Continued Birthday Party In The Making...

We have an update on how our project is going for the "birthday party in the making"! The children's pinatas are fully dry and ready to begin painting! We wanted one red and the other blue. ;o)

The children worked very carefully together as they made sure to cover and paint over all the paper mache!

Doing artwork and painting has always been our choice of work in this class..We are perfectionist at this! 

Another ongoing thing with the birthday project is the birthday card we have began on. After the girls started on the card the boys also practiced and signed their names in it next. The children are all adding a little something to show their contribution to all of the things for this occasion!

" I love making D's! "

We are waiting for the pinatas to dry so we can decide how we would like to decorate it! The next thing on our list that we said we need for the birthday party is a napkin, only ONE! lol We are now moving on to what we will do with this napkin and how it will contribute to our birthday party! We have started talking about what we will eat!!!! 

Check back soon to see what becomes of this napkin and things we are considering to bake! ;-)

String,Balloons and A Brown Piece of Paper!

Hopefully you have been keeping up with our "Birthday Party Planning."  If you have been missing in action, you can see the start of this project on the following link.........

http://littlewonderspre-school.blogspot.com/2011/09/preparing-for-birthday-party.html

We still don't know who the birthday party is for ;0) but we are still planning!!!

Next on the birthday party list was a brown piece of paper with strings!

We put these materials in front of the children and asked them what they would like to do with it? The girls told us they wanted to make balloons with strings on it!

So we grabbed some construction paper and started cutting them out! ;-)

These girls sat around the table and talked about what colors their balloons were.  We then started sounding each color out to see what letter it started with!

  After we decided what color strings we would put on our balloons, we grabbed a ruler to start measuring our piece of string to see how long it would be..and if it was just right to fit on the paper! ;)

 

These girls wanted it to be way longer than the whole ruler! We talked about 12 inches on a ruler and how 12 inches = 1 foot. So than Ereeni told us she wanted her string to be 2 feet! So we grabbed two rulers to count out 24 inches!

 After cutting out our balloon shapes and string measurements, we were ready to starting gluing our things on and decorating it!

The girls LOVED putting all this glitter on their balloons.  Sparkles just make everything look better! ;0)

After getting each balloon on, they wanted to write their names on their brown piece of paper, so everyone knew this was their beautiful masterpiece! 

Strings,Balloons and A Brown Piece of Paper! :o)

What comes next?????  Check back soon to find out!

Dinosaur World

The boys have gotten a sudden interest with all the Dinosaurs in the classroom! They are imagining they are living in a dinosaur world. Dylan was sitting in the reading area where he found a book on Dinosaurs which caught his attention. He than had an idea to take the toy dinosaurs and imprint their foot in the play dough. This created a project within itself! All the children decided to give it a try! ;-)

                                             "I think I want to try to get an imprint of this pointy tail!"

                                        "I have to roll out enough play dough for each of my dinosaurs!"

After doing a little experimenting with the play dough, we used clay to create our own dinosaurs!

Ms. Kelly took us in the art studio where we examined a dinosaur and looked at all the body parts and talked about how they are used..we finally decided we were ready to make our very own! ;-)

Johnathan's Dinosaur!

This student used Popsicle sticks for the dinosaurs legs! We then got to put our dinosaur's next to the toy ones and create our own little story!

The children sat around and shared different details of their dinosaurs.

Dylan told us he has his own eating place for his dinosaur where he ate only meat!

Jack told us his dinosaurs ate plants.

They also said the eating place became an airplane where food came falling from the sky and landed upside down because it was very sticky! ;o).

The children are enjoying this project.  They shared beautiful conversations about the dinosaurs, what they ate, where they were going, and so much more.  This has helped us learn about the differences in the dinosaurs and which ones were meat eaters vs. the plant eaters.  We are drawing and creating the dinosaurs out of many materials.  We are even spelling the word Dinosaur and other names of the dinosaurs.   

 Check back soon to see how this project progresses!

Preparing for a Birthday Party!

 Amanda, Ereeni and Natalia have been preparing for a birthday party! When we ask who the party is for, Ereeni says, "I can't tell you because it is a secret!"

This is what they said they need for the party:

• 1 napkin
• A big piece of brown paper
• Some string
• A pinata
• A birthday card for the birthday person

So as we decided to begin all the preparations for our party, the children chose to make their pinata first!
We had a conversation on pinatas before we began on it.. We asked the kids:

•  what is a Pinata?
•  what is a Pinata used for?

The children told me candy was inside of it and it was made out of lollipops and chocolate!
Dylan told me Pinatas are made for birthday parties.

We set up a table for the children to experiment and begin making their very own pinata!

                                                   First we mixed a bowl of flour and water...
                                                                   

                                           We put pieces of newspapers in the mixture...

                                                        than we covered the whole balloon!

    After the balloon was totally covered we put it to the side so it could dry! Once the balloon is completely dry, we will pop the balloon and the shape will still be there for us to fill up with candy!

The next part of our project we went to was the birthday card we needed! The children told us they needed to write, "Happy Birthday" on the front of it and sign their names.

The children are practicing their writing, with their names and other words for the card. They are also practicing their numbers for how old the person is turning!

This project is progressing in many different ways. We will use each of the items needed for the party to explore writing, counting, reading, science, art and more.  The children have many different ideas of how and what they would like in their birthday party..this is just the beginning ,check back soon to see what's next on the list and how the project is going! :)

Hand Painting

 To children, color is one of the most attractive qualities of the visual world, from the subtle colors of the natural world to the bright colors of their toys, clothes and books. They need lots of opportunities to observe color in the environment, to notice how artists use color and to use color expressively in their own work. Paint is the most suitable medium for exploring color, because it is fluid and easily mixed, and young children will enjoy exploring how it behaves, as well as how it feels.

We are always using paint brushes to paint, but one day instead of painting the paper, we started to paint our hands.  Soooooo............

                                           "So I will start off first by using one finger to paint."

           " I'm going to use all 5 fingers to make a  pink hand print!"

                                             "We love sticking our whole hand in the cup of paint!"

                                                                   " This feels cool! "

                                                 "I'm using two hands to make blue circles!"

                                                                                                          Painting based on children's experience, real or imagined, gives them opportunities to:

• use paint and color to express their own lives and interests
• use color both imaginatively and descriptively.
• By 2 years old, children  are intrigued with paint and clay and ready to experiment with paintbrushes and other paint media. 
• Most children enjoy the sensation of spreading paint with their fingers.