Shadow Art 2015

We finished our focus on shadow and light with a couple of art activities.
 
The first was tracing shadows.  We set up two lamps so more than one
                     child could work at this at the same time.
                   
I referred to the lights as the sun and we angled it low to make the shadows
                                                 longer. 
                     
I hoped we could use oil pastels for this activity but the tip of the pastel was
                   to thick for tracing so we brought down the pencils.
  
I’ve mentioned before that younger children may have a difficult time seeing the shadow.  But once it was pointed out, the white paper helped, then they were able to trace around it.  The older children more so because it took a lot of fine
                                                  motor skill.
 
This child worked hard to set up the mini colander just so and then trace the
                  marks.  We thought it looked like a strawberry with seeds.

The other art activity was using stencils and chalk pastels.

            
It is the same skill as the first activity but simpler because the stencil is a solid form to trace.   This child really enjoyed this activity and did several pieces of art.
  
On to her second work; love her focus and the brush of chalk on her cheek from
                                         pushing up her glasses.
   
And just like tracing a shadow some children couldn’t see the outside of the
                                   stencil and started on top of it. 
         
          
I really enjoyed this art.  This is my piece, I overlapped the stencil and used
                                             different colours.

Exploring Shadows

For the past month we have been exploring light and dark, black and white. 
                This led us to using light to create shadows.
                  

The children recognize the light, and everything between the object and the light, but finding the shadow that lays on the table behind the object is very difficult. 
                
As the children played with the items on the table they created a spot light which
                  prompted me to get out our crank flashlights.
        
The only dark place, in our room to use the flashlights, was under the table.
                 Turned out the children liked the little hide away.
                  
                    I decided to give them something to search for.
                    
        I printed pictures of a bunny, cow, dinosaur, eagle and letters A-F.
                   
As we were discovering the pictures and letters, this child noticed that B goes with bunny.  Together we matched the rest of the letters to pictures but noticed that two letters didn’t have pictures to match.
     
A and F were missing pictures.  When asked what starts with A (ah) she thought and said "apple".  I encouraged her to draw a picture to add under the table.
                  
Then we worked on the letter F and decided to draw a frog but she said she didn’t
                              know how to draw it so I volunteered.

                
                    For a few days I left this message on top of the table.
    
           
                       More children discovered the pictures and letters.                    
                     It’s wonderful learning when the unplanned happens!

Cookies for the Birds

This morning we planned an outing to the marsh to feed the birds.
                     
We've been before because it’s very close to our school and is a short
           trail that our little ones can manage fairly easily.

We were going to make bird feeders but then I found this recipe at 
                            Imagine Childhood.
      
    It was a switch to bake cookies for the birds instead of ourselves. 
We followed the recipe, adding margarine, flour, oatmeal and baking powder.

                        
A fun part was when we added the egg, the recipe said to add the shell too. 
                         So we crushed it up with our hands.
  
Next we added bird seed and blueberries (we had some in the freezer)
                                and mixed it altogether.
                      
We rolled it out between two sheets of waxed paper and started to
                                use cookie cutters.

The cookie cutter didn’t work well so we decided to roll the dough into
                             balls and poke a hole in each.
             
They bake for about 15 or until hard and brown.  All ready to take the marsh.
   
We strung green yarn through the hole and looked for a tree to hang it from.
             
                The colours almost match the environment.
                          
                Will the birds find them?  Will they like them?