First and foremost, we want to give a HUGE thank you to all of our Nursery parents for helping the children pick out an outfit for each day of color week. It was a great success and a great way for the children to get excited about the projects and activities they worked on all week. It was so much fun ending the week with rainbow day as the class was so colorful and vibrant. We hope to do more fun activities like this in the future!
Yayoi-inspired Sculptures
The children came to school early this week excited to paint their paper clay sculptures they made last week. Before painting them, we looked at pictures of more sculptures made by Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama and talked about the colors and patterns (polka dots) that were most common in her work. The children chose one color to use as the base of their paper clay sculpture.
The next day, the children remembered they were going to paint polka dots just like Yayoi Kusama. We talked about dots being circles so we chose to paint with Q-tips and thin paintbrushes. Some friends painted with just one color while others painted polka dots with many colors like Yayoi Kusama also did in her work. What wonderful artists we have in our Nursery class! Please look forward to seeing their scupltures at the culmination next week!
A BIG Project in the Making
As the children have become familiar with the artwork of Yayoi Kusama, an image that kept popping up and was a big topic of conversation was a room covered in polka dots. You can see one example here. As we mentioned before, the children said they would never be able to do something like that at home. They asked if we could do it at school and Teacher Julie and Teacher Natalie were happy to oblige! :) The children talked about places that they thought they could cover in polka dots (the floor, the tables, the ceiling, the walls). After some discussion and guidance with the teachers, it was decided that the loft would be the best location. One of the first steps to their big project was to start by covering things in dots...no problem for our Nursery friends! They chose different colors of paints and dipped magnets and bottle caps into the colors and stamped them on white items.
On Friday, the children were so excited when they came to school as they saw that the loft had changed. They walked up and found it covered in white paper. Some children said it must be for dots like the Yayoi Kusama pictures they had seen. Right away, they asked if they could put dots on the white paper. The children took turns placing dots everywhere however they wanted with no restrictions. There was something therapeutic about peeling the stickers off the sheets one at a time and placing them on a clean white surface. The children asked for more and more and soon we ran out. We won't show you too much of their work as we would like to save some of it for a surprise when you arrive on Wednesday for the culmination! :)
On Thursday many Nursery friends helped make play dough by pouring and mixing all the ingredients: flour, water, salt, oil, and cream of tartar. We chose to make green play dough as it was St. Patrick's Day and "Green Day" in our Nursery class. After the play dough cooled, a lot of friends also helped knead the play dough. What great helpers we have in our class!
We ended the week with some colorful activities (in addition to our colorful polka-dot loft) which included rainbow accessory making, building with colorful magnets and painting vases. In addition, the children came across a tool set that includes a toy hammer, screwdrivers, pliers, a saw, and a wrench. They took turns "improving" the classroom and they were hard at work.
Finally, the children were invited to Teacher Kyla and Kathleen's Kindergarten class to enjoy kamishibai or Japanese storytelling. Our Nursery friends walked in so quietly and sat so attentively to listen and watch "The Magic Acorn". James said he liked the dragon character the most while Mia said she liked the dog. What a treat for the children to watch the older children share their creative work!
The children will continue their project early next week in time for the culmination Wednesday afternoon. We can't wait to see how their masterpieces turn out. Thank you again so much for a colorful, happy week!
-Julie and Natalie
-Julie and Natalie