Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Session 4- Day 3

The Red Group surrounded Jenn, anxiously waiting to see how their ceramic bowls came out! Afterwards, they went to their classroom to finish their fairy huts.
To make the fairy huts, the children first cut out the shape of the hut from a plastic liter soda bottle. The hut has a doorway so the fairy can walk in and out of her home. Then the children glued green and yellow tissue paper to the outside. Once the tissue paper dried, decorations were added such as: sequins, flowers, butterflies, iguanas and much more! Finally, the huts were placed in a tray which had a green tarp to look like grass.
The children had a blast playing with fairy dolls in its new home!





Today, the Turquoise Group learned about point of view and perspective. Before starting the project, they discussed aerial view and how the sun casts a shadow. If a butterfly or bird were to fly over a tree, the shadow the sun casts on the tree will be an abstract silhouette. On a black board with black oil pastels, the children outlined shadows of plants. They will later paint contrast colors doing the opposite colors it would be in nature. 



Going along with learning about contrasting colors, the Turquoise Group are making realistic paintings of flowers rather then abstract in the previous project.
The children used pencil to sketch a picture of the flower pots they had as their model. Then traced over the sketch with black oil pastel. Finally, they painted in their picture using contrast colors to make it realistic.






























Monday, July 23, 2012

Session 4- Day 1

The Turquoise Group is making hardcover sketch books. This project is very tedious and is a great learning experience about measuring. The hard outside cover will be surrounded with a cloth, which the children tie dyed previously.
They began this project by folding 24 pieces of white construction paper. Six pages were marked at the fold to make the sewing process easy and precise. Each marked page was placed in the center of the small stacks of pages that were folded together. The small stacks were each sewn through and placed tightly together, as a book, to be glued by a special adhesive. Once they dry, the children will begin the next step of creating their hard covers. Stay tuned for the finished product!



The Green Group is making sponge paintings. Today they created the background with blue skies and green grass. On a large piece of white construction paper, the children used a damp sponge to blot the green and blue paint. They will dry over night and a foreground will be painted tomorrow.
                 The Green Group previously make bumblebee paintings. They painted a large, yellow flower and dotted the background with blue paint to represent the sky. The bumblebees were drawn separate and glued to the flower, shown flying around the flower to make honey!





The Purple Group spent their afternoon beading necklaces and making sculptures out of Sculpey clay.



The groups finished the mosaics that will be hung in the Children's Garden. To finish the mosaic medallions, the pieces must be grouted. Grouting is the technique of filling in the spaces between the pieces of glass. Generally, it is desirable to make the grout level with the overall height of the mosaic surface. Grout is just a fine textured version of cement mortar. It unifies the design. Its color enhances the design: and it adds strength.










Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Session 4- Day 3

Clair Brill teaches our special mosaic project. This year is flying mosaic medallions. She has also made beautiful mosaic portraits around the Community Arts Center. She soon will be working with the teen class to finish the mosaic dragon by adding a background.


The groups are finishing their first mosaic medallions to take home and began the medallion to be hung in the Children's Garden. 



The Orange Group had tons of fun getting messy today! The children splattered globs of tempera paint on a black mat board. They finished off the project by picking up the board and tilting it side to side so the paint spreads, which creates an abstract pattern. 
The Orange Group has been working on bird costumes with a beak and wings. They made the beak by decorating a cone, which will be strapped around their head. They will be making wings from cardboard to be attached to their arms.




Today the Purple Group finished the paper mache mask project. They began the project by covering one half of a balloon with paper mache. Once the paper dried over night, the balloon was popped which left a bowl-like shape to be used as a mask. They finished the project by painting and adding features to their masks. 
Afterwards, the group started another project using watercolors. They drew kites flying in the air and covered the shape of the kite with white tape. This process will resist the watercolors when painted over. They painted the background then glued string at the bottom of the kite to make it look like it is really flying! The group will finish the project by coloring the white kites with markers to make them pop in the sky.