The Very Crafty Children

This week in PreK Art Lunch, we read books by Eric Carle. Starting with Walter the Baker and Ending with The Very Hungry Caterpillar, we also read The Very Clumsy Click Bettle and The Very Busy Spider. We looked at Eric Carle's beautiful artwork and talked about similarities in all the books (a lot seemed to happen early in the morning, and the sun plays a big role). By the time we got to The Very Hungry Caterpillar, lunch had mostly been eaten, and we were all anxious to work on the art project. I had done this project once years ago with one of my kids, on a trip to the Garfield Park Conservatory. I thought it was so cute and clever, I decided to use it myself. As we read through everything the caterpillar ate, the children filled their snack bags with the appropriate number and color pom poms (5 oranges = 5 orange pom poms, though I do admit to letting them choose other colors if they wanted to). I had cut out mini foam shapes to resemble a pickle, slice of watermelon, swiss cheese, etc., so they found those and added them to the bag at the appropriate time. When the caterpillar finally transformed into a butterfly, we put the bags together with a clothespin, added antennae and had our very own butterflies. And this time, even Beatrice let me take a picture of hers. : )

A Sun, A Heart a Rainbow and a Smiling Child....

....what could make that picture any better? 

How about the words "Happy Mudrs Day"? This picture was done by Max, and his mother asked me to turn it into a "raspberry." What better way to save those cards, notes and little doodles your kids draw all the time? 

I'll admit, I save almost everything that says "mom" on it. : )

Busy Art Day

Yesterday is my big art day at school. I teach a PreK Art Lunch class (see previous post), and I also teach another "Under the Influence" after school class. There are a lot of students signed up for my Thursday class, so I have a lot of art to show off. Again, we learned about Romare Bearden. I am planning on keeping my Tuesday and Thursday art classes the same. If there is a child who comes to both (like my children), I try to encourage them to take the project a step further. So, we did initials again this time (see Tuesday's post), but my son decided to do a picture collage to shake things up a bit.

I love how all of these turned out!

Thursday is a big class, and this was a fairly complicated project to start the semester, with lots of steps. The kids all did a great job!

Note: In the future, I will probably just combine these two classes to make up one post.

PreK Art Lunch-Week 1

Yesterday was our first PreK Art Lunch Class, and it was lots of fun. This first week there were 2 children, Teo and Beatrice. Others will be joining us in upcoming weeks. For the first day, I thought a great book to start things off would be "The Dot" by Peter Reynolds, one of my favorites. It's about a girl named Vashti who says she can't draw. Her art teacher tells her to "just make a mark and see where it takes you." Vashti angrily jabs her marker onto her paper. Her teacher looks at it and says "Now sign it," so Vashti does. The next week, when she goes to art class, Vashti sees her dot hanging above her teacher's desk, "all framed in swirly gold!" The rest of the story follows where that one mark ends up taking Vashti, how her art teacher encouraged her, and how Vashti goes on to encourage others. I love this book. 

We simply started by making our own "dot" paintings. With just dots, it was interesting to see how different the two final pieces turned out. There's really so much you can do with just dots. Beatrice did not want me to take a picture of her artwork, but Teo let me, so I am only posting his. I think it's great, and I too framed it in a little swirly gold.

A New Year....and New Art Classes!

I'm so excited to be offering 3 art classes this year at my kids' school this year. I am again teaching "Under the Influence....of Art," but on two days instead of just one (Tuesdays and Thursdays). Because I have some repeat students, and just to keep it fresh, I am changing up some of the artists we learn about. Or, if we repeat some of the big artists, the projects might be switched up a bit. I have a new energy for this class. 

I'm also super excited for a new class that I will be teaching Thursdays during the day, "PreK Art Lunch" for those preschoolers that are in 1/2-day preschool. They will bring a sack lunch and eat while I read them a story. Then we'll work on a small craft project related to the story. I can't wait for our first story tomorrow.

The first day of "Under the Influence" went really well. We learned about Romare Bearden, and then the students made mixed media pictures containing collage, crayon and water color. We started simple, with their initials (or a letter of their choice—for some reason my son chose "W"), but the outcome looks quite complex.  I love the way the final artwork shows so much texture, just like Bearden's work. 

I'm planning on posting more of the same project after Thursday's class, and I am also planning on posting pictures from the new PreK Art Lunch class. I think most kids love seeing their artwork on the web (I know mine do!), and I hope it encourages them as well.

By Georgia, I Think She's Got It!

 

It's been awhile since my last post. I've been busy working on a couple magazines I design for Chicago Public Schools, illustrating my sister's children's book, and teaching my afterschool art class. Speaking of that last one, the class has been going very well. A few weeks ago, we studied Georgia O'Keeffe. I wasn't completely satisfied with the projects we had done in previous classes, so this session I tried something different. The students drew two flowers, continuing to outline them to the edge of the paper. This created an abstract feel. We discussed "warm" and "cool" colors, and the children painted one flower mostly in warm colors and the other one mainly in cool colors. We discussed how the colors made us feel.

Dindi has been taking my class for a long time. Not only is she a great artist, but she is also one of my daughter's best friends. Her mother asked me to enhance some of her pictures, and the Georgia O'Keeffe project was one of them. I love these, and I think Dindi should be very proud of herself! 

With the holidays right around the corner, now is the perfect time to place your order for a one-of-a-kind work of art. Be sure to contact me with any questions.

rachel

jrswits@sbcglobal.net