, lemon water, and a lot of fun. The kids titled all of their work, and we got some philosophy going. Some of my favorites included:

-Dark of the Moon
-Rock Star
-Dog and a Moon
-Star Wars 1, 2, 3, and 4
-Venus Fly Trap
-Lips
-Help My Body
-Fairy World
-Lovey
-Peace
-Moon Dancer
-Vixen

I hope everyone has a fun holiday! I'll be excited to be with everyone again next year.

Picture Day!!

What super cute kids!!!

Bb Big Beautiful Buildings

I'm so sorry to be so behind again. Last week we talked about art in architecture. We looked at beautiful buildings from all different time periods, and then we made our own Big Beautiful Buildings.

Dd Albrecht Durer

Today we talked about Albrecht Durer (1471-1528). Durer was a German, Renaissance artist. He did a lot of self portraits at a time when it was not at all common for artists to paint themselves. We talked about self portraiture, and the importance of it. So, of course, today we did self portraits which will be displayed at the Winter Showcase. They turned out so great!!

Dd Dancing Dragons

Thanksgiving

I feel so bad that I didn't get on this sooner. My time really has not been my own for a little while now. Things are coming back together, but I have to apologize for sending home a half finished project, and not sending further instructions. I thought I had planned enough time, but obviously that didn't work out so well. We had fun on Tuesday, and I have missed my kids! I'll be excited to see everyone on Tuesday, and have a full week. I'll send Calendars home then. I'm looking forward to December, I've got lots of great stuff planned, and of course our Winter Showcase on the last preschool day of the month. I hope everyone had a nice holiday and thank you for sharing your cute kids with me.

Celebration Day!

We are so lucky that we got to celebrate this great kid! He is such a joy to have around, and loved by everyone. We learned about him today that he would love to be a shark. He actually "has??" a pet shark that is a baby, and it won't eat his sister! What a nice shark. He is a super speedy runner, and probably runs faster than anyone else! He is always smiling, and I could just snack on his dimples. He so reminds me of my nephew Luke. We love having this fabulous guy here at the Studio!

Ss John Singer Sargent

Today we talked about John Singer Sargent (1856-1925) and his association with impressionism. We talked about how impressionism looks in art, and then we did our own impressionist painting.
We used sponges to paint with and blend colors, and I love the results we got. You'll have to wait for the winter showcase to see their work, but here they are in action.

Celebration Day!

Today we got to celebrate this little cutie. We learned that for this darling girl, fun, fun and more fun is what life is about. She is amazing merely because she chooses to be so. She loves to have fun and only wishes that she could have more of it. She loves her family, especially her parents, and we love her! We're so lucky to have her in preschool.

Pp Pirate and Princess Puppets

Today, we made puppets, not just any puppets, pirate and princess puppets. We continued our discussion about Picasso, and his daring to do something different from the rest of the art community. We talked about doing what is right even if makes you unpopular, and we talked about everyone having something worthwhile to say. So after we made our puppets, each child came up and told us what was important for them to say at this moment. This is what we heard:
- Be kind and be nice.
- Love one another.
- Thank you.
- The star wars fight was robots!
- Don't fight.
- Be kind.
- Aaaaaaargh!!! Matey!!
- Please.
- Thank you and be kind.
- Thank you for giving me my food.
- I want someone to play with me.
- Thank you.

Pp Pablo Picasso and Peter Perfectly Polite

We had a great day with the letter Pp. We could do Pp for weeks, there is so much to do. We had a "visit" today from Peter and Polly perfectly polite, and also from Patty-pretty-much-not-polite. We did various role plays of how we should act to be polite. One of the things we discussed was looking people in the eye when we speak to them. We were pretending we went to work with our dad, and he introduced us to someone who asked our name. The little guy that I had role playing with me looked me right in the eyes, and with all of the confidence in the world said (and very politely I might add) "My name is Batman!"

We also learned a little bit about Pablo Picasso (1881-1973). Although not renown for being terribly polite, he changed art forever by being himself, and believing strongly in something. We made our own Pablo Picasso portraits that will be displayed at our winter showcase in December. Top that day off with preschool-made pepperoni pizza, and we had a marvelous day!

Pp Pointillism

Today we talked about Pointillism, a method in art where paintings are created using little dots of color, and when you stand back, your eye blends the colors and an image is formed.
So we did our own paintings using Pointillism as our method. We got some great pieces back, which you will be able to view at the winter showcase in December. I asked one little artist to tell me about his work and he said "Well, this is a Venus Fly Trap, and this is the blue blood, and this is the yellow blood, and this is the red blood . . ." hee hee hee. How very creative. It was fun to see how some of the kids were pretty serious about their work. They all did a great job.

Celebration Day!

It's all about sea horses with this darling little girl. She loves sea horses, she wants to be a sea horse, she wishes she was blue like a sea horse, and on and on. The thing that makes her so amazing is that she can eat soooooooo fast! She loves to play and doesn't like it when people cry. We are so happy to have her wonderful presence in preschool.

Ii Impasto

We had such a fun week with the letter Ii. On Tuesday we mixed up some of our version of impasto. Impasto is a paint technique where the paint is applied to the surface really heavily to create texture. Instead of heavy paint, we made a paste, and applied it to a heavy paper and let it dry for a few days. Today, we painted our dry textured pieces in bright tempra. We are going to show the works at our winter showcase, so get all sorts of excited.

Halloween Party

We had the best Halloween party. The kids came in costumes, and we played some fun games, and did a fun project. Please note that the kids that don't appear to be in a costume for sure ARE in costumes, just ask them, one of them is in a princess costume, and the other is spiderman, or a power ranger, depending on his mood. I love my preschool kids.

Spooky Spiders

We made these great spiders today. I told the kids that they could hide them in their covers and when their parents came to kiss them goodnight, they could pull out the spider and scare the pants off of them. One of the littles said to me completely sincerely "I would never do that to my mom. I wouldn't even do that to my dad!" So, one of you is saved from getting scared by a giant spider.

Cc Crazy Clowns and Cotton Candy

Celebration Day

We got to celebrate and learn more about this darling girl. She is such a sweetie, and loves her family and being kind. She wants more than anything to go on a gliding airplane, but the most amazing thing about her is that she can climb like a monkey! We love having her in preschool.

Delicious!

Today for the letter Cc we had canned corn and candy for our snack. Yum! One cute little guy asked what I was warming up in the microwave. I told him "it's delicious." He got his face all twisted up and said "I hate delicious. My mom makes that all the time, and I never eat it!" We had a fun celebration day today, but I accidentally erased the cute little girl's photo off of my camera, so I'll have to post that next week. It was a fun week with the letter Cc.

Cc Eric Carle

We had such a busy day today, learning and creating, it was full! We centered our day around writer/illustrator Eric Carle. We read a few of his books, and then copied some of his work, in our own style of course. We made the best color book after reading one of our favorite books ever Brown Bear Brown Bear, but after we read A Home for Hermit the Crab, we decided that the covers to our books were too plain, so like Hermit, we decorated our covers with fish friends. Next, we read The Very Hungry Caterpillar, and decided to try and do an illustration of our own a la Eric Carle. We painted up a sheet of paper, cut it up, and glued it down. Such a fun day!

Xx Xavier the eXtraterrestrial

We made these eXtra smart monsters to help the kids learn their alphabet and new words. Didn't they turn out so cute? The kids did a great job!

Child Celebration Day!

We got to celebrate this darling little girl! We learned on her celebration day that she LOVES candy, and that the thing that makes her so amazing is her mere cuteness! We are so happy to know her and have her in school and be able to spend time with her.

Nn Nature, Nests, and Nutterbutters

We made the coolest nests today, complete with Kool-Aid clay robin eggs. We talked about mimicking nature in art, and did an art in nature project where we talked about beautiful things that are found naturally in the world.

Nn Nutella, noodles, and noses

Today we had Nutella and bananas for snack. Only one of the kids was excited about it, but in the end, most had literally licked their plates clean. We tinted noodles, and talked about noses. For one of our projects today, we made elephant noses. Fabulous! We have some great stuff coming up for the letter Nn, keep posted.

Finished Fabric Pillows

We got some great tye dyed fabric in the lot. They all looked so good. They were too big to turn into bean bags, so we made pillows instead. This was a very fun project.

Ff Fabric

I just love the letter Ff, for all of the cool activities to do with it. Tomorrow is going to be so much fun too. Our Medium for Ff is Fabric. We are going to make bean bags out of fabric, but of course we had to Tye Dye the Fabric. I didn't dare leave the kids for two seconds to get a photo of the tye dying, so I just have to show a photo of the drying fabric. Hopefully, we'll get some good patterns in the fabric and be able to turn this into pumpkin bean bags. Hence, all the orange fingers.

Ff Fishy Friends

We had so much fun making fish friends aquariums today. I learned from a few of the kids though that not all of the fish can be friends because they eat each other. Ok then, here are the pictures of this project.

Mm Monkey Mask, and Magic . . . . . gunk

Today, we made monkey masks and had a monkey ball. It was very fun. For snack, I was all sorts of excited about Magic Pudding. It's vanilla pudding, and you say a spell, and stir it with your magic spoon, and it will magically turn colors. Such a great idea, such disgusting pudding. I think the kids were all excited until they started stirring, then I think there were a few that were just trying to keep their cookies down. So there you go, not the raging success we were hoping for, but you live and learn. Maybe I'll experiment with different kinds of puddings, and find one with better consistency. It is pretty funny though.

Mm Monster Mania

We had such a fun day today. I have to apologize about the sugar high. Although marshmallows and m&m's are great Mm foods, maybe they shouldn't be served together. Just so you know, they both got a thumbs down on our "is this food nutritious?" scale. Today we talked about manners, continued about the months of the year, and of course we read a whole slew of monster stories. We made the greatest monster mobiles today. They were so fun to make, and the kids did a great job. Here are the finished monster guys. I also found a monster foot on my floor, so let me know if anyone is missing a foot.

Tt Wayne Thiebaud

We had a great week with the letter Tt. We learned about telling the truth, which according to one little was "telling your mom what really happened, not just what you think happened." We talked about transportation, triangles, and our artist of the week, the fabulous, Wayne Thiebaud (1920 -present). For snacks, we made Wayne Thiebaud cupcakes, a massive success, and we read a great book, illustrated with his paintings. Here are a few photos of that day.

Ansel Adams

Our artist for the letter A a is Ansel Adams. We looked at a book of his photos, and then the kids got to take their own nature photos. My printer of course was not being cooperative, so I wasn't able to print them out. I'll work on it for tomorrow. Meanwhile, here are the nature photos taken by the Studio kids.

Toooooooooooo much cutting!!

I'm learning how to do this every day. Today for example I learned that 10 animals is too many for preschoolers to cut out! After about four, they were whining and not excited about the project any more. Oh well, it's worth laughing at. Speaking of laughing, I heard the funniest thing today. One of the kids, a cute and tiny girl, was hiding under a blanket. Another kid pulled the blanket off of her, quite innocently, and the tiny little girl let out a small growl and said through her teeth "Uugghh!! You ruined my evil plan!!!" I totally laughed out loud, which didn't make her any happier, but then we had snacks, and who can be sad while eating a chocolate animal cookie?

first days

Wow, the last couple of months have been absolutely crazy!! My amazing parents have been here day and night doing floors, cabinets, baseboards, everything under the sun to help me get the studio up and going. We finally finished everything, and it's awesome!!!! I love it so much. I will never be able to repay my parents for their non-stop efforts on my behalf. I hope I can be such a cool parent. So anyway, I started class last week and can I just say, what a fun job!! I love it. My kids are so stinking cute, and funny, and creative, and it's like having a small craft party every day. I know that's not for everyone, but chaos, paint, lots of chatter, playing, funny questions, scissors, stories, and everything that goes along with it is so my cup of tea. I haven't gotten permission from my parents to post pictures of the kids yet, but I'll post pictures of the finished preschool and bathroom. My mom did all of the tile, she's so good! My dad did all of the finished carpentry, and as only my dad could do, he showed up with a small pallet, four different colors of paint, and a couple of brushes, and did a perfect touch up job on a pre-finished wood baseboard, in oil of course. It looks so good!!! I have to write a couple of funny things my kids have said. We had just come home from camping the day before school started, and my house was a wreck So, I'm traipsing the kids through my disaster, and I asked the kids "does your house ever look like this after vacation?" and hooray for you moms, EVERY CHILD except my own looked at me all sorts of confused and said "no." one little girl said "my mom would die if my house got this messy, she would make my sister clean it because she never goes with us anyway." hee hee hee. another little asked me that same day, "why don't you just give your kids some jobs, then they will clean it." ok, so I needed to clean up!!! No worries, it's done. This is going to be a great year.

Ok, so this is how my last few hours of daylight were spent. . . . . on the phone

to the sheetrocker: can you finish by Thursday morning?

response: I can try, I'm way busy, wasn't planning to be finished by Thursday, but we can see how fast the mud dries, I have four other jobs I'm doing, but we can see . . . . .

to the door people: I know I'm just ordering all of my stuff today, but can you get it in and deliver it by Thursday morning?

response: Oh, that's pretty quick, we can see what we can do, It would be a stretch, but we'll see if we can get it rushed....

to the finish carpenter (dear old dad): so it looks like we're going to be ready to get this together by thursday morning, if you start installing doors, mom and I can go early in the morning and buy the flooring, and just pull two days with no sleep, I'm pretty sure we can get it done in two days so the painter can be done by the middle of next week and . . . . . . . .

response: well, ok (my parents ROCK!!!)

to the painter: ok, it looks like your golden to start painting on monday!

seriously, if this works it will be nothing short of a miracle!!! But it will be soooooooooooo awesome!

Sheet Rock!

Yeah!! We're getting close.

The Sheep Rockers

miles of wires
itchy, ITCHY insulation
10 zillion trips BACK to Home Depot
measure twice, cut once. . . six times
hand chiseled boards to fit around messed up concrete
amazing friends and parents that made this happen
This place is a work of art in and of itself, and we're ready for the "sheep rockers" to come this morning at 9. They're already 5 hours late.

the studio

My parents and I are working daily to finish the studio rooms in the basement. It's been a ton of work, but it's been fun. We're starting the electrical this week, then we'll finish the framing, and have the drywall come in about 10 days. Here are a couple of photos from each end of the room.



My mom and I spent HOURS at Ikea yesterday picking out the kitchenette, and bathroom cabinetry, and appliances. The oven I will have to pick up in a couple of weeks, but below is all of the cabinets for both rooms, 16 total. Jealous? I have two huge bags FULL of screws, bolts, and hinges. This has to be worth it, right? I saved about $2000 by going through Ikea, now, if my sanity can last me to assemble all of this, and get it working, it will be nothing short of a miracle.


I've got 12 little kids coming to school in a little less than 10 weeks, I'd better get going. It's going to be fabulous. . . especially if it comes together.

Chaos

Half of my basement is finished, however the half that is to be the Studio, is not. So, we've had to move everything out, into the finished bit, so we can work on that half. It's all working out quite well, and we hope to begin framing (my dad and I) this week. My kids however have lost a huge part of their play room, and they are now bringing toys and what-not upstairs to play with, and I feel like my house has been trashed for weeks now, with no end in sight for a couple more months. I have been a not very nice mom today, and with a great deal of nagging, threatening, and bribery, we got one room fairly organized downstairs, and cleared a path to a few more rooms upstairs. Really, I like chaos, I thrive in chaos, but the clutter is killing me!!!!! On the up side, the HVAC is finished, we have the bathroom plumbed, my boy has let me have my way on flooring and the curriculum is coming along very nicely. I am so excited.

Art

I remember as a young girl seeing the marble sculpture of "The Three Graces" at the Louvre in Paris, and it took my breath away. I grew up in a community and family of artists and it seems like I have always known about the importance of art to a society. I am working on my preschool curriculum and going through books after books and again, I am feeling a passion for great art. Tonight I took my girls to the museum for family night where my dad was the resident artist. He talked about why art was beautiful, and he asked kids in the audience about the paintings they were seeing around them. He asked what created those paintings, and a little boy said "a hand". He asked what was connected to the hand that could make the paintings beautiful and this tiny little girl said "some bracelets!" I love it! I am so excited to create art with these super imaginitive little kids. I'm so excited to share my enthusiasm for the work of the great masters. I want them to create something that they will love themselves, and hopefully help them to understand the importance of creating things to our society.

I am so excited about the Studio. The basement is getting finished and turned into a preschool this summer. Classes will begin in September 2008.