Colour My World #5 - Inspired by Matisse

To further into complementary colours, Water group looked at how Henri Matisse used complementary colours. I showed the children the stained glass of Chapelle du Rosaire de Vence. They were immediately drawn to the blue, green and yellow patterns. We studied how Matisse presented nature through these 3 colours: yellow for the sun, green for vegetation and cactus forms, and blue for the sea. Next I showed the children The Parakeet and the Mermaid. They loved the colours because it made the painting danced. Inspired by Matisse's artwork, the children demonstrated their perspective of nature with their own cut-out designs.

Colour My World #4: Colour Magic!

After all the colour mixings, the Water group took a closer look at the colour wheel and learned about complementary colours (colours opposite one another). We read the book Mouse Magic by Ellen Stoll Walsh. In the book there's a Wizard who knows how to make colours jiggle and shake. And just like Kit, the mouse, the children tried to make the colours jump around by placing any two complementary colours together. 

Friday Art: Inspiration from Paul Gaugin

AJ: The sky is blue, the ground is blue
and the rocks are red!

Lucas: I'm painting orange rain.

From the children's idea of what their wonderful would look like, I introduced Paul Gaugin (GO-GAN), a French Post-Impressionist artist from 1848-1903, to them. I explained that just like their use of different colours for things in nature, Gaugin loved using unusual colours in his paintings of everyday things, people, and nature.

Sophie: I have yellow sky and dirt.

Then the children experimented with unusual colours in their landscape painting.

Colour My World #3: Water Group's Wonderful World

One day when Water group went for a nature walk in the forest, the children noticed that there weren't enough purple or pink colours in the forest. Sasha started a game by saying that the grass is purple. Then Olympia said the trees are pink and all of a sudden the children added all sorts of colours to the forest. Lucas got the children's attention when he started to sing "What a Wonderful World" and everyone started singing it too! To further the children interests of an imaginary world, we changed the lyrics to the song "What a Wonderful World" to describe what their wonderful world would look like.

What a Wonderful World
lyrics by Charlie, Jayla, Lucas, Olympia, Sasha, Sophie, and Theo

I see skies of green,
brown dirt too,
the moon is brownish red
for me and you
and I think to myself,
"What a wonderful world!"

I see beans of green
and pink flowers too,
the horses are pink,
the sun is blueish green,
and I think to myself,
"What a wonderful world!"

The moon is a rainbow,
so good in the sky.
White, black, silver and green
are the colours of the tree.
I see stars of blue,
flowers are white,
the rainbows are really
the colours of blue.

I see red like the sun,
runners all black and white.
Unicorns could be pinkish blue
and birds are white,
and I think to myself,
"What a wonderful world!"
Yes, I think to myself,
"What a wonderful world!"

Colour My World #2: Shades and Tints

This week we explored Olympia and Jayla's colour inquiry.

Olympia noticed that there is no pink in the rainbow and she really wanted to add pink. But how do you make pink? Sophie guessed by adding the colours red and blue.  Jayla thought for a minute and said: "That makes purple. And you know, you can get different kinds of purple when you add red and blue together. There's light purple, medium purple and dark purple."

So to find out, the children started mixing colours to create different shades (by adding drops of black) and tints (by adding drops of
white)! They were amazed as the colours get darker/lighter by adding different amount of black/white. Olympia was ecstatic when she made pink with red and white.

Colour My World #1: Looking For Colours

The Water Group started our Colour My World unit with a group discussion. We talked about the different colours around us and where we see those colours. Theo sees colours on houses; Sophie sees colours in rainbows; Jayla sees colours on ponies; Charlie sees colours on shirts and pants; Olympia sees colours on people's faces; Lucas sees colours in paint; and Sasha sees colours on animals.

The children were all fascinated with rainbows. Some thought there were pink, brown or black in a rainbow. What are the colours in a rainbow? We found some rainbow pictures and counted the colours. There are red, orange, yellow, green, blue (some children think it's light blue), indigo (some children called it dark blue), and purple. We painted a rainbow chart for art and the children came up with things around us that go with each colour.

Friendship Everywhere #8: Pet Rock Project

Friendship Everywhere #7 : The Tea Party

Tea time! 

Putting up the decorations

Preparing the food

Water Group children hosted a wonderful tea party last Thursday and everyone had a great time. We went through the checklist to make sure we had everything in place. Before the party began, we had a few rules for our guests to follow:

1) Be nice.

Serving the food

2) Do not ruin the decorations and food.

Making the cake

3) Don't break the teacups and plates.
4) Water group will pass the food.
5) Please do not grab.
6) Please share the food.

Water group children constantly made sure that everyone had enough to eat. They showed such commitment and enthusiasm that  I believe they will be experts at planning their future parties!

Friendships Everywhere #6: Preparation for a Tea Party!

Inviting our friends

Making decorations

Last week, I read the story Miss Spider's Tea Party by David Kirk and the children all felt sad when the other bugs ran away from Miss Spider. Olympia mentioned: "She wants them at her tea party, she's not going to catch them." Jayla continued: "Yeah, maybe they(the bugs) just need to know she's not going to eat them." I asked the children how do we meet new friends. Lucas said: "You can say 'Hi!'" Theo said: "You can play with them." I told the children that one way that adults meet new friends is at parties. The children were drawn to the sound of parties. Below is a caring and cute conversation with the phrase "throw a party":

Making paper hats

Olympia: We should have a tea party for our friends!

Mary: Sure! Let's throw a party for our friends at Creative Minds. 

Theo: (Looking quite concerned) Are we throwing the party or are we having a party? 

Mary: Can you explain more to me?

Theo: Are we going to throw the party at the children or ...

Mary: I see! Throwing a party means having a party. We are not going to throw things at people. 

Theo: (With relief) Oh! 

Making gifts for the guests

The Water group is doing preparation work for our tea party on Thursday. The children came up with so many great ideas for the party. We need to invite our guests, make decorations, make paper hats, make a cake, prepare teacups and pots, and gifts. What a organized and thoughtful group of children! 

Friendships Everywhere #5: Friendship Pie

Decorating with fruits

Filling pies with custard

 I asked the children how they feel/think about friendship one day. All of them felt that it is very important to have friends. But how do we make friends?

Sharing pies with our friends! 

We read the book Enemy Pie by Derek Munson . Before reading the book, the children imagined that enemy pie would taste sour, disgusting, and yucky. They were all very happy and relieved when the pie turned out to be delicious! Jayla mentioned: "They (the boy and Jeremy) just need to play together for a bit so they can be friends." Everyone was glad that the boy and Jeremy became good friends because it was better to have friends than enemies!

Playing with a friend

The children also made their own friendship pie. Just like the boy and Jeremy, each child played with with someone who they don't normally play with. All of them kept an open-mind and found their special someone!

Friday Art: Working with Clay

Lately, the children have showed great interest in the story The Three Little Pigs. They were especially drawn to the houses that the pigs built. They were commenting on how the wolves destroyed the houses because they weren't sturdy enough and how they would build it so the wolf would not blow it down.




So for art today, the children made their own houses with clay. They had so much fun getting their hands dirty with the modelling clay while still being very particular on the details.

Friendships Everywhere #4 - Expectations in Friendship

Should...

*good friends always stick together?

*good friends always decide together?
*friends always be fair?

The children thought about the expectations of the characters from Friends by Helme Heine. I asked them if they agree to the rules or not. Here is what they think:

So how should friends be with each other? What are the expectations in friendship? The children created a poem on the smart board to express their feelings about friendship.

Friendships Everywhere #3: Showing Appreciation

The children always have a big smile when they describe what they do together with their friends. So this week we explored further into the connection between friends. I asked the children what friendship feels like and they all
said it feels happy!

We read The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein and the children immediately noticed that the tree is a very good friend by always sharing and giving to the boy. I asked the children what are some ways the boy can show appreciation(one of the IB attribute words) to the tree. The children suggested: give a hug, give a kiss, give a present, or give a card.

The children wanted to give something to their friends too. They wanted to let their friends know that they appreciate the happiness they received from them. So they made a thank-you card and beaded a bracelet to give to his/her special friend.