Expressive Arts Newsletter for March 2000.

ArtExpress

All Around the Sites

Volume 4

Issue 7

March 2000

Classroom Activities

Shannon Kellogg (Northwestern ECE Program, Good Hope, IL) and her children are continuing their study of "All Things Winter" by using one of ArtExpress' prop box samples called "The Mitten." It includes several pairs of child mittens, books on the topic, and suggested activities. Shannon added a new book to the children's collection called "Mitten, Kitten." It's a book about words that rhyme. She says her children really liked it.

Shannon says: Yesterday, the all-day children asked if we could do something with a "really big paper." I said "sure, we'd do it tomorrow." I brought in an
8 foot piece of white bulletin board paper.
We decided, as a group, to make a mural for our paper plate "snowmen to live in." We had a great group discussion about who would do
the painting, what color(s) we would need to mix up, and who would put the paper punch snow flakes onto the wet paint. It was one of
those "goose bump" moments for me as a teacher--9 children all
working and creating together. The color choice was black (for
night time). We used white and light blue paper to punch snow
flakes onto the wet paint. (Smart thinking since we are out of glue.) The children were very thoughtful, "snow sometimes looks blue at night." Next we folded paper and cut it to create big snowflakes and attached them with magic tape. Our snowmen will go on next. I can't wait until tomorrow when we put our project on the wall in the hall so everyone can see. The kids are so excited about the work they're doing and about working together to do it.

Sherial McKinney (Industry ECE Program, Industry, IL)

integrated children's interest in painting with both science and math. The children spent several days exploring and mixing shades of blue with white paint placed in containers at the easel. Next Sherial brought triangle-shaped wood scraps to the classroom. Her goal was to provide a 3-dimensional shape for the children to study. To draw attention to the many sides of the shape, the children were invited to paint their wood triangles in the many shades of blue.

Susan Docherty's (MacArthur ECE Program, Macomb, IL) classroom was full of fun cooking activities. During early morning free-time, children enjoyed taking turns playing with the Easy-bake Oven program on the computer and with cooking supplies in the dramatic play area. Several cakes were made (using the computer program) that had interesting toppings such as macaroni, jelly beans and confetti. Some children even put on prop chef hats and pretended to be cooks making meals. After reading the book, "If you Give a Moose a Muffin," by Laura Joffe Numeroff, the children made muffins to eat in class. Books about cooking and food were available in the book area including the cookbook that the class made during Thanksgiving. "The Gingerbread Man" was another of the kids' favorites. Many child illustrations of the gingerbread man and the fox were displayed in the hall outside the classroom.

Classroom Activities

Use the Valentine holiday to explore sending and receiving the gift of friendship. This is what Susan Docherty and her class did this year. The children drew a picture for their family and dictated to the teacher what they wanted to say. After their "letters" were finished, they were placed in an envelope labeled with the child's address.

Susan and the children took a field trip to the post office where they purchased a stamp, placed it on their envelope, and mailed it to their family. Susan says that she tried something new this year. She sent a stamped and addressed envelope home with each child along with a note to parents asking them to write a letter and send it back to their child through the mail. Susan read these to the class at school.

Amy Fullerton and Jodie Grindstead (Union Elementary Shining Stars, Biggsville, IL) say their children are still doing a lot of "snow" activities. One that the children thought was really fun and creative included making a finger paint mixture of 1 cup salt, 1/2cup flour, and 3/4 cup water. With this mixture the children finger painted their own snow scene onto blue paper. When the creations dried, they were very textured.

Cheryl Pilcher (Lafayette Center Pre-K, Jacksonville, IL) says she introduced the acrylic easel to the art center. The children paint directly on the easel and can look through to see their friends work. They can "save" their work by putting paper on top and pressing. Some children made 2-3 prints of one painting! Clean-up is even fun on the "see-through" easel--it takes a sponge and water and it's messy!

The children turned Styrofoam pieces into beautiful sculpture. They added wire strung with beads and toothpicks for gluing on all sorts of colorful collage pieces. One child colored the white Styrofoam with colored chalk. This project in the art center was revisited by the children over a period of several days.

Sue Craig (Avon ECE Program, Avon, IL) placed a large sheet of paper on the wall and invited the children to paint using a variety of different tools, including long handled sponge applicators, paint rollers, and stamps. Because the top of the paper was placed higher than the children's heads, they used a lot of muscles reaching high enough to cover the paper all over. Sue said, "Of course the children's hands somehow got into the paint, too." After the group painting was dry, Sue used it for the background for a new bulletin board display.

The children have been studying shadows recently. On Ground Hog Day, Sue put several flashlights out on the discovery table, some with batteries and some without. The children soon figured out how to put the batteries in and make the flashlights work. When some children asked why their flashlights didn't work, Sue asked questions to facilitate further investigation and discovery: "Does the flashlight have batteries? Is it turned on? Are the batteries turned the correct way?" Sue says they had a great time figuring out which way batteries go. Naturally the next step was to turn out the lights and create light and shadow with the flashlights.

To extend the children's study of shadows, using the expressive arts, Sue provided dark crayons and invited the children to draw the shadows they had observed. As is appropriate for this age group, most of the drawings were made of wonderful scribble marks. Some children tried rubbing the side of their crayon onto their paper to create a softer "shadow" form.

Older children might participate in this study more in-depth; doing observational drawings and creating more representational images of objects with shadows. A teacher might also invite children to look at how adult artists use shadows in their paintings, such as the surrealist work of Chirico or Monet's study of Hay Stacks with light and shadows at different parts of the day.

Resources

Internet Resources for Special Children (IRSC): <www.irsc.org/>: This web site is dedicated to communicating information relating to the needs of children with disabilities on a global basis. A large list of disability links is available.

Special Education Resources on the Internet: <www.hood.edu/seri/serihome.html>. This site is a collection of Internet accessible information resources of interest to those involved in the fields related to special education. The site continually modifies, updates, and adds additional informative links.

Early Intervention Related Links: <www.waisman.wisc.edu/earlyint/elinks.html>This site provides links to sites related to early intervention, children with special needs and their families. Information dealing with policy, research, and services is included. This is one of the most complete listings on-line.

Inclusion: School as a Caring Community: <www.quasar.ualberta.ca/ddc/incl/intro.htm>. Teachers seeking success with inclusion will find help and inspiration here. The site includes tips for preparing teachers and the classroom to include the child with disabilities, learning strategies, assessment, and adaptations.