“Weaving is relaxing, you can see your progress.”
Weaving contributes to growth and development in many ways – fine motor skills, focus and attention, eye / hand and left / right coordination, and direction following. Best of all, rhythmic motions and the tactile experience with yarn becomes meditative.
Community Circle Rainbow Weaving
Work in progress outside the art room
Everyone is invited to weave…
Patience is learned in many ways.
Weaving requires mathematical thinking, estimation, and measurement.
Working in teams, children measure approximately 18 feet or 6 yards of warp for each cardboard loom!
*This measurement may vary from class to class due to different sizes of cardboard looms.
Ask your child, “What is warp?
How do you estimate how much warp you need?
Why does a loom need warp?
Grades 2 and 3
Fold and glue flat paper strips into varied sizes of triangular forms.
Playfully explore ways to stack and connect them to express your ideas!
Grade 3
…fold, bend, loop, twist, cut, connect…
Costumes and puppets – oh, yeah!
Grades 1 and 2
…a glorious time when children choose from a variety of art tools and materials, work independently or collaborate with friends, and fully express their ideas.
The Grand Block / Rock Collaboration
Through exploration, children discover how to make lights and darks, vary brush strokes, mix new colors, and clean the watercolor sets back to rainbow colors!
How do pictures tell a story?
String puppets
1. Draw a background.
Think of it as scenery on a stage.
2. Make characters.
3. Tell your story and act it out with your characters!
Grade 1
If there were no lines or shapes would there be written alphabets? Find out more in –
Ox, House, Stick, The History of Our Alphabet
By Don Robb
Alphabets can be artistic, too.
Word Designs
Grade 2
Line and shape designs
Draw around the shape of a ROCK!
Draw more lines. Extend lines, vary lines, overlap lines.
Connect lines to make shapes, overlap shapes.
Add color.
Grade 3
Ink blot doodles
New doodle ideas with lines . . .
Repeat lines, surround shapes
Meander
Connect ink blots
Grades 1, 2, and 3
I am back to Gloworm after a six month hiatus and want to introduce my new family member – FINN – a golden retriever puppy!
Also, I am finding time to doodle again!
Develop craft –
Understand techniques and demonstrate that understanding.
Stretch and Explore –
Reach beyond the familiar and explore playfully.
OF CLAY !
white clay – wet
white clay – drying
white clay – dry
red clay – drying
red clay – fired!
During the month of January children in first, second and third grades have been exploring the possibilities and limitations of clay focusing on using our hands as tools. We will continue to practice basic techniques for shaping balls, rolling coils, pinching pots and pressing slabs. Also, we are learning how to properly use and care for a variety of clay tools.
Week 1: Explore:
Pinch, pat, pull apart, roll, and squish the clay together.
Using your hands, change the shape of the clay to show your idea.
Pass the “pick up” test.
Week 2 – Practice:
Draw different kinds of lines with a clay drawing tool.
Stamp designs with plaster and clay stamps.
Cut out shapes with metal shape cutters.
Explore textures with wooden tools.
Design a clay heart using the techniques above.
Pass the pick up test.
Week 3 – Assemble – parts to whole:
Envision an idea for a clay snowman, snowcat, bear or other animal.
Practice the “scratch and attach” technique. (Scratch, scratch, wet, attach.)
Starting with balls and coils, model the body parts.
Assemble the parts together using “scratch and attach.”
Notice how parts put together make a whole object.
Pass the pick up test.
To be continued!!!
a hopeful gesture of winter and fascinating work for children.
Mickey my golden retriever died peacefully last week. She was nearly 14. Many Park children and faculty knew Mickey, enjoyed her antics as a petty thief, and snuggled in her soft fur.
Stack and balance.
Take apart.
Put together in a new way.
Do this 3 times.
Stretch your thinking.
Explore possibilities.
Express your best idea.
Glue together with wood glue.
Voila!
This short Thanksgiving week in art, children shared their artistic talents. They drew, colored and designed “Kindness Cards” for people who go to the Weinberg Housing and Resource Center seeking food and shelter. These two basic human needs are studied in third grade.
The children worked in a purposeful, heartfelt manner. When asked about how someone might feel receiving a handmade “Kindness Card,” children said, “cared for,” “like they are not all alone,” and “loved.”
Happy Thanksgiving to All!
Grades 1, 2 and 3
