“It’s a home for seeds. Cover them up with soil and they grow flowers!”

Last week in the Studio, all children in Pre-K learned how to make seed balls!  Friends had so much getting messy while fun rolling air dry clay in soil and wildflower seeds.  Once they dry, you can dig a little hole in the ground, plant and water them, and wildflowers will grow!  Seed balls will be available to purchase at our Pre-K Market this Friday, May 20th,  from 2-3:30!

Alli: It’s a home for seeds.  Cover them up with soil and they grow flowers!

Christian: Seed balls look like Oreo cookie crunch, but don’t eat them because they are dirt balls.

Siena: Making seed balls is fun.  I like getting messy!

Autumn: You can cover all the seeds up with clay.

Isabella: The seeds go in the clay and then you plant them in the ground and then flowers will grow!

Belen: A baby seed ball.  So cute!

Elmys: Seed balls. So hard.  Like rocks.

Jariel: Don’t throw seed balls.  They are too hard.

Waju: Wow, flowers will grow from them?  But they feel like rocks!

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“I make a snake with legs…he’s a transformer. Now he’s a juice box!”

Rose Red and Lavender Purple groups have been continuing to work on sculptures, and have been using a variety of materials to help them working three-dimensionally.  Children spent more time creating sculptures with clay, and learned how to use a wire cutter to safely remove sculptures from the table.

Christian: The wire cutter looks like a jumprope.  It goes under the clay and it cut it a little bit off the table.

Adriana: It looks like a rope and a cutter.

Alli: It was easy to use it to pull the clay.  You didn’t know I could use it?

Esther: When you bend the wire, it looks like a rainbow.

Amal: Wow, it’s working!  It did!  It’s not stuck to the table.

Naomi: The wire cutter looks like a spider web.

Amen: It looks like a puller.  I’m being responsible.  It’s not on the table now.

Jariel: It looks like a fishing hook!

Children used new tools to draw in clay, followed by collage materials to add details to their sculptures.

Kavalli: I make a snake with legs.  He’s a transformer.  Now he’s a juice box!

Dennis: I making pizza.  Happy birthday pizza.

Autumn: It’s a seahorse.  Poke it, it moves.

Jariel: This is Jimmy.  Jimmy likes to surf, but he lost his legs.  We need to take him to the doctor.  That’s his brother.  Now I need to make the baby, his name is Jayden.  Don’t eat him, or he will cry.  Don’t forget his little arms.  He wants to play.

Konone: I’m making a hot dog with fruit on top.  The sparkles are the fruit on top.

Jax: I found my bird.  He’s over here.  We have to use more sparkles.  I think he’s done now, he’s sleeping.  Wow, a new hat for the birdie!

Christian: I wrote my name in the clay.  Now I’ll squish it and make it like a flat pancake!

Bennett: It’s a snake.  It can just slither around… so strange.

Siah: It looks like the letter “I” and I can make an “S” like Siah!

The following week, children worked with Model Magic to create sculptures.  Friends used dot markers while they worked to change the color of their Model Magic.  Children enjoyed mixing and blending colors to enhance their work!

Christian: I know, that’s Model Magic.  I could see M-O-D-E-L M-A-G-I-C and that says Model Magic.

Sophia: I likes it.

Amy: It feels good.  It feels smooth.

Amal: Model Magic is stretchy like a band-aid.

Christian: I’m making a Sonic snowman, isn’t that fun?  He’s a hedgehog, like a porkypine.  Now I can make his friend Tails!

Belen: I made two friends.  Best friends.  They are best friends forever.  They playing hide and seek.

Cory: When you pull it apart, it looks like a mustache.

Over the next few weeks, children will be working on wooden sculptures.  Stay tuned for an update!

“Is it a bag of snowballs?”

By this point in the year, all children in Pre-K have had an experience working with clay!  It is one of my favorite materials to work with and I always love introducing it to children.  We began by examining clay in a plastic bag… friends felt it, poked it and attempted to lift it.  There’s always a sense of mystery around it, and we brainstorm what we think is in the bag.

Belen: It feels like softy.

Amal: I think it’s a ball that’s pretty.

Bennett: It feels cold.  Like snow or ice.

Cory: Is it a bag of yarn that can roll around the school?  It’s heavy, so that doesn’t make sense.  I don’t know what it is!

Naomi: Is it a bag of snowballs?

Victor: It sticky.

Once friends learned that it was clay, they began to work on their clay sculptures!  We had some different tools available… rollers and hammers for making it flat, clay scissors for cutting, utensils for mark making, etc.  Many children chose to work with friends and created dinosaurs and monsters, while others pretended they were chefs in the kitchen.

Christian: It’s hard to peel plastic off the clay.  It’s making my hands grey!  Hey, you can use the roller to make it flat like a sandwich.  Who wants a krabby patty?

Alli: That tool looks like that thing you use to flip with when you’re cooking.

Elijah: I watched Master Chef Ramsey and he tells people to cook a lot and he uses tools that look like that.  I’m gonna pretend I’m on Master Chef Junior and make a duck.  I’m gonna make the duck feet but I have to cut off the nails before you pretend to eat it.

Siah: I made a dinosaur.  He’s a t-rex, but I forgot to make his teeth.  I can just add them now!

The Wizard Forrest

“Is it a bag of cheese? It looks like a bag of cheese!”

Over the past couple of weeks, friends have been working with clay in the Studio!  Clay is one of my favorite mediums to introduce in the Studio because it’s open-ended and allows for rich conversation and imaginative play.

What do you think this material is?

Kofi: It looks like paper mache.  It’s heavier though.

Maia: Soft and mushy.  Is it frozen?

Abigail: It’s cookie dough because it’s white and it’s cold.

Ronan: I think it’s clay.  Hey, I didn’t know it would be wet.

Selwyn: It’s a potato because it makes the table dirty and it’s the color of a potato.  It’s heavy to me but I’m strong, I’m so strong.  I can pick up the potato.

William: Is that slime?

Adrian: I thought clay was brown.

Andres: Is it marshmallows?

Marley: Is it a bag of cheese?  It looks like a bag of cheese.

Alberto: If it’s clay then bricks are made from it.

Christian: It’s like a stone block.

Luke: When it dries, it’ll be hard like my skull.

Mae: Is it claydough?  Clay… like ballet.

Florentina: Hey, that feels interesting.  Is it wet paper that you put in a bag?

Once we discovered that the mystery material was clay, I introduced some different types of tools that would be available to use with the clay.

Daniel: It looks like what you use to flip a pancake.  And this one is a bammer… it bams spiders.

Ryler: That looks like a little fork.  It makes lines like a fork.

Abdoulaye: Cookers use that to make dough flat.

Alberto: Tools can do much more things then hands.

Kofi: That tool looks like a duck beak.  The wire tool makes it flat like a pizza dough.  Or a pillow.  It’s perfect.

Yonathan: That tool scratches like a tiger.

Bennett: I’m using the hammer like my daddy.

Mackenzi: The wire looks like nunchucks.

Mouhammadou: When you cut it with scissors, flatten it up with the hammer to make it feel better.

… and here are some finished sculptures!

Kofi: That’s the thing about art… you have to get messy.  That’s the point.

“Skunks are cute but I know they don’t smell cute!”

It’s been another great week in the Studio as we start winding down before starting self portraits and portfolio reflections.  At the small square table, there was the opportunity to observe, sketch and paint dried flowers.  Some friends illustrated the flowers, while other’s painted sharks, skunks and cupcake machines.

At the big table, there was clay and found materials to work with.  Children made puppets, jets and tornados that were under volcanos.

Miles: I made a flower now.  A beautiful flower.  That’s the bulb underneath.

Kofi: It’s a jet and it has every type of sugary food and every type of healthy food.  Those are the wings and the fire is shooting out the back.  It has a volcano in the front.  It’s blue and red but not because I like Barcelona colors because I just like red and blue.  Red buttons for the front wheels and blue lumpy bumpys for the back.  Mine is automatic so no one needs to fly it.  The automatic thing is in the front.

And then today… friends started making mustaches out of pipe cleaners.  TGIF!

And… Ms.Richardson and I wore our matching grey shirts today 🙂

Market Day!

Our Herb Market was a HUGE success yesterday! Thanks to all the families and friends that stopped by to support Pre-K! Here are some photos from our day 🙂      

 Today in the Studio, we had clay and pipe cleaners at the big table and liquid watercolors with pens at the small table.  Friends were busy creating all sorts of sculptures with the open ended materials and it was fun to relax after our Showcase!    

Jude: I’ll make all the ships.  Oh dear, this is hard.  It’s a jet.

Matteo: Mine is a Star Wars sun. 

Braeden: I’ll make Barcelona bracelets.  I can make one for all my buddies if they want a Barcelona bracelet. 

Abdoul: I’m making boats for everyone. 

Braeden: Give one to your sister, Ezekiel.  It’s big enough for you.  I’ll make one for Ms.Cushner because it’s like my job to make them. 

Jude: Can you make me a Madrid bracelet?

 Matteo: And I’ll make everyone a Barcelona spider.  I think all spiders in Barcelona are red and blue.    

Ebbisa: I’m painting the whole class.  I just made Alexia.  Haley, there’s you.  Now Jasper and you, Ms.Cushner.  And then me!  My favorite art group.  But I’ll put Ms.Richardson and Ms.Brown, too. 

Alexia: It’s a 6 legged spider.  It has 11 eyes.  Oh, one is a mouth and this is it’s tail.      

Gabby: Neche, I’m a real artist.  It’s abstract. 

Mouhammadou: A cactus.  A painting of a cactus. 

Elias: It’s a house.  The roller coaster is there but when it goes underwater it’s a fish town.

     

Samantha: I made a lightening bolt.  I’m a genius! 

AJ: That’s not how evolution works.  First, you start as something like a jellyfish and then you grow into a shark and then a monkey and then a person that can walk good. That’s what evolution is.

“Is it a bag of snakes?”

By this point in the year, all children in Pre-K have had an experience working with clay!  It is one of my favorite materials to work with and I always love introducing it to children.  We began by examining clay in a plastic bag… friends feel it, poke it and attempt to lift it, among other things.  There’s always a sense of mystery around it, and we brainstorm what we think is in the bag.

Moses: I think it’s mud.  It’s smooth.  I like how it feels.

Roman: It feels really, really, really, REALLY good!

Justin: Is it a big rock?  Can you tell us already?  I can’t wait!

Phoenix: A brick?

Alexia: I think it’s gak.

Michael: Is it a bag of snakes?

Marley: It stinks!

Once friends learned that it was clay (and not a bag of snakes, phew) they began to work on their clay sculptures!  We had some different tools available… rollers for making it flat, clay scissors for cutting, utensils for mark making, etc.

Sylvie: I’m just making bird soup.  They can eat it outside.  I might even eat it for my dinner because birds said it was yummy.

Cole: I need something to add to my house.  It needs a roof so that my little fella doesn’t get lost.  These are the shades… if little fella is in the sun it keeps him cool and shady.  He has a secret hideaway spot but he’s bigger then that.  He zaps and this little hanging thing gets her into his home.  He hides from the bad guy.  The little fella roof is there just for the little fella to get out of in an emergency.  It’s hard to build a house.

Paris: A bear cave and a bear.  He sleeps in there in the winter.

Wallace: Clay can do so many cool things.

Elias: Did you know that clay is made from a cow?  Oh, that’s not clay… that’s actually milk.

Maceo: A choo choo train through the tunnel.  This is the track… a big track for trains.

Minna: I’m making Ms.Cushner a birthday cake!  This is her party and she just turned 5.  Blow out the candles!

Owen: My battleship is stronger because it has pipe cleaners in it.

Darian: Two hedgehogs.  Two hedgehogs that are friends.

Once sculptures were finished, we had to figure out a technique for getting them off the table if they were stuck!  Fishing wire is perfect for this because it’s thin, yet strong enough to slide under clay without breaking.  Children enjoyed working with the fishing wire… some friends made holes and tunnels, while others used it solely to remove their piece from the table.

Jude: Is it floss that you put under to get it off the table?

Wallace: This is what you use to catch a fish?  That’s so cool.

Jasper: I’m putting the fishing wire through the clay to make tunnels for worms.

AJ: I got it off the table!  AJ saves the day!