the studio

picture day

2010-01-03T20:30:00.000-08:00

I think these kids are so awesome. I really love my job a lot.

Celebration Day!

2010-01-03T20:14:00.000-08:00

Today we got to celebrate this adorable child! We learned that all things pink are wonderful and beautiful, and if she could be a pink flamingo, that would take the cake! She loves her mama so much! She loves to read with her and help her every day. She would love to visit Disneyland, and probably knows more games than anyone! We are so happy to have this wonderful girl at our Studio.

Here is one of the Celebration Day portraits of our Celebration Day Girl!

Celebration Day!

2009-11-14T21:11:00.001-08:00

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

2009-11-14T21:05:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-14T20:46:00.000-08:00

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!

2009-11-14T20:39:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-14T20:08:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-03T12:17:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-03T11:55:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-03T11:45:00.000-08:00

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

2009-10-18T20:43:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-14T22:01:00.000-07:00

#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!

2009-10-13T12:05:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-13T11:39:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-04T20:49:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-30T20:50:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-09-25T20:30:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-25T20:18:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-25T20:15:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-16T11:43:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-12T20:20:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-12T20:14:00.001-07:00

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

2009-09-12T20:00:00.000-07:00

Celebration Day!

2009-09-12T19:44:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-23T19:03:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-23T19:01:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-23T18:56:00.000-07:00

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!!

2009-05-23T18:49:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-05-23T18:34:00.001-07:00

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

2009-05-23T18:30:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-05-23T18:20:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-05-23T18:15:00.000-07:00

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??

2009-04-25T10:40:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-04-25T10:37:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-25T10:33:00.000-07:00

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????

2009-04-25T10:22:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-04-14T21:07:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-14T20:52:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-14T20:47:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-01T12:34:00.001-07:00

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!

2009-04-01T12:24:00.001-07:00

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

2009-04-01T12:16:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-01T11:58:00.000-07:00

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

2009-03-18T11:49:00.000-07:00

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

2009-03-18T07:29:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-03-18T07:22:00.001-07:00

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

2009-03-18T07:13:00.000-07:00

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

2009-03-11T13:03:00.000-07:00

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

2009-03-10T11:12:00.000-07:00

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

2009-03-09T21:55:00.000-07:00

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.
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Celebration Day!

2009-03-09T21:47:00.001-07:00

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!

2009-03-09T21:43:00.000-07:00

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

Yy yucky yellow Yy and Brent Young

2009-02-24T11:55:00.001-08:00

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

2009-02-17T05:40:00.000-08:00

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.

Celebration Day!

2009-02-04T21:02:00.000-08:00

Today we celebrated this great guy!
This fabulous kid is so nice! In fact, his niceness is what makes him amazing! He loves his friends and toys, he does not love punching! He would love nothing more than to have a huge robot! His favorite thing is the whole earth, and fittingly his favorite color is green! We love spending time with this wonderful boy at The Studio.

WHAT was I THINKING???

2009-02-04T20:43:00.000-08:00

This post is really going to post me in a bad light, but I have to share. Today was the funniest day. So, we're doing the letter Uu this week, and for sure my favorite Uu pieces of art work are the Unicorn Tapestries (appx. 1500).

So I went to bed last night trying to think of what project I could do around the tapestries. IT came to me at some insane hour of night when I obviously wasn't thinking too clearly, and being sleep deprived this morning, I wasn't thinking too clearly either and decided to carry on with the project. So the idea was we would do our own weaving. I ransacked my moms embroidery box, threaded 50 needles (ya, the really sharp quilting kind. Helloooooooo???) with different colors, and we were going to sew our own little rainbows. A mother of one of the kids said "You gave needles to a dozen 5 year olds????" Why yes, is there something wrong there? I so need more sleep. Here is a sampling of what I heard over the next 15 minutes:

-OUCH!!!
-My needle came undone.
-Ow! Teacher I think I'm bleeding!
-Ouch! I need a bandaid!
-My needle came undone again.
-Just lick it, it doesn't bleed for very long.
-Can I take off my pants? I poked myself really hard and I think I'm bleeding.
-My needle came undone AGAIN!!!
-Ouch!! I don't want to do this any more, I've poked myself like a million times.
-This needle won't stay stuck to the thread!!!!!
-There's blood on my blue part!
-I don't like this needle, can I just get a new one?
-I'm used to this, I have to get my blood drawn all the time.

In my defense, I did demonstrate to poke the needle into the carpet, not on your lap, or hand, and I did keep reminding them, it just didn't work out so well. So, about 4 of them finished, most didn't even attempt it. I was dying at myself. So those of you registered for next year, this project is OFF THE BOOKS!!! I've come up with a fabulous FOAM, needle free option, we'll try it out tomorrow. I'm so sorry about your little chickens! Here is what all the fuss was about.

Ll Leonardo Da Vinci

2009-02-04T11:23:00.000-08:00

Today we talked about Leonardo Da Vinci's (1452-1519) famous Mona Lisa.
We looked at abstract versions of the painting. . .
. . .and then we made our own. They turned out pretty good I think. Here are a few great ones.

Gg Paul Gauguin

2009-01-29T06:11:00.000-08:00

I am so sorry to be a week behind. I was having some computer issues. We'll get all caught up by the weekend. Today we talked about Paul Gauguin (1848-1903). Gauguin spent significant time in Tahiti where he painted the people and scenes there. We made our own Gauguin island scenes today and I absolutely LOVE how they turned out. They did a great job.

Ee Egg Tempera

2009-01-25T21:04:00.000-08:00

Today we made paint out of egg yolks and pigment, known as egg tempera. Egg tempera is one of the oldest mediums of painting said to date back to prehistoric times. The kids separated their own eggs, and mixed their own pigment. We got some rich colors, and made some great work that will be displayed at the Spring Salon. My dog totally ate one of the paintings while they were drying. Sorry about that, it will for sure get redone.

Ee Elephant environment and EXERCISE!

2009-01-14T11:11:00.000-08:00

Today we learned about and made Elephant Environments . Did you know that an adult Elephant will eat 300-600 pounds of food per day!!!??? Isn't that nuts? We also continued talking about Exercise, and because of lots of BEGGING, we did Exercise instead of our last project. Hopefully we can fit it in tomorrow. Here is a slide show of the Exercising going on.

This photo just had to be on its own. "Boy in Flight"

Ee Edvard Munch

2009-01-13T11:35:00.001-08:00

The Scream

Today we talked about the mystery of this awesome painting by Edvard Munch (1863-1944). We made our own page of things that make us scream (cut out from newspaper ads). The top things that made the kids scream were:

limes, make up, jewelry, more make up, race cars, video games, more make up, couches, new shoes, broccoli, and lip stick.

(My apologies to the little chicken that found a bra and undies ad. I thought I had those all taken out.)

Lava Girl!

2009-01-12T20:34:00.001-08:00

One of my darling little girls announced that her mother had changed her name to Lava Girl! "So you need to call me that now, and I have to write it on my papers." She then asked me how to spell Lava Girl, and she wrote it on the next couple of sheets she worked on. I love my job!

Rr Rococo

2009-01-12T20:22:00.000-08:00

Today we talked about Rococo, an 18th century highly decorative French interior style. In Rococo, fancy is IT! Everything was silver, gold, and swirly, and very ornate.
We made our own Rococo rooms at The Studio, complete with glitter, Rococo style; furniture, frescoes, chandelier, and paintings, by one of the most well known Rococo artist Jean-Honore Fragonard (1732-1806)

Rr Rectangular Rainbow Reflective Really Rad Robots!

2009-01-07T11:56:00.000-08:00

Winter Showcase

2008-12-18T15:50:00.000-08:00

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!!

2008-12-16T06:15:00.000-08:00

What super cute kids!!!

Bb Big Beautiful Buildings

2008-12-16T06:07:00.000-08:00

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

2008-12-03T11:20:00.000-08:00

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

2008-12-02T14:05:00.001-08:00

Thanksgiving

2008-11-30T19:50:00.000-08:00

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!

2008-11-30T19:40:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-19T11:18:00.000-08:00

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!

2008-11-13T15:39:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-13T15:29:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-12T11:19:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-11T20:34:00.000-08:00

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!

2008-11-06T13:49:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-06T13:31:00.000-08:00

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

2008-10-31T12:04:00.000-07:00

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

2008-10-29T11:25:00.001-07:00

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

2008-10-29T11:21:00.000-07:00

Celebration Day

2008-10-29T11:14:00.001-07:00

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!

2008-10-23T18:09:00.000-07:00

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

2008-10-22T11:15:00.000-07:00

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

2008-10-15T19:55:00.000-07:00

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!

2008-10-15T09:08:00.000-07:00

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

2008-10-08T11:16:00.000-07:00

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

2008-10-07T13:13:00.000-07:00

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

2008-10-07T13:10:00.001-07:00

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

2008-10-01T11:44:00.000-07:00

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

2008-10-01T11:40:00.000-07:00

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

2008-09-24T11:56:00.000-07:00

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

2008-09-23T13:45:00.000-07:00

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

2008-09-19T09:04:00.000-07:00

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

2008-09-10T11:23:00.000-07:00

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!!

2008-09-09T11:36:00.000-07:00

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

2008-09-06T12:31:00.000-07:00

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.

2008-07-14T21:11:00.000-07:00

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!

2008-07-11T16:11:00.000-07:00

Yeah!! We're getting close.

The Sheep Rockers

2008-07-10T12:33:00.000-07:00

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.