The Colors and Textures of the Summer Garden

The garden provides constant inspiration for the children's work.  These students created a vase and platter to capture some of the colors and textures of the herbs and flowers that grew during the summer months.  They used basic techniques for working with clay: flattened, rolled, coiled, smoothed, along with adding details with carving tools. The teacher encouraged them to explore and manipulate the clay.  One of the great qualities of clay is that there’s never a wrong way. The imperfections added uniqueness to the finished product.  After the items dried, they used a variety of painting techniques to capture the rich greens of the rosemary, the deep reds, and fascias of the begonias as well as the soft pinks of the impatiens.

This is no Ordinary Flower!

Sunflowers,  associated with loyalty and longevity, are certainly the happiest of flowers. Their vibrant color can't help but cheer up the day. Dating as far back as 1000 BC, they have served as religious symbols, a food source and have provided inspiration to many artists.

Facial Expression-The Master of Communication

The amount of information that can be conveyed with simple facial expression is extraordinary; a smile, grimace, twitch of the eye, puckering of the lips goes a long way in letting others knows how we are feeling. Verily facial expressions are a universal form of communication. In particular, the eyes, often referred to as the “windows to the soul” are the masters of the human face.

This is especially true of infants and toddlers who have  limited use of words to communicate how they are feeling about particular events and experiences. As such, teachers must be avid observers, finely tuned to the emotions of the children in their care.

Capturing Dreams!

When a group of children were asked to collaborate on a year end mural, interesting things happened. The piece of art intended to portray, The Hundred Languages of Children by Loris Malguzzi, took on a form of its own as the children added segments that depicted their aspirations for the future,

the places they'd travelled, their school, homes, friendships they'd formed and "dreams for tomorrow".

Come Fly with Me!

In the Light, What did I see?

Teachers often ask me how we assess the children in our schools to ensure they are meeting the criteria for development, milestones etc.  Here is a wonderful opportunity for a teacher to check off a few.

What has this child mastered?

Children are the best Humanitarians.

When you ask children what they want to be when they grow up, they usually choose a career that supports the well being of the human race; a policeman, a firefighter, a doctor, a teacher, an environmentalist, a veterinarian, a forest ranger.  They've only been here for a short time yet they seem to understand, sometimes better than adults,  that people need to support one another and have care for the earth.
Of course some people will argue that they make these choices because they are the people that children most often encounter in their daily lives. I like to believe that children just get it!

Henry wants to be a Needle Doctor, not the kind that only takes blood, but one that will discover "new medicines to make diseases go away!"

The Final Product

Paula's Strawberry Plant is completed using watercolors.

Flutter and Fly

And yes, the child does work in a hundred languages!

What Vegetable Plant Yields this Flower?

Not only does the garden produce delicious vegetables, it also yields magnificent vegetable plant flowers. Do you know what this one is? If you guessed a zucchini then you're  correct.

Bianca began with a photograph of the zucchini flower in the garden.

She drew the plant and flower in pencil and then used acrylic paint to complete her work.

The tiny ladybugs added just the right touch of color!

Sand Winged Butterfly

A child's drawing, loose materials and a few containers of sand can produce magnificent art!

Why do we love Butterflies?

A trip to Blue Willow Butterfly Conservatory always leaves us feeling an affinity for these lovely insects. A childhood myth kept us believing that most butterflies only lived for a day when in fact most live for a week and some up to a year. One year we discovered that monarch butterflies migrate from Canada to Mexico in the fall. Image!