Toddler Masterpieces

Blue and purple have been the colors of choice at the art easel this month.  We mixed, swirled, splashed, and dabbed...

Toddler "E" even enjoyed the sensory experience of painting her hands.  The benefit of having a small group of friends is that there is time and space to do kid stuff... like paint yourself, and the teacher doesn't get stressed.

Paint washes off, but these experiences and memories will build the brain the child will have for a lifetime.  That is totally worth it.

In with the New!

We kicked off the first day of the fall semester 2019 today!  A great time was had by all.  Ms. Harmony is looking forward to seeing the new friendships develop with this little group.  :)  We worked on learning how to open and use glue sticks today by making these shape buses.  Important info was shared, like:

• put the glue on your paper, not the table
• you have to stick the shape on the glue spot before it dries, or it won't be sticky anymore
• the glue stick starts purple and dries clear
• wheels are round like circles
• windows are rectangles

Work Time went really smoothly, and the Art Area continued to be a favorite place to work as you can see!

Friend "Sandwich" is really interested letters.  Ms. Harmony pointed out the "red" sign that she made for the art easel.  He named all the letters in the word and stated that "it says red because the paint is red!"

Toddler "Koala" and Friend "Sheep" used the Explore Table the most out of everyone today.  There is just something fascinating about poking these long fuzzy sticks or dry pasta through the holes and watching it disappear.  Not to mention, we used our ears to hear the clacky sound the noodles made when they moved around.

 I spy a worm poking through Friend "Sandwich"'s apple!

It's Raining, It's... Spraying

We tried out spray bottles at the Art Area this week!  It was super fun when it worked.  One problem to troubleshoot for the future is finding smaller bottles.  These were spray bottles from the cleaning section at Walmart, which meant that they were inexpensive to purchase but also that they are too large for the school friends' hands because they are designed for adults.  After squeezing the trigger, the children's hands weren't large enough to fully release the trigger and it would get stuck.  But the spray was exciting and made interesting art!  We figured out that if you spray close to the paper, the color was concentrated and dripped more, but was darker.  If you sprayed from farther away, the color was lighter and looked more like clouds.

More about Spring weather to come... Stay tuned!

Rainforests and Jungles

During March, the students at Harmony's House have been studying the rainforest and jungle habitats of the world.  These are some of the ways we worked with the theme:

Kapok Tree connections:  During Circle Time, we read this fascinating book about animals from the Amazon Rainforest.  They in turn, speak to a man who has fallen asleep on the job, and beg him not to cut down their tree.  They emphasize how they get their food, homes, and family from this tree.  If he cuts the tree down, they will lose everything.  Indeed, the tree is about connections.  Each child then chose to be a certain animal from the story.  We used string to connect them to Ms. Harmony who represented the tree.  The man in the story did not cut down the tree, but we cut the strings in our activity to see the impact it had on the animals.  The children were startled when the ties were cut and they were left standing all alone, not connected to the tree or any of their school friends.  What a powerful experience!

Explore Table:  The rainforest trees and plants grow in layers with different animals occupying each area.  In the Explore Table, the children used tree blocks, foam platforms, and a variety of jungle animals to make tree houses, shelters, dens, etc. for the animals.

Small Group Taste Testing:  We sampled different fruits from tropical regions and charted who liked which kinds of fruits.  We tasted mangos, pineapples, avocado, and bananas.  The children frequently said, "I didn't know this was from the jungle!"  "Oh I love pineapple!"

Balloon Painting in the Art Area:  This discovery happened quite by accident.  On a "home day," (non-school day), Ms. Harmony and Kyra were working with paint when a balloon got tossed/rolled into some paint.  We decided to go with the flow and see if balloons make good tools for painting.  We discovered that the balloons made really interesting prints that mimicked leaf venation in large leaves!  We decided to share this discovery with the school friends when they came the next day to school.

Small Group Build-A-Bug:  More bugs and insects live in the jungles than anywhere else in the world.  For this activity, we first looked at a variety of books with bugs and insects.  We talked about features that we saw using vocabulary such as "antennae," "legs," "compound eyes," "wings," and "stingers."  Then we used precut shapes to assemble our own jungle bugs!  Everyone's turned out completely unique.  Finally, Ms. Harmony labeled the bug body parts according to the child's explanation.

Greeting Time Summary:  Ms. Harmony asked the the children what they knew about the equator.  This drawing is made from the children's words:

Friend "Bread" said, "The equator is the line in the middle."  We drew a globe and the imaginary line that divides the globe in half.

Friend "Kangaroo" said, "There are lots of trees and flowers there."

Each child named an animal that they could think of that lives in the jungle habitat: jaguars, snakes, parrots, sloths, and monkeys.

Friend "Sunflower" described the weather at the equator as "warm and sunny."

Friend "Kangaroo" added that jungles also had a lot of rain because plants need lots of water to grow.

And there you have it... just a few ways we learned about the rainforests and jungles of the world!  <3

Polar STEAM!

Weather at the Poles is cold, cold, cold!  But the polar adventures at Harmony's House have been downright steamy!

What is STEAM?  STEAM is an acronym for Science, Technology/Tools, Engineering, Art, and Math.  This is a summary of the STEAM opportunities that the students of Harmony's House have experienced during their studies of polar animals.

(While so many of these activities could fall into a few STEAM areas, Ms. Harmony has tried to evenly assign the lessons across the subject areas.)

SCIENCE-
Penguin Movements:  Although, penguins are birds, they do not fly.  After reading a book about penguins in Circle Time, we tried out what it would be like to move like penguins.  To experience having short legs, we tied bandannas around our ankles and attempted to walk around.  We also hopped and pretended to slide on our bellies and swim.  The students learned about the various ways penguins, as polar birds, move around.

Finish the story:  During Small Group, Ms. Harmony read the first part of this book Little Polar Bear.  Then she invited the children to use their knowledge of these Arctic animals and the environment around the North Pole to finish the story in their own way.  After devising our own ending to the story of helping little Lars to find his way home, Ms. Harmony read the ending that the author chose for the little polar bear.

TECHNOLOGY/TOOLS-
Ocean Jello:  Many polar animals use the ocean as a method of survival because it is a source of food.  The fish, squid, penguins, seals, walruses, and whales find their feasts in the ocean.  To discuss the subject of animal feeding habits, we mixed up a small box of blue jello during Small Group.  In addition to talking about the phase change from liquid to solid and feeding habits of the animals, we also learned the names of cooking tools such as "liquid measuring cup" and "wire whisk."  After the jello set up, we enjoyed eating it with Cool Whip "snow" on top!

Puzzles and Magnifying Glasses:  This puzzle had a map and pictured animals found at both the North and the South poles.  After completing the puzzle in Small Group, we used magnifying glasses to search for the different animals.  We determined that penguins are only found in the southern hemisphere, while the Arctic circle has a wider range of animal diversity, and yet no penguins.  Further discussion about how the students interacted with the magnifying glasses can be found in this post.

ENGINEERING-
Polar Landscaping:  The children were invited to use loose parts such as stones, flattened marbles, cotton balls, felt, and Arctic animals to create these animal homes.

ART-
Black and white collage:  During Small Group, the students tore pieces of black paper while we discussed why animals that live at the poles often have black skin (even if its under white fur!) or feathers.  This color is best for absorbing heat from the Sun!  Polar animals also often have white fur or feathers for camouflage purposes.  Once the paper was torn, the school friends glued it onto white paper in collage fashion according to their personal preferences.

Pipette Icicles:  "What is an icicle?" Friend "K" asks.  That was a great question that we attempted to answer through an art experience.  Icicles are made when water melts, drips, and then refreezes.  We used pipettes at the easel with diluted grey and blue paint to see how liquid drips down.  More can be read on this activity here.

MATH-
Iceberg Number Recognition and Counting:  Ms. Harmony prepared these "icebergs" with numbers 1-10, star foil stickers, laminant, and blue painters tape.  First the children put the numbers in order.  If they weren't sure which number they had, they counted the stars to find out.  Then we tossed a beanbag on the icebergs.  Whichever number it landed on, the child hopped (like a penguin) to the iceberg and shouted out the number.

Snowflake geometry and shapes: This was one of our most recent awesome experiences!  The children learned about a new shape called HEXAGON that has six sides.  Snowflakes, although 100% unique, share a common trait of having six sides.  The school friends used large shapes to design their own "snowflakes" all over the rug during Circle Time.

We have really enjoyed the STEAM power through our studies of animals at the North and South poles!

Drip Drip Drip

In a recent post, Ms. Harmony claimed that "process art" doesn't need to be messy... while picturing a box of glitter covered "icicles."  To some, GLITTER is the very definition of messy!  (But the box does help contain the glitter somewhat.)

This week we DID have messy art at the easel.  And boy did the school friends enjoy it.  Many of the children went back for repeat opportunities during Work Time.

The art invitation included pipettes, light blue paint, and grey paint thinned with water.  Friend 'S' said, "Oops!  It's dripping!  Oh, that's why you had a nackin under there."  :D  Indeed, it was fascinating to watch the paint drip and run down the paper after the child squirted it from the pipette.  Once they realized it was okay if it dripped off the easel (because I put paper towels on the floor under the easel), then there was nothing to hold them back!

They squirted again and again and again.  Another interesting effect that was observed is how the paper absorbed the paint unevenly.  The grey paint had a chromatographic interaction with the paper as it dried, separating the colors that the grey paint was composed of.

Now, that's just drippy!  Hah!  What COOL winter art this is!  Although messy.  :P