Piggies in the Bath and Blankets

Well this isn’t art in the way that you have a finished product but it is art in regards to colour mixing and using different tools (scrub brush and toy pigs).

Most of the children weren’t keen on getting their hands dirty so I moved the wash tub right up to the art table.  It allowed easy movement back and forth from the tub to the table.  Turned out that the piggies preferred to be clean.

Meanwhile at the snack table…
      
                   we made Pigs in a Blanket.

We used Pillsbury weiner wraps and hot dogs but I cut them much smaller.  It was interesting to watch that most of the children tried to roll the dough towards them rather then away.
          
           One can of 6 wraps made 24 piggies in a blanket.

We talked a little about that the weiners are made of pork that comes from pigs.

Feed Silo

I ended my post about our barn building wondering if our barn was finished.  A couple of followers gave suggestions for additions; a tractor, a windmill.
 
The windmill would have been great but not relevant to the farms around here. But the suggestion did inspire the idea for a silo.  I used the other half of the box that was left from the roof.  Crimping it allowed it to be curved in a circle, well almost.  I tied string around it to help hold it round.
          
The silo isn’t very big and probably wouldn't last very long if we made
a door for the children to go inside.        
     
Instead I thought I could build an apparatus similar, but much smaller,
to one of Tom Sensory’s.
      
A tube was threaded through the silo, one end higher than the other.  Two troughs were placed on either side of the silo and we use wood pellets for the food.

The animals were brought out of the barn to eat at the trough.
      
Soon all the feed is in trough on the low side.  How do we get back to
the other side?
                         
One solution tried was to scoop the food at the lower end to go up the tube. 
It didn’t work.
 
Another solution tried was to switch the troughs.  That worked.
      
A third way was to dump the full one back into the empty trough. 
That worked too.

A great day of playing and learning.

Feather Painting

     
 
        How easy or difficult is it to paint with a feather? 
The children experienced it this morning and showed us how to do it.
 
 
                     We saw some wonderful and varied results.

The feather painting also worked as a base for collage.
   
        
                   A mixed media collage at four years old.

We are Builders

               
The past two weeks we have been talking about building our barn.  What will it look like?  What material will we use? 

With these questions in mind I decide to create an invitation for the children to plan and build their own small structure.
 

 


They were learning about design, structures, balance, shapes, challenges, perseverance and accomplishment.

Some also learned the art of distraction – I can knock down a tower instead of eating the blocks.