from the atelier: 2/26/07

Kindergarten

The insect project in Ms. Hoddick’s class

Skills utilized: fine motor, drawing, building on knowledge of clay, slip, and glazing, wire and bending skills, gluing, and combining materials.

For this project, children were assigned an insect by Ms. Hoddick to research and study. The children brought their insect name and photogragh into the atelier to observe what the insect looked like by drawing it. Next they learned about making the parts out of clay and using clay glue to glue them together. The children also experimented with adding another medium, wire, to use for smaller pieces, like the legs, antennae, and wings. The children learned about prepping their insects by taking out the wire pieces before putting the clay into the kiln, and then gluing them into their premade holes after they were fired.

The non-verbal communication project in Ms. Hitomi's class:

This weekend I began processing the film from the cameras that the children took home with them... I was so excited to see what the children and parents had found in their environment that communicated something non-verbally to them. Wow! The pictures are really wonderful! This week the children and I will look over the photos and talk about composition and content to learn how to select the pictures that best represent their ideas. After this we will plan an interactive art show with the photos that the children have taken. Above is one of the children's pictures. What does it communicate to you? Is it just a sign, or does it communicate something else?

Preschool

3-year-olds:

After building with recycled materials, the children have been learning how to glue and tape down their building in order to create a more permanent structure. Here a child is working on a parking garage. This past Friday, the children began learning about papier-mache and covering their structures with it.

4-year-old class:

The children in the 4-year-old class have begun adding materials that they had suggested themselves to their wire sculptures. Some children wanted to use sticks, while others wanted to combine flowers and leaves. While making these sculptures, the children ran into a lot of problems figuring out how to keep objects connected. Some children knew how to do this, so I asked these children to show their techniques to the ones who were having a hard time. The children discovered many ways to use the wire and also began verbally naming some of these ways, ie., twisting, wrapping, and connecting.

See the gallery for more sculptures.

Posted on February 26, 2007 8:59 AM | Permalink