Friday, February 14, 2014

Snowy Day Paintings!

Yesterday, New York City (and much of the East Coast) was blanketed by snow from one of the more impressive storms we have had this winter. Although many of us were surprised that schools were open, those of us that were able to make it to school had a pretty great day together...something about a storm going on outdoors always makes the indoors seem so much cozier!! Because so many teachers could not make it in to work, I was a Kindergarten teacher yesterday (along with my wonderful student teacher, Ms. Erika Garcy). Our music teacher, Mrs. Fulmore, was also a Kindergarten teacher and, because our classes were so small, we combined classes and had a day full of music and art! For the music portion of our day, students shared songs they love and Mrs. Fulmore taught us Valentine's Day songs that helped us spell different words, like "L-O-V-E" and "F-R-I-E-N-D-S". We even got to have a love dance party!
For the art portion of our day, we painted Snowy Day paintings. We started by reading books about snow and discussed how snow feels/looks (e.g., cold, wet, white, fluffy, etc.). Then we read the book "The Snowy Day" by Ezra Jack Keats and discussed all the things we like to do when it snows (e.g., go sledding, make snow angels, have a snow ball fight, etc.).
Peter Making a Snow Angel from "The Snowy Day" by Ezra Jack Keats
Students then were given large pieces of black paper, white paint and medium-sized paint brushes to create paintings of themselves doing their favorite snowy day activity.
Amanda, K-B02, working on her painting
Students considered brushstrokes they could make (e.g., dots, curves, long and short brushstrokes, brushstrokes to fill shapes in, etc.) in order to re-present themselves in their favorite snowy day activity.
Enjoy the snowy day paintings made by the brave children from K-B02 and K-B04 that ventured into the snow to get to school during yesterday's storm...the results were SNOW-TASTIC!
Amanda, K-B02

Osvaldo, K-B04

Breanna, K-B02

Melissa, K-B04

Melina, K-B02

Wilson, K-B02