Sewing with 3's

First sewing project:  practicing stitches with yarn and large plastic needles in burlap.

Twig Art

The children collected twigs from home/nature walks for a project last February and we had a lot of left-over twigs.  I set them out at the art center with paint and glitter and children painted them last week.  Once the paint dried they were invited to glue them on large pieces of cardboard.  We ended up with several large collaborative pieces.

Something New

I said goodbye to Ella last month.  (Well, not really goodbye - more like "see you soon".)  She is off to kindergarten in the fall.  It seems like the year we spent together went by at whirlwind speed.  All of the  mornings spent baking and writing and drawing and painting and building and exploring and adventuring out into our city to see the animals and swing on the swings and smell the flowers.  Oh, am I going to miss her.

In some ways, my year with Ella was also my year to say goodbye to Leslie's childhood and all that that meant to me.  I think both Leslie and I got to re-live her childhood through Ella this year.  Bringing out much loved dolls from the back of the closet.  Remembering the best way to build a house for the fairies in the garden.  Finding the little tea set in the china cabinet and dusting it off for a teddy bear tea party.  Leslie is moving into the world of adult things now and getting ready to cast off on her own.  This year was our goodbye party.

And so - I begin again.  A new job seemed to fall into my lap just as I needed it.  A new school.  Reggio inspired.  A new classroom of littles to love and to nurture and to take my mind off my girl leaving in a year.

Hoping to post more this year.  Not sure why my heart wasn't in the blog last year.  I guess I was in my head too much to be able to share.  See you soon.

Love, Kathy

sticker inspiration

Ella drew a giraffe, using a sticker as her inspiration :)

She's really starting to pay attention to details . . .

collage fish

still in the ocean . . . i found an orange pre-cut fish & we decided to collage on it.
started by cutting up some old water colored paintings.
then it was as easy as gluing them into the fish.

so easy.

Telling Addition Stories with Wooden Discs & Plastic Animals

I found some coaster sized wooden discs at Michaels.  After covering them with fabric, I added some felt number stickers.  Today, Ella and I took turns telling each other addition stories using the discs and a bag of plastic sea animals.

underwater sea life collage

We created a background by painting on bubblewrap and then using it to make a print on watercolor paper.  While that dried, Ella made some fish using old paintings that we cut into fish shapes. I also found some sea life coloring sheets that she decided to paint. Later, she glued torn strips of sandpaper and some real shells on to create a sea floor and then glued on the fish and sea life.