We are studying the great artist, Claude Monet, this week. The children have enjoyed my stories using a mini Claude Monet finger puppet while talking about my time spent painting the water lilies and haystacks!
Language Arts: We read many stories about Monet and his garden, and paintings, both fiction and non-fiction, as well as other stories. These included: Philippe, In Monet's Garden, Monet, The Blue Butterfly-A Story About Claude Monet, The Woman Who Named Everything, Hanna's Hog, Maya and the Town that Loved a Tree, Maxwell's Magic Mix-Up, and numerous other Monet/art books! The sixth grade reading buddies came to read to our class. We are fortunate to have two classes this year reading and buddying up with our JKers! We wrote books with a beginning, middle and end, and illustrated them. Some of the stories were about the children standing on the same bridge Monet painted hundreds of times. It's so interesting to see how they incorporate all they are learning into their writing, drawing and play.
Fine Arts:
The children have been working on their self portraits while studying their faces in a mirror, careful to include accurate details. I loved seeing one child include eyebrows for the first time in her picture! We began making our March calendars, as well as pots of gold with rainbows for St. Patrick's Day season.
We have also been using pastels to draw Monet Haystacks. This was a three part project as we first drew the haystacks, considering what time of year as well as time of day they wanted to portray in their picture. After the pastel coloring, the children used water colors to fill in the background and foreground. Once they were happy with their work, they completed their pictures by gluing "hay" (raffia) to the haystacks to add texture and dimension. We talked about what different colors might mean in a painting, and which colors might portray happiness and sadness, or dark and light/night and day.
They asked if Monet could come visit our classroom and were sad to hear that he lived long ago. Someone commented that he is in heaven. Another child asked me if heaven is real. All in the day of Junior Kindergarten!
Math & Science:
The children practiced measuring different items in a game we play as they place blocks in line with images of a snake, rope, insect and pencil. They competed to make different patterns and helped their peers count and compare. The simple patterns are becoming more complex as one child was patterning ABCD. Another AABB.
We are discussing the science of a rainbow and how the colors are always in the same order as we worked on our pots of gold and rainbows. The children dictated their answer to, "What would you do if you found a pot of gold?". Most would buy things for their mommy and daddy. I was amazed with the items and the lack of expensive items they would purchase. They talked about buying some strawberries or a special toy, but most were very modest items.
We will jump into the wonderful world of Dr. Seuss next week! I will be sending home strips of paper for the children to fill out with books they read each night. They don't have to be Dr. Seuss books! Write them down and return them and we will use them to build the Cat in the Hat's hat!
Have a great weekend!
Ms. Massey
