Last spring I got to see my most favouritest painting ever.


I love the feeling of still and movement, and the dark and light. Juxtaposition.  It's cool.  And the real thing is so much better than the poster that hangs in my classroom.  I loved seeing the actual brushstrokes that Van Gogh painted.

Van Gogh's Starry Night is the first "famous art" that we explore in Kindergarten.


We read about Mr Van Gogh with the Camille and the Sunflowers app.  The reference to painting Starry Night employs a bit of artistic license, but we can forgive that.  It gives the kidlets a glimpse into Van Gogh's life.


We explored a couple of apps - an interactive Starry Night animation and PlayART where you can create paintings with  Van Gogh-esque elements.


Don Mclean's song Starry Starry Night  is beautiful.




After looking at the swirl of the wind, and the shapes of the moon and the stars, we used white, yellow and orange crayons to draw our own Van Gogh night sky.

The night sky is painted on with three different colours of watered down blue poster paint.




One of my little guys said that our classroom will look like an "art museum" when our paintings are up on the wall.



I believe it does.






       
The poor little fellow in this book finds all sorts of things in his bed.  They keep him from falling asleep.  And that makes him grumpy.  Don't worry, the book ends well with him having sweet dreams. 


It gives us the opportunity to talk about using the sense of touch to make describing words.

A couple years ago I made a set of "feelie bags"  (must have been procrastinating writing report cards or something).  I found that elastic hair ties are just the right size for the top of the bag.



The kidlets used some pretty good describing words to tell about what they felt inside the bags.  We said that it was like giving a "clue" what was inside the bag.  

We talked about some things that might be in their beds keeping them from falling asleep.  Things that were sticky,  things that were prickly,  things that were cold or even things that were slimy.  A couple kidlets thought of things that were soft and cuddly.

We drew what was hiding in the bed.  And put a wide awake, grumpy face on the pillow.


The covers were hot glued on.


Using our sense of touch, describing words, printing, and a lift the flap bulletin board.  Pajama Day is in 3 more sleeps.  I love wearing my jammies to school.  It's all good.




My daughter is a Christmas freak.

When she moved away to go to university, she bemoaned the fact that December and university exams  coincide. I took pity on her, and decided to make her an Advent calendar.

It's now become a tradition.

No cheap chocolate.  No little trinkets to get caught in the vacuum cleaner.

A little bit of fun and stress release. 

Step one: Decorate 24 circles.


Step 2: Cut out a 24 bubble Christmas tree from the bubble wrap with the big bubbles.  I used a dry erase marker to make my lines.


Step 3:  Tape the cut out circles to the bubbles. ( I need to make my circles a bit smaller.)


Pop one bubble per day starting with December 1.

No calories, just a bit of fun.  And the delight of bubble popping. 

We will do a Christmas countdown in the classroom too.  

Last year I found this Santa's beard activity at La Classe Della Maestra Valentina .  Every day Santa's beard got a little bit shorter.


I haven't decided how to countdown to Christmas this year.  

Any brilliant suggestions that do not involve large numbers of cotton balls for Santa's beard?



There are books that are for story tellers.  There are books that are for artists.  There are books that are designed to give a message or idea.  There are books to make us laugh.

And then there are books for the soul.  They touch on everything - but oh, so lightly.  But they leave an indelible imprint.

Happy is one of those books.  

It is perfect for Perfect Picture Book Friday.  




written  and illustrated by Mies Van Hout

published by Lemniscaat, USA (2012)

juvenile non-fiction

suitable for ages 2 - 8, adult

themes  colour, feelings 

opening lines





synopsis 
In Happy, Mies Van Hout shows all the emotions a young child encounters.  Each double page spread is devoted to one fish, showing a particular emotion with its name  in lettering that expresses the same feeling.  from Amazon


I like this book because ... 
I am in awe of how colour and a few squiggles can so effectively communicate emotion.   

resources ...
The connection between colour and emotion that is explored in Happy  caused me to think about how that is explored in other books.


Happy Monster Sad Monster by Ed Emberly


My Many Colored Days by Dr. Seuss


My Crayon Talks by Patricia Hubbard


A Color of his Own by Leo Lionni 



The Way I Feel by Janan Cain

This week end, I am happy because I get to see my son who moved 4000 miles away to go to university in September.  Someone is going to get a huge mama hug and a bunch of chocolate chip oatmeal cookies to take back to school and get him through the last month before he comes home for Christmas.  

What will make you happy this week end?



            

We are getting to know Mr. Van Gogh.

One of my favourite artists.  And the creator of Starry Night.  A painting I  could get lost in.

We are chatting and doing activities about bedtime, nocturnal animals and space.  Starry Night fits in nicely.

Last night I found a new ipad app.


Loved it.  Bought it.  Played with it.  Gave it to the kidlets to play with.





Love the thrill of exploration, figuring out, problem solving and creative solutions.

Next week we will be creating our own stars and swirls.

This week I put out a space sensory bin for the kidlets to explore. 


The base is black beans sprinkled with a couple different sizes of silver stars.
I added:
space toob
glow in the dark stars and moon rocks
yellow sparkly pom poms
black pom poms
planet looking marbles
blue and black glass gems
space shaped containers
a couple of scoops/spoons


the kidlets add:
imagination
storytelling
oral language
co-operation
sharing
turn taking
counting
sorting
and a few more thing that I can't think of this late at night


A few simple bits and pieces in a clear plastic bin invites so much rich learning.  

I love sensory bins.




            

It takes more than a golden gorilla or a blue bear or a red rhinoceros sitting in a tree outside the bedroom window to frighten the main character in It Didn't Frighten Me!


For the last couple of days the kidlets and I have been reading, rereading, reading with a friend,  and retelling  It Didn't Frighten Me.


The book has a perfect frame for creating our own version of the story.

I put the frame in the pocket chart.  Everyone had a turn helping make a new story with the class.  Now they are choosing to make stories and read them (so love when they do that).


In the story a variety of strange coloured creatures sit on a tree branch outside a child's bedroom window.  This does not phase the supposed-to-be-going-to-sleep child at all.

The last animal seen up in the tree is a brown owl.  Now that was scary!  The kidlets figured that they would not be scared of an owl up in a tree by their bedroom.  But then, we have lots of owls living in the forests close to our homes.

The kidlets made a shapes owl inspired by a craft from DLTK.

They started with 4 rectangles and 4 triangles.


A few snips, and a bit of gluing, and we have a tree full of owls, each with their own personality.


National Geographic Kids has a great 3 minute introduction to owls video. Click on the owl picture for the link.


twit twoo - or something like that!


There are so many great monster books and monster activities that we could keep monstering for a couple more months.

But tradition dictates that Pajama Day is in November, and we are beginning to run out of November.


Before the monster stuff all goes back in the box, and the box goes back on the shelf, here are a couple of monster tidbits.


During my summer every-rock-must-be-painted phase, I made some rock monsters.  The kidlets did lots of sorting (putting in groups and having others figure out their sorting rule) and patterning.




We made monster faces.  I was inspired by some monster accessories and tried my hand at making my own.  What a fierce little monster!


We learned a monster dance.  That's right.  We learned how to dance like monsters.  For some, it wasn't a real stretch!

Way back in the olden days, I went to a McCracken workshop (I am quite fond of McCracken resources and think that it is a crying shame that they are no longer available)  and one of the handouts had The Monster Dance on it.  We made up our own actions.  I think that other classes are a little worried when we do the monster dance.  Click the stomp for a free download. 



next up, nocturnal animals 





            

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