Dear Families,
Last week we began work on our lanterns, learning the technique of blending pastels with our fingers and sponges . Children noticed that this makes the paper, “..feel soft.” We covered the smudged colors with water color paint and swirls of silver. We thought about the lights in the darkness at this time of year – on people’s houses and in the dark, starry skies. We talked about how we will need to cut small windows in the paper to let the light shine through and how the flat paper will be rolled into a cylinder to carry light.
We have enjoyed the wintry weather, rolling wet snow into balls and finding frozen puddles on our slide when we play outside. We continue to observe the changes in the world and the never ending transformation wrought by seasons and time.
Another project we have been enjoying is the illustration of songs we sing. The children collaged images from I Had an Old Coat, and began tracing some of the letters to form words. So far we put up one word, “Patch.” The children are very proud and excited to begin this process of writing and I see them noticing letters and print everywhere. “What does this one say?” “Which one says coat?” “I made that one.”
To help with this process we have begun creating our own alpahabet cards with thin strips of sandpaper. Tracing the forms of the rough paper helps everyone remember the way the letters are made and I am seeing every child practicing some form of writing as well as increasingly detailed drawings.
The children have been enjoying creating intricate shapes with play dough and pipe cleaners. Next week we will use clay so our creations can have more permanence. The desire to have work ‘stay’ indicates the pride children feel for their work. I have noticed more intricate building occurring too – large collaborations using scarves, animals, people and colored blocks. Children have requested that these constructions be left out, so we can look at them longer. We have been trying to allow for these buildings to stand after clean up, carefully skirting around the small cities, swimming pools, bridges, rivers and helicopter landing pads that arise daily.
At the end of the week we went to an amazing assembly with a member of “Bang on a Can.” The children were attentive and highly amused at the amazing sounds produced by blocks of wood, metal bowls, hula hoops, springy guitars, shells and many more unusual instruments. Imagination can transform anything into a wonderful sound maker!
Next week please remember to visit our book fair in the library with your children.
All the best!
Sarah