The ART of Learning in Preschool

This has been a fun week learning all about the arts.  The children learned about instruments, dancers, painters, authors, illustrators, actors and more! We made our own instruments this week when we attached strings to our guitars after learning the strings are how we get sounds out of this particular instrument.

We learned about maracas and made our own this week listening to the sounds various items placed inside water bottles made to decide what type of sounds we wanted our maracas to make. 

Besides working on letter of the day each day we also talked about the part writing plays in the arts which fell nicely after Dr. Seuss week had just finished.  We talked about the importance of words in creativity and how when reading a book with wonderful words we don't need pictures to enjoy the book.  We proved this correct as we read, The Book with No Pictures, by B.J. Novak.  

Bringing all of this full circle we used the letters of our names to create art with glue and color.  As we traced the letters with glue we covered the glue to create art out of words.

We used our instruments to play along with our songs during music time to celebrate the art of music.  We also did a lot of dancing this week to old and new songs as well as using dance to interpret the music we listen to in the room. 

We took a field trip to see our design room in school as we looked at all of the paper wedding dresses made out of toilet paper and paper towels and then the refurbished furniture the interior design students had made.  We learned about the tools and machines the design students use in the class with irons and sewing machines and giant rulers!

Then, we took a field trip to see the auditorium which is not only where we hold preschool graduation but we were able to see a choir rehearsal as they prepared for their concert.  They treated us to a preview of one of their beautiful songs; if you didn't catch it on Instagram we hope you were able to enjoy it Friday night.  

After our concert treat we headed back to the room to make some rhythm shakers to use with a reading activity with our teachers.  The teachers would show a word associated with the arts like, Dance, Sing, Music and then ask the children to shake the shakers they made if they saw certain letters in the word.  For example a teacher would say, "shake your shakers for if you see a P," and if they didn't the children would be silent, but if the teacher said, "do you see letter S?"  The children would shake their shakers.

We learned about the famous work, 'Starry Night,' and noticed the swirls throughout the painting.  Then we went to the tables to try out our own versions of this work with stars and swirling pain strokes as we mixed yellow and blue to add green into the pictures.

After working on more instruments this week we learned about artwork made entirely out of dots.  The children were instructed to make their own designs using this technique.  When you see the black papers come home you can see if your student has mastered this skill yet or not.  We hung a lot of our art work around the room throughout the week to enjoy all the talent in our classroom!

We learned about mimes and their role in acting out things without using their voice.  The children took turns playing charades in small groups this week as they acted out various sports and common tasks while their peers made guesses as to what the children were acting out.

After charades we decided to create masterpiece art with drawings.  The children drew anything they wanted and the teachers wrote the name of the masterpiece onto the artwork.  We hope these beautiful works hang up in your homes with pride the way they have this week in school. 

What's Coming Up?
We will be continuing to work on Star of the Week posters through the end of the year.  If your preschooler has gotten one of these for homework please know they can bring it in as soon as it is ready.

Next week we will be learning about St. Patrick's Day.  Expect lots of stories about shamrocks, good luck, rainbows and leprechauns.

Be ready for preschool registration to open on Monday, March 18th.  Please be ready to complete the registration forms that will be emailed to you if you are a current parent.