Dear River and Forest Families:

 

Whoa!  Summer is nearly over!  Time flies when you’re having fun!  J

 This summer in the River and Forest classrooms we’ve been focusing on child-led art centers.  I curate each center through a focus on materials provided.  I have tried to provide some new materials and experiences for your children this summer.  For example I’m sure many of you have seen balsa wood coming home with your artists.  This pliable wood is very friendly to young art makers.  Also, this material has been inspirational to our student’s imagination!  From wands to picture frames, homes for bugs to cars for dolls, our students have really expanded their repertoire!  The Paper, Balsa wood, and Yarn Building center has been and is staying as an available center throughout the summer by majority vote by the students!  Today I added a new material to this center, tissue boxes.  We also read the story, “Not a Box”, a children’s book by Antoinette Portis. It won a 2007 Theodor Seuss Geisel Award Honor and a 2008 Donna Norvell Award.  If you aren’t familiar with the story it is about how a box can become anything, “A box is just a box…unless it’s not a box. From mountain to rocket ship, a small rabbit shows that a box will go as far as the imagination allows.”  So parents, please look forward to box inspired imaginations at home!

Another center we started today was a Journal Making center.  After talking about what a journal is comprised of, students used the materials provided to create their own notebook, sketchbook, storybook, journal or whatever they wanted to call it book.  Many of the students decided to color and write in it today, while others left the fun for later. J

For the child that wanted to explore art literacy, I provided an Art Library center.  There was an array of art books for the students to explore.  Artist biography books, art history books, and art making books were available to children. 

These three centers will be available to students for two more weeks.  Other than the Paper, Wood, and Yarn Building center that I talked about previously, the centers available earlier this summer were Observation Drawing , Watercolor Painting with Oil Pastel Drawing, Re-Used Materials Building, and a Huge “Home” Box Creation. The Observation Drawing was one of my favorites.  We studied observation drawing techniques in the Spring this year.  This center is where students had the choice to draw insect specimens that I brought.  Many students drew the encased beautiful exotic butterflies, while others drew the encased hairy tarantula and scorpion!  The children were able to use magnifying glasses to observe the specimen more closely.  Students could also choose to take their clipboard and go on a walkabout around the playground to find other things to draw.  Many students found live pill bugs and ladybugs to draw!

I hope the summer doesn’t run away too quickly, there is so much more to do!

-Miss Emily Marjoua