ALL ABOUT PICASSO AND KANDINSKY!

Dear Parents:

 

This week we introduced our unit on Pablo Picasso. During our class discussion, we talked about how Picasso made his first guitar.  He created it from cardboard, paper, string, and wire.  Picasso's silent instrument resembled no sculpture ever seen before.  Gaurav from the Whole Note Class played a couple of songs for us on his guitar.

Picasso's creativity inspired us to create our own guitars.  First we painted white paper with various colors of paint.  The fun part came when we used various tools to make many different designs such as zigzags, curvy lines, and spirals. The children traced and cut out a guitar shape from their paintings.  Finally, they added buttons, string, and tissue paper circles.  

The second artist we learned about this week was Wassily Kandinsky.  He was a Russian painter and was one of the first abstract painters.  We learned that Kandinsky expressed himself through color and shapes.  He inspired us to create our own trees with colorful circles.  First, we watercolored a skyline, a horizon, and a grass-line.  The children painted a tree brown and glued it onto the watercolor background. They finished it off by adding colorful circle flowers. The results were spectacular!  

We  made a large rainbow circle using recycled bottle caps, another activity inspired by Kandinsky.

The children also created created wooden sculptures.  They were able to choose any materials they wanted from a box of wood,  cardboard, corks, and googly eyes.  The only instruction the children were given was to create a structure.  The children had so much designing their sculptures. They were all so unique and creative.

Zebin admiring his sculpture

The letter of the week was the letter "R."  The children did a great job writing it, sounding it out, and naming words that began with the letter.  Some of the words they came up with were:  Rabbit, rose, red, run, Rolene, and Ryan.

We had a very busy day on Friday. We  had a special visit from Dr. Van, pediatric dentist.  He taught the children about proper dental hygiene such as brushing your teeth twice a day and flossing once a day.  He also spoke about healthy nutrition such as eating fruits and vegetables and to stay away from sticky foods such as Gummies, raisins, and sugary drinks. 

 The children also created their own self portraits.  

We look forward to a visit from Barbara Marder, artist next week.  She will be teaching the children about Winslow Homer, an American landscape painter.

Love, 

Ms. Bonne and Ms. Denise.