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Hi there! Despite the dreary weather outside, we were ready to have fun so we made a snug and happy place for ourselves inside. We started the day with our calendar, weather, and circle time routines, then quickly moved on to art.
Today's art project was a two-step process. First, we used watercolors to paint wet-on-wet in an icy blue color. I encouraged proper grip of the brush and gentle strokes so we didn't leave marks from the ferrule in the paper or rip its delicate surface. I modeled proper brush use for the littles by drawing from Waldorf philosophy and making a little story of it that goes something like this:
Good morning, brush! I see that you're awake and you want to paint. Are you ready to dip your toes in the water (dipping brush slowly) Oh! The water is cool, so you want to go in slowly? Now your feet are wet... let's dry them off so gently (gently pressing excess from brush against side of jar). Now it's time to skate across the page and spread your bright blue! (stroking brush softly across paper). What? You'd like [child] to use you? Ok, let's try!
The kids really like this warmup for watercolor painting and it is a nice way to remind them of the proper way to do things instead of listing a bunch of do's and don'ts.
Once everyone had a chance to do their watercolor painting, we had some pretend play time. We had a wonderful time pretending to be dogs and owners, and it was an extra-fun way for me to connect with the kids at their level as I played along.
When the watercolors had dried, we used a section of okra to make pretty snowflake-like prints on our blue papers. The prints turned out nicely and looked like lacy little snowflakes.
After that, we made another pillow obstacle course, but it seemed we had few wiggles today so we rearranged the pillows into a nest of sorts and snuggled while we read several of our January books. We also read Stranger in the Woods, a book about animals investigating a snowman made just for them in the woods. The photos are not only lovely to look at, but show familiar animals up close in a way that the children might not otherwise get to see... little did we know we were in for a close(ish) encounter of our own! One of the children wondered if we could put some seeds on our own snowman, so we did.
All too soon it was time for naps. When the children woke, we had fun counting and making patterns with a variety of felt cut-outs in the shape of fruit. It was a fun way to practice one-to-one correspondence. I had a fun time taking pictures... with no memory card in the camera!
Shortly before it was time to go home, I happened to glance out the window and saw there were nine deer in the field behind the house, so we all gathered around the window and watched the deer graze for a bit. This time I remembered the memory card!
See you tomorrow!