One of Those Days

Have you ever had one of those days when nothing seems to be going right? I was going to use today's project center session to retry a map project. I have a batch of old maps that I like to recycle for art projects. The lines and shapes on the maps give a new spin on color placement when painting or using oil pastels. I didn't have buy-in on this project last week -- the lines and shapes of the maps did not appeal. I thought I would try a different approach today using egg shells.

We had a large collection of egg shells sitting in the fridge, but it seems between today and last week, they were thrown away by an industrious adult with the goal of cleaning out the fridge -sigh-. I sent out an email asking for more eggshells and went outside to cut stalks from our different ornamental grasses. The children sketched these using permanent markers and then painted the drawings using watercolors.

A good use of our time, certainly, but I am really, really looking forward to using the eggshells on maps. Stay tuned!

Art Cards

The parents at Takoma Park Cooperative Nursery School printed sets of cards featuring the incredible artwork from last year's class! First, they sold these to the parents at the school and now they are available to purchase through the school's website. They really are stunning and the quality of the printing is delicious!

The proceeds will be put right back into art supplies, for sure!

-click here to check out the collection-

Fine Art Portraits

The collage self-portraits are the result of months of study, centering on math, science, and sense of self, our place in the world. These are now on display in the classroom and perfectly placed for a documentation session. Using permanent marker and watercolor, the children took their second look at their portraits.

Spirals and Circles. Round, Round, and in the Round.

We have talked a lot about circle designs and the children have made a few circles themselves! Our next conversation took us to the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore, Maryland.

The day before we went, we set out conch shells. A one stop for the loveliest of nature's spiral designs (others can be found in this pinterest collection -here-).

The children used watercolor to paint their documentation drawings.

Then the next day, spirals and circles were everywhere!

Found Objects (Add Paint)

The tibia bone adventure continues.

We usually use watercolor for the documentation paintings. Watercolors seem to provide the young painters with the opportunity for a total departure from the thing in front of them. It is as if they look through a prism and it gives a sparkling rainbow effect to willow branches, gourds, or other objects we bring in from outside to document.

The tibia documentation struck me as something different altogether and knowing that the children will be imagining their own skeletons soon, it made sense to me to document the bone using a paint that would better capture the colors that were there. Browns, greens, whites, grays, and blacks. In tempera.

Found Objects

Parent involvement means that you have that many more eyes and ears open for opportunities. We have exponential awareness of activities and items. We are on the same page, moving in the same direction. So exciting when a parent brought in a bone they found on a hike. We don't know what kind of bone it is by the way. It seems to be a tibia. I vote for bear, but most of the votes have come in as dinosaur.

Documentation is the natural next step.

Documentation

Permanent marker and watercolor documentation. Fall is a great time to be thinking about line, pattern, texture, and color. Below are a set of photos from our 4 and 5-year old class and their first foray into documentation-type drawing. 

Upon arrival, we asked the children to choose a gourd to draw using
a black permanent marker.

Beyond that initial "ask," we only reminded them that they did not have to worry
about coloring in the colors because they would be painting it later.

We brought the gourds in later to display for the painting session.

In this case, we were using liquid (Colorations) water colors.

The colors of Autumn.

Vines and leaves take shape.

All four gourds take shape.