Celebration Day!

Today we got to celebrate this fabulous guy! He loves his cousin, and the color purple, and he has really special clothes! Lucky! He would love to be a tiger in the jungle, because it would be soooo cool to do that. He's a pretty amazing dancer and jumper on the trampoline. He is such a nice guy, and we love hanging out with him every week at The Studio.One of our amazing student portraits of our celebration day student. Notice the perfectly spiky hair.

Pp Pirate and Princess Puppets

I love this day and these puppets. They were fun to make, and I love hearing the stuff that comes out of the kids' mouths in the name of their puppets. So, one side of the puppet is a pirate and the other side is a princess, and as per the story, we also made a pink and purple parrot puppet on a stick. One little guy said to me as I was giving them instructions:
"There is no way I'm going to draw a princess on anything! I don't care about the story, I'm making two pirates and there's no way I'm coloring my parrot pink!"
So, the project wasn't for everyone apparently, but it was way fun!

Pp perfectly cool letter

I love this week in school! There are so many awesome projects to do with the letter Pp. We started off the week talking about an impressionist method of painting called Pointillism in which the paint is applied to the surface in small dots of color that are joined together by the eye to create the image as a whole.

George Seurat (1859-1891)

We experimented with Pointillism and the kids made some great pieces.

I was going to use them in the art show, but the show is getting a bit too large, and so I sent them home the next day.
Next up for the letter Pp was of course Pablo Picasso(1881-1973).

We looked at a few pieces of his work, and then set out to make our own Picasso-esque portraits. They turned out so awesome!

Celebration Day!

Today we got to celebrate this darling little girl. We learned about her that she LOVES her sister! She also loves her friends and the color yellow. She would like to be a giraffe so that she could have a long neck (wouldn't we all?). She is very obedient and rather amazing on the trampoline. She is moving away and won't be in school anymore after this month. We're sure going to miss her! We have all very much enjoyed spending time with her at The Studio.

Here is one of the fantastic student portraits of our celebration girl.
I had a little help with this photo.

Ii Impasto and Indian Corn

We had a fun week with the letter Ii. We talked about Impasto. This was a super fun day! The kids think it's so fun to make gunk, and stick it down.

Our finished Impasto pieces promise to impress. They will be shown at our Winter Showcase.
We also learned a little bit about Indian Corn, and made our own. The hardest part about this project was making sure the kids didn't eat too many of the marshmallows before they could finish their projects.

It was a fun week with the letter Ii.

Overheard

These kids say the best stuff. I laugh quite a bit each day. Here are a couple-

We had show and tell, and one boy brought in an NYPD play set. This cute little guy said in the gruffest voice a 4 year old can conjure up-
"That's cool, but I wouldn't play with it. I only play with manly toys."

I asked the kids how trick or treating went for them and one little girl said-
"I just got tons of money from people, so today we're going shopping and I guess I'll be able to buy whatever I want because now I have tons of money!"

I need to start trick or treating over there!

Cc Alexander Calder

For the letter Cc we talked about Alexander Calder (1898-1976). Calder is known best for the mobiles he created. It is said that he is the inventor of the mobile as art.
We made our own Halloween mobiles using our hands and feet to create some great spooky subjects for our mobiles.

We also worked on collages on canvas, and talked about color and creativity. So much wonderfulness with the letter Cc.

Halloween Week

We had a fun week doing Halloween projects. We made clowns with cotton candy, spooky spiders and a few other fun projects.

We ended the week with a costume party, popcorn, and games. It was a fun week!

Xx AleX Darais, EXprssionist painter

Alex Darais

For the letter Xx, we looked at the Expressionist style of Utah artist Alex Basil Darais (1918-2007). We talked about Expressionism and how some of the elements of thesubject are there, they are just depicted in your own way.

Self Portrait

We looked at the tree in this particular piece, and proceeded to paint our own Alex Darais Expressionistic fall tree.

Overheard

#1 Your just jealous! (Clearly not understanding what jealous even means)

#2 (Also not understanding the word) No I'm not!

#1 Yes you are! Girls are always jealous!

#2 If girls were always jealous, then --- and ---- would be jealous, and they're not!

#1 Yes they are, cause' girls are always jealous! Even when they're not jealous, they're jealous.

#2 Well, I'm not jealous!

#1 (under his breath) Uh, ya you are.

Celebration Day!

Today we got to celebrate this darling little girl! The best part about being her is that she gets her nails painted. She loves the color blue, strawberries and her cousin. She would love to be a baby pig so that she could be sooooo small. She can do back bends better than anyone else, and she is so amazing because she gets to go to gymnastics. We are lucky to have her as a friend, and love spending time with her at The Studio.

Portrait of our Celebration Day Girl!

Nn noodles, nests, noses, and Emil Nolde

We did so much this week with the letter Nn. First we dyed noodles (and our fingers) with alcohol and food coloring. We got some great colors!

We talked a lot this week about natural art, art found in nature. We looked at nests and their symmetry and the beautiful colors that can be found in eggs. Then we made our own nests, complete with eggs. I am told that a few of those eggs actually hatched. Way to go guys!

We also talked about a German artist named Emil Nolde (1867-1956). He was told by Hitler that he couldn't paint, draw, or create any art whatsoever, by penalty of death. The art was inside of him though, and he saw "pure color and shape in nature all around him" and he had to paint it.

Emil Nolde

We made our version of pure shape and color from a photograph of nature. Those pieces are being saved for the art show.




We had a great week with the letter Nn.

Fabulous letter F

We had a fantastic week with the letter F! We made some fun fish aquariums, we tye-dyed fabric and turned them into pumpkin pillows. We talked about the super-fancy (rococco) painting style of Jean-Honore Fragonard (1732-1806).

The Swing

We then finger-painted our own fancy version of fish with glitter paint! Top that off with fishies, fruit snacks, and french fries for snacks, it was a great week.

Overheard

I hear the funniest stuff sometimes. I need to write them down so that I can blog the cute stuff that comes out of these little mouths. I always think I'll remember, and I never do. This one I jotted down. These two cute kids were talking about their last year preschool experiences.
(I might note that neither child was in my preschool last year.)

#1 Well, my teacher was mad at me EVERY DAY!!
#2 MY teacher was mad at me every day AND I got suspended even!
#1 Well, I was in time out and that is even badder.
#2 Nuh, uh, suspended is badder because my mom and dad got so mad at me, and I went in time out all the time at preschool, and they didn't get mad at me for that.

(Satisfied that kicked out probably was badder, the conversation went on to the teachers.)

#1 Well my teacher was so mad all the time.
#2 My teacher was mad too, at everyone, not just me.
#1 My teacher was mad AND mean.

............................................ and so it goes. Don't even ask, I won't tell you. he he he he he

Celebration Day!

Today we got to celebrate this great little guy. We learned that his skills as a back flipper, and back-hand-springer are un-paralleled! He loves being on the go, his big brother, swimming, and shockingly, he wishes more than anything thing that there was a giant snake in his back yard! We are loving getting to know this cute little boy.

I loved this portrait of our celebrated little man.
Notice the spiky hai

Mm Matisse

Today we talked about the fabulous Henri Matisse (1869-1954). We looked specifically at his piece entitled The Snail. This enormous piece was completed just before his death, and remains one of his most famous. It is made with cut and torn pieces of dyed paper that were adhered to the canvas.
We cut and tore our own paper and made our own little Snails. I LOVED so much the results that we got in this project.

Mm Monster Mobile

Today we made these way awesome Monster Mobiles. They are as frustrating as they are cute. I heard no less than 100 times today "Teacher, my leg (arm, hair, head . . .) fell off AGAIN!!"

Tt Wayne Theibaud

Today we discussed Wayne Theibaud (b. 1920-). He is probably one of my favorite modern artists. Mostly because of his subject matter (: but also his style is just marvelous. So in honor of Wayne Theibaud (pronounced tee-bo) we made frosting, and tinted it ourselves, then we frosted lovely cupcakes, and ate them for snack. Lastly, we drew a picture of an ice cream cone, and water colored it. Tt is such a fun letter!

Wood block stamp

Today we made our own version of wood block stamping. It was the coolest project ever. The results were so much neater than I thought they would be. The project was such a MESS!!! But so awesome we will for sure do it again. I feel bad that I didn't get pictures of everybody's stamps, because they were so original and neat.

Aa Ansel Adams

Today we talked about Ansel Adams (1902-1984). We took the camera outside and made nature photographs of our own. My own yard leaves much to be desired, thank goodness my neighbor has a green thumb and a fabulous flower bed. I messed up the picture taking process though, and most of the kids don't remember which picture is theirs. So, we'll enjoy them on the blog, and call it good.

Aa Abstract Art

Celebration Day!

Today we got to celebrate this darling little girl. We found out a lot about her, mostly that she has impeccable taste and style when it comes to clothes. She is an amazing tongue clicker, bike rider, singer, dancer, and friend. We are lucky to get to hang out with this lady.

this is one of the student portraits of our Celebration Girl!

First year down

My first year of teaching is over and I am all sorts of sad about it. The kids were so much more amazing than I thought they even could be. I learned and loved so much this year. I will miss the kids so much and hope to see them around. They did so much fabulous artwork, and their reading was most impressive. I wasn't really sure how that was going to fly, but man, they are fantastic readers all. I so look forward to this fall to start up again. Keep the art alive, and have a wonderful summer!!

the Spring Salon

We had our final art show today. The kids have worked so hard, and learned so much. They are amazing artists! The show was awesome, I was so proud of my little Studio kids.

picture day

The year is coming to an end, and boy will I miss my little friends. They are such fabulous kids, and I have thoroughly enjoyed this year.

sh - sharks!!

Today we learned a little bit about sharks. We found out how big some of the bigger and smaller sharks are, then we made these awesome shark cards! They bite and everything!

Celebration Day!

This awesome guy just came to our school a few months back and we are so glad he did! The best thing about him is that he's a pilot! Who knew? He loves the color green and appropriately wishes so bad that he was in the army so he could use his pilot skills to fly bomber jets, and launch rockets. He doesn't like giraffes, and seriously, who can blame him. Therefore if he were an animal, he would be a Lion. He is amazing because he is so smart, and he can do front flips probably better than anyone! We have loved getting to know this great kid!

cinco de mayo

Today we talked about cinco de mayo. It was all sorts of fun. We made our own quesadillas for snacks, and made marachas for one of our crafts. They made fantastic music, and we did a little mariachi parade and said "ole!" and "andale andale!" and "ay ay ay ay ay!" really loud. que bueno! he he he he. such a fun day

Celebration Day!

Today we got to celebrate this darling little girl! The best part about her is that she has a puppy that is her most favorite thing in the world! Lucky! She loves it so much that if she could have anything in the world, it would be another puppy. She loves the color purple, and she loves sea horses. She doesn't like sharks because they eat sea horses. She is amazing because she is so helpful, and she can do somersaults better than anyone. We love our association with this little angel.

ch - charms!

Today in school we made clay charm necklaces. We made clay, rolled it out, and the kids cut out words, or just letters. We baked them and painted them, and strung them on some yarn. This was such a cool project. I loved how they turned out.

Wh When can we PAINT??

Today we did one of the coolest projects we've done all year. I loved it!! We made our own puff paint out of salt, flour, and water. It took a bit longer than I thought it would and the kids really got good use of their "wh" word- WHEN??? We put it it squeeze bottles, added pigment, and FINALLY we got to paint. The colors rocked, and the way they blended was even cooler. When the kids went home, my kids and I made a bunch more. SOOOOO fun. I totally want these pieces for the Spring Salon, but our show is already so huge. We'll see.

Yay for Spring!

Spring is seriously thinking of coming. Winter is ever threatening, but I think in the end, it will get warm around here. To encourage, we have done Spring-ish projects this week. Today we made butterflies out of watercolors and coffee filters. They were super colorful and oh-so-cute.

Ee

I have lots of E names in my family. Because of this I have lots of E's all over my house. This cute little chicken makes me Lego E's every day. Every day I see this adorable little face and hear "Teacher, I made this for you!" I love it I love it I love it.

wh-- what in the world is that????

This week we are talking about wh. We have learned the words who, what, why, where, and when. Our snacks have been all sorts of creative. Where is our snack??? When is our snack ever going to be ready?? Why are we having cheesy puffs AGAIN??

For our project today we made "what in the world is THAT???" Oh, it's goo. We made this really cool stuff from scratch, colored it, and played hard. It was a super cool project!

Celebration Day!

Today we got to celebrate this really fun guy. He loves his friends, and he loves to play with his friends. He wants to be a green shark, but he would still have friends and play with them. If he could have anything in the world, he would like a doll for his mom! How cute is that? He would like to be a monkey so that he could eat even more bananas. He doesn't like baby toys, and he can do amazing front flips probably better than anyone else ever! We love that we get to hang out with this super guy every week at the Studio.

Ww Andy Warhol

Today we talked about Andy Warhol (1928-1987), the leading American pop artist. Warhol took popular items from mass culture and isolated them in paintings, prints, sculpture, and the like. We took the Easter Bunny today, and turned it into our own Warhol, pop-art exhibit. Unfortunately we didn't have time to properly put our Easter Bunnies on backgrounds and finish their faces. They turned out just wonderfully though as they were.

Ww Window

Today we looked at stained glass windows. We looked at a real window, some pictures of windows, and then we made starch and tissue paper windows. The colors are so awesome. Again, they are for the Spring Salon. I loved how they turned out. It was a great process, and we got some amazing "windows".

Jj jolly jingly jester

Today we celebrated All Fool's Day! We made these awesome jester hats and puppets, and we played silly games, and read nonsense stories.
For snacks, we had worms and dirt! The kids were pretty nervous about these. I thought it was funny that they thought would really serve them dirt. Happy April Fool's Day!!

Celebration Day!

Today we got to celebrate this great kid! At our celebration days, each of the kids draws a portrait of the person celebrated. We got some AWESOME faux-hawk images. I loved them. We learned about this guy today that he loves Spider man and all things dark blue. The best part about him is his smile and his favorite person ever, is another preschool friend. He wants more than anything to have laser eyes which is fitting being that he is an amazing superhero. Although he doesn't like pink, he is probably a better artist than almost anyone! We love this great kid!

Zz Zhang Daqian

Today we talked about the Chinese artist Zhang Daqian (1899-1983) who made lovely paintings of birds.
We made our own Zhang Daqian birds today. They turned out super cute! Ok, so they aren't very Chinese looking, but they came from Oriental Trading, so that's worth something right?

Zz Zebra

Today we zebra striped some zebras with marbles. It was a really fun project, and we had painted marbles flying all over the place. I didn't think we would need aprons, but I'm pretty sure every kid ended up with a marble in their lap a few times. Sorry about that. The kids crack me up. They totally know their paints a little, and they know which ones stain clothes. They were asking "Is this tempera or acrylic?" Luckily it was tempera.

Kk Gustav Klimt

Today we looked that "the painter of women" Gustav Klimt (1862-1918). He would depict a beautiful woman's face, then lavish them in abstract, colorful and ornate clothing.
We did our version of Klimt with chalk and black paper. I was going to send them home, but the colors were so great that I had to keep them for the Spring Salon. Here are a couple of marvelous ones.

I think chalk may be a new favorite for everyone. What a fun versatile medium.

Kk Kirk and Kyle

Today we had the "unfortunate" visit from Kirk and Kyle Leprechauns. We knew it was them because they left their names written in our blocks, and they left us a note. Those naughty little guys trashed our studio, erased our sentences (the kids were CRUSHED!!), left fairy dust EVERYWHERE, and sent us on a treasure hunt!! Luckily at the end there was a pot of Leprechaun gold! It was amazing, and there were just enough pieces for everyone to take one. It was a great day! Here are a few pictures of our day-

Celebration Day!

Today we got to celebrate this great kid! He loves his Mom and Dad so so so much. His XBox is a close second though. He loves the color blue and would like to be a shark, mostly because he loves sharks. He does not like deer on the other hand. He is amazing because he can run sooooo fast, and he probably can do front flips better than anyone else! We are so lucky to get to hang out with him at the Studio.

Oo Georgia O'Keefe

Today we talked about Georgia O'Keeffe (1887-1986). O'Keeffe is an American painter most well known for her huge paintings of flowers.
We made some great big flowers today, then we put them all together and did Georgia O'Keeffe watercolors of the flowers. They will be in the Spring Salon, and just turned out marvelously. Here is some of the process.

Oo oil

Today we mixed oil and pigment together, dropped it on water, and attempted to make marbled paper. It was a fun project that the kids thoroughly enjoyed. The papers turned out pretty cool too. I'm anxious to see how they will dry. We used cotton paper, and cotton card stock. The paper took the ink a lot better, and marbled a bit nicer. Here is a little bit-

Oo Claes Oldenburg

Today we talked about one of the coolest artists EVER! Claes Oldenburg (b. 1929). One of the things he is most famous for are his gigantic installation pieces of every day objects.

Today we made Claes Oldenburg pizza. It was a super fun project. The kids loved the different Oldenburg pieces that we looked at. Here is a sampling of our work.

Hh Happy Hair Hats

Today for the letter Hh, we made Happy Hair Hats. They were a lot of fun to make, and the kids got pretty creative with what they were willing to call their hair. Here is what we ended up with.

Celebration Day!

Today we got to celebrate this cute little chicken, or should I say horse. Every question I asked her somehow got turned back to horses. The best part about being her is that she gets to ride horses, she wants to be a horse, favorite animal??? A horse. She doesn't like dead deer on the other hand, and she can somersault probably better than any one else ever could. We think she is fabulous, and we love that we get to hang out with her at The Studio.

Yy Yarn!

Today we made art with yarn! The finished pieces turned out pretty cool I thought.

Yy yucky yellow Yy and Brent Young

Today for the letter Yy, we did finger painting. It went quite well I thought, the kids liked it a lot. They really got into the spirit of the "yucky" part.


For our second project we looked at the artist Brent Kee Young (b 1944-). His medium is glass and he's incredible.
So we created with glass today as well. We etched initials on glass cups. They turned out so cool! It was such an awesome project, I'm going to have to do more with etched glass because it is just all too fun. Here are the finished products and a bit of the process.

Vv Vincent Van Gogh Valentine

This week for the letter Vv, we talked about Vincent Van Gogh (1853-1890). We made a thick, full of texture and movement background (a la Van Gogh), and when it was dry, we added our Vincent Van Gogh sunflowers. We turned them into Valentines for our Families. We had a great week with the letter Vv.