Each week on Thursday We learn About Great Artists

All children are artists. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up.
-Pablo Picasso






Today we started our day with our good morning song and the story "Pumpkin Soup" which is another one of our favorites! Then we broke off into our own little section of the classroom and did our individual activities. Tanmay and Anna worked on alphabet letters, Kane worked on shapes, Ronan worked on numbers and Milan worked on sea creatures! They all finished surprisingly fast so I think they need more of a challenge for next time. The children love individual work time and really do well with concentrating on their own work. It's a wonderful time for the children to work on their own skills at their own pace and it's a great tool for me to be able to tell where the children are at academically since it's sometimes hard to tell in a larger group.
After everyone was finished with their individual work we had some free play time.
Today all of the children decided to build with blocks together. They worked for about an hour playing house and building a boat with blocks.
Then we had our main lesson. Our Thursday activity is Discovering Great Artists and today the artist we learned about was Michelangelo.
Italian painter and sculptor, Michelangelo was the greatest Renaissance artist of all time. His greatest love was the study of the human body, both in painting and sculpture.One of Michelangelo's best known and loved works is his painting on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Michelangelo painted the ceiling entirely while lying on his back. It took him 4 years to complete the entire ceiling!
Today the children experienced a tiny bit of what that was like by taping a piece of paper onto the bottom of the children's tables in our classroom. The children then lie down onto their backs and used colored pencils to make drawings of people and designs under the table. Laying down and working above your head was quite a different experience for the children! They enjoyed themselves and made really neat pieces of work.

Milan and Ronan were the lunch helpers today while the other children were doing their great artist work, Milan and Ronan stood on the learning tower in the kitchen and observed the soup making process. Washed dishes, poured ingredients and chatted with Ryan. They enjoyed their special time in the kitchen without the "help" of the big kids.
Our lunch menu today is home made broccoli and cheese soup, carrots, french bread, and pear slices and milk.
After lunch the children played outside for quite some time. It was beautiful, a bit cold, but dressed properly they were toasty warm in the bright mid-day sunshine.
They all really enjoyed playing with the sand toys in the snow today, sifting, searching for chunks of ice, and running and playing in the frozen garden. After a while the children made their way inside, took off their own clothing and put it all away where it belongs and went downstairs for our story time song and chapter of Junie B. Jones. Then we brushed our teeth and went to sleep.