This week in the atelier

Preschool

3-year-old class:

The children have been using the clear shapes to make patterns and designs on the light table. To expand their work and thinking, this week the children set up their shapes on the overhead projector. The projection of the shapes fell on to the easel. The children then did some tracing to capture the design.

The children also had a chance to mix paint and then paint their shapes in. The piece shown above was one created by several children for Ms. Margie's birthday.

4-year-old class:

This week we continued our investigation of rainbows via the rainbow room. The group above decided to take a bus to Rainbow World. When they got there, they rode on the backs of dragons, monkeys, cheetahs, and pigs. The children also found magical stars in Rainbow World and kept them for putting into the sky when they go to sleep. Above, the children have dreams in Rainbow World.

Self-portraits

For the last several weeks, we also have been working on self-portraits. The first step has been sitting down with the children and writing down what they notice about their own faces. The next step will be for the children to slow down and draw themselves step-by-step according to what they observed about themselves earlier.

Kindergarten

Mrs. Hoddick's class:
Color wheels and mixing

This week we learned about primary and secondary colors. The children mixed the secondary colors together and then made color wheels. After painting, the children went deeper into color-mixing by combining many different colors to make new colors, i.e., adding more red to orange, or adding pink to yellow and then white. We kept track of the colors that the children came up with by painting them on to a mural graphed into squares.

Ms. Hitomi's class:
The Human Body Museum

For our final human body project class, the two groups set up the concoctions they had made for each other. Group 1 went down the line of containers and guessed what they thought the other group had made. Group 1 made the lungs, gall bladder, stomach, brain, and heart. Group 2 made the veins, heart, blood, stomach, and brain. Some of the children actually guessed the right body part. There was a lot of excitement and even some screams! The favorite amongst the children was the second group's brain, which was made out of jell-o. The children tended to feel that one for a very long time! What a good job the children did on this project. The body parts recipe book that the children made will be in their portfolios.