The Mom I Want to Be

Letter X is a very unreliable letter that make the sounds:

     /x/ as in x-ray

     /ks/ as in six

     /z/ as in xylophone

1. Present a capital and lower case X to your child.  See if she knows the name of the letter and the sound it makes.  This is a tricky one.  Explain that the X makes different sounds in different words.

 

2. Read A Xylophone for X-Ray Fish

 

3. The X bag is a real stretch. You may want to include words with the X sound in the middle or end of the word such as eXit sign or foX.  Create a list of the items, displayed where it can be seen.

 

4. Create an X collage.  Have your child search through magazines for X words, and glue them to paper for his alphabet book.  If this is too hard, even with X sounds at the end of words, then try just cutting a magazine into small strips and show your child how to cross them to make X’s all over the page.

 

5.  X-Ray X’s.  Cut an X out of white paper.  Using white crayon or oil pastel, draw in bone shapes on each side of the X.  Provide children with the pre-marked X taped to wax paper for easy clean up,  diluted black liquid watercolor and a brush.  Have your child paint all over the X; the crayon should resist the paint and the bones magically appear.  When dry, glue to 8½ x 11” paper and place in alphabet book. 

 

6. Provide a worksheet with a line of X’s to trace across the top and 2 parallel horizontal lines about 2.5 inches apart below, 6 1×3” strips of colored paper, thin popsicle stick, cotton ball, glue.  Glue the 6 strips of paper to make keys for the xylophone, glue the popsicle stick down, and then add the cotton ball to the top to make the stick.

 

7. Other activities:  Play a xylophone;  play X marks the spot – hide a cut out X in the room and have your child ask questions until he guesses where it is;  have pretzel sticks for snack and make X’s with them; create an “X marks the spot” Pirate X Alphabuddy.

Materials: Plastic eggs, small dinosaurs and “sand goop” (recipe below).

 

“Sand Goop” Recipe
1 cup sand
1/2 cup cornstarch
1/2 tsp. alum
1/2 c. water.

 

Cook on medium heat stirring until thick.  Cool to touch. 

 

Put dino into the plastic egg and cover with “sand goop”.  Place in “nest”.

On Monday, talk about dinosaurs and how big their eggs were.  Show the children the “eggs” YOU found. Say, “Look how big they are.  What kind could they be?”  The eggs should still be wet.  Tell children that we have to watch them until they turn white and crack. When ready, let children finish cracking them open and find their dinosaur.

The family refrigerator is happy to moonlight as an art gallery, but your in-house studio may be churning out more work than a couple of magnets can hold. Our kid-level display uses Velcro to make the most of a sticky situation: a small piece stuck to the back of the artwork means that it can be hung on and taken down from the Velcro-covered strip by the artist himself — perhaps with a little help from Mom.

 

5-foot length of wood molding

Tools and mounting hardware (we used screws)

5-foot strip of self-adhesive Velcro tape

Packing tape

 

Mount the molding on the wall at your child’s height. Adhere one side of the Velcro tape to the molding, positioning the Velcro so it covers the screws.  Next, apply a strip of packing tape to the back of each piece of artwork and top it with a 3-inch strip cut from the other side of the Velcro tape. (This allows you to remove the Velcro without tearing the paper.)  For added sturdiness and decoration, we affixed our artwork to larger pieces of card stock before hanging them. When your artist decides to take down his work, store it in a clean pizza box.

1. Present a capital and lower case U to your child.  See if she knows the name of the letter and the sound it makes.  Explain that U is one of the letters that can make different sounds.  One sound it makes is the same as the name of the letter. Give examples of hard U words, such as useful, unicorn, and uniform.  See if she can figure out another sound the U makes.  Give examples of short U words like uncle, under and umbrella.

 

2. Read Ugh

 

3. Go on a scavenger hunt around the house to find items that start with U for the T bag this week.  You might find a unicorn, ukulele, underwear, umbrella, uniform, map of United States, UPS truck,  etc.  Pull out an object each day and ask if your child knows anything about it.  Create a list of the items, displayed where it can be seen.

 

4. Create a U collage.  Have your child search through magazines for U words, and glue them to paper for his alphabet book.

 

5.  Umbrella U’s.  Provide a U cut out from construction paper taped to wax paper for easier handling and cleanup,  glue, and die cut umbrella shapes from various papers.  Encourage your child to Glue the umbrellas to her U.  When dry, glue to 8½ x 11” paper and place in alphabet cook.

 

6. Provide a worksheet with a line of U’s to trace across the top and a blank spot below, paper doll outline, underwear cut outs (from book, die cut, or free hand it), markers and glue sticks.  Encourage your child to decorate the underwear, glue it to the doll, glue the doll to the page, and then add details (such as face, etc).  They might have the doll holding an umbrella, or draw it under something.

 

7. Other activities:  Make an upside down cake; talk about people that wear uniforms.  Choose one and make your own mini unforms from paper – badge and hat for policeman, reflector headband for doctor, etc; bring out a circle of stuffed animals, and open an umbrella in the middle.  Have your child turn around, and place a stuffed toy under the umbrella.  See if he can guess who is missing.  Give clues as needed; cut out pictures of people in different uniforms and make a collage; talk about uncles; Make upside down art – Tape paper on the underside of the table and have the children draw while lying on their backs under the table;

I want the kids to learn that art is about losing your inhibition, expressing yourself, about not looking around the room to see if you’re doing it the right way,” says Marion. For those of us hoping to nurture that creativity in our own kids, here are some of her secrets and tips, plus five of her favorite projects: Charm Bags, Paper Mobiles, Box Buildings, Pastel Portraits, and the Ultimate Action Figure Template.

 

Make the space (literally)

 

Marion has made a point of establishing an atmosphere in which kids feel free to try new things. “You know when the teacher is in overalls, it’s not an uptight place,” she says with a grin. Looking around the former barn she uses for the camp’s main studio, you see paint splattered on the floor and messages, murals, and artwork on the walls. It’s an inspiring place. Something about being surrounded by so many colors and patterns makes you want to pick up a brush and paint something yourself. “You can get messy here!” chimes in one of the kids. “Messier than at school.”

 

While not everyone has the benefit of a barn in their backyard, Marion encourages her campers’ parents to carve out a creative space in their own homes, one where kids don’t have to worry about keeping everything just so. “And really,” she smiles, “all you need is a card table and a garage.”

 

Provide the proper materials (they’re not what you think)

 

Having the “right” materials on hand can also contribute to that spirit of creative freedom, and one of the biggest surprises in Marion’s studio is her supply closet. She pulls back a curtain to reveal not expensive paints and fancy collage papers but piles of magazines and discontinued wallpaper books stacked next to bins of wood scraps, yarn, cardboard boxes, and more.

 

While she believes a few materials, such as good scissors and paintbrushes, are worth splurging on, recyclables are an artist’s bonanza. More important, using such inexpensive items can foster risk taking in children by taking away the pressure to make something perfect: “The kids are looser because they’re free to experiment and have something come out badly and do another one,” says Marion. “The adults are looser because they didn’t buy an expensive material they have to worry about getting their money out of.” Marion holds up a box of (unused) disposable specula — medical ear-probe covers — donated by one of her camper’s parents. “I don’t see trash,” she says. “I see treasure.”

 

The kids seem to agree. That flotsam of daily life comes in handy for today’s box sculpture project. Eleven-year-old Sierra McDonald scoops up wooden beads to build a tower and plant stand for her box-sculpture museum. Amy Hubbard, 10, sees hospital windows in a pile of toothpicks. And those specula? It turns out they make great ice-cream cones at the ice-cream shop 10-year-old Meghan Hamill is building.

 

Offer simple but open-ended projects

 

(your kids will take more pride in their work) One way Marion instills creative confidence in her students is by giving them control over their work. That means projects are simple enough for them to complete without (much) adult assistance, yet rewarding enough to keep them engaged.

When Marion introduces a simple paper and twine mobile (see the instructions at left), the kids respond as predicted, eagerly searching for just the right paper to give them the look they want. The mobiles require only some cutting and gluing — but leave room for a lot of interpretation. And when 8-year-old Sam Gaudet asks if there are any rules for making them, Marion encourages the kids to be adventurous: “I’ve seen the mobiles all solid colors, and I’ve seen them all crazy colors. I’ve seen mobiles all one shape, and I’ve seen them all different shapes. See what excites you.”

 

 

Resist the urge to “help” (you’ll both be glad you did)

 

Fighting that desire to “fix” a child’s project is the other essential part of ensuring the kids’ creative control. And in Marion’s experience, it’s one of the toughest things for adults to do. “That one’s still hard even for me, because sometimes the kids use a material in a different way than I would,” she admits. “But that’s how creativity happens. That’s how things get invented. I’ll only step in if I can move them toward their vision, as opposed to correcting them.”

 

The kids respond well to this philosophy. While working on their box sculptures, they occasionally look around for inspiration or a smile of encouragement, but mostly they work independently, studying their structures and adding such flourishes as a corrugated cardboard roof and a smokestack (with a feather for smoke) that are straight from their own imaginations.

 

 

Praise the inventive (the results can be pretty amazing)

 

The key is to help children learn to see with their inner artist’s eye. “When I’m working with the kids,” Marion says, “I try to positively reinforce the thing that is creative — maybe someone held the paper a different way — as opposed to just praising that the lines are straight. And if a kid used a green crayon by mistake and thinks he’s ruined a picture, I’ll pick up a Matisse and show him where the artist painted a portrait of his wife with a green nose.” Even as Marion introduces a new style of art, she’s careful to show multiple examples to reinforce the notion that there’s more than one way to execute an idea.

 

And by and large, her students seem to take that lesson to heart. When 9-year-old Leland Rege-Colt finishes his box sculpture with a final twist of the spring that sits on top, he admits that he doesn’t exactly know what it is he’s built. Still, he’s pleased. “Ooh,” he says excitedly, “I like the way that looks.”

 

His satisfaction shows on Marion’s face as well. “This is my little world,” she says. “This is what I live for.”

 

 

Guidelines for Open-ended Art

 

·       Never alter or ‘fix’ a child’s work

·       Provide a wide variety of interesting materials and choices

·       Add new materials weekly, incorporating your theme if possible

·       Never tell a child what to create

·       Emphasize the process, not the end product

·       Don’t ask “What is it?”; Say “Tell me about it”

·       Ask the child if and where he/she would like his name put

·       Let children explore materials

·       Let children come up with their own ideas and use materials creatively

·       Provide materials for 3-D and on-going artwork projects

·       Encourage, do not force participation

·       Do not do models or samples for the children

·       Throw away any colorbooks or dittos in the room

·       All materials should be at the children’s level, and accessible

·       Playdough and the art easel should be open the majority of each day

·       Encourage children to express feelings and personal experiences through art

·       Display art in a variety of ways – it should not all ‘match’

·       Talk about texture, color, smell, shape, etc and the experience

·       Let the children be as independent as possible, and encourage self-help skills and responsibility in cleaning up art

·       Educate parents as to the value and learning in open-ended art

·       Teach and model appropriate use and respect of materials

·       Allow ample time for children to create and explore

·       Incorporate books on fine art in your classroom

·       Children should be doing their own cutting – it’s okay if a circle doesn’t remotely resemble a circle yet. This is how they develop these fine muscles – and makes it ‘their’ work and experience.

·       There is no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ way, or end product.

·       The art area should have lots and lots of a variety of different collage materials, and always be an open, available choice for children

 

The Letter Y is an unreliable letter that acts as both a consonant and a vowel.  It makes a wide range of sounds including /y/ /e/ and /i/.

 

1. Present a capital and lower case Y to your child.  See if she knows the name of the letter and the sound it makes.  Explain that it makes very different sounds from its name.  Give examples of Y words, such as yawn, yellow and yes.

 

2. Read Yertle the Turtle

 

3. Go on a scavenger hunt around the house to find Y words for the Y bag this week.  Look for yarn, yogurt, yam, yield sign, yo-yo, yak, yeast, yardstick,

 

4. Create a Y collage.  Have your child search through magazines for words that begin with Y to cut out and glue to paper for his alphabet book.

 

5.  Yarn Covered Y’s.  Provide a Y cut from yellow construction paper and small pieces of yarn.  Have your child glue the yarn to the Y.  Encourage her to completely cover the letter.  When dry, glue to 8½ x 11” paper and place in alphabet book. 

 

6. Provide a worksheet with a line of Ys to trace across the top and a blank spot below, a 6” square of black paper, different kinds of yellow paper (construction, patterned, textures, cellophane, etc), glue stick and markers.  Have your child glue the black square to the paper, and then cut out the yellow paper into different shapes.  Glue the shapes to the black square to make their yellow collage.

 

7. Other activities:  Have yogurt at snack time; make a list of yellow things; talk about what things are made from yarn, teach your child to yodel; go outside and have a yelling contest;  take a walk with a yardstick and measure things; make a yellow yarn octopus;

Goal:   To enrich the lives of pre-schoolers through a vocabulary expanding experience at the zoo or aquarium. 

 

Objectives:      

 

1.   Students will become familiar with books relating to specific animal topics.

2.   Students will learn the correct way to touch living animals.

3.   Students will be exposed to vocabulary and animal terminology not previously learned.

 

 

Pre-Activities:

 

Read It to Me: Read Who Hops? by Katie Davis to your students.  After the story, review some of the different ways that animals move.  Can you think of any other ways that animals move that weren’t in the story (climbing, swinging, etc.)?  Give each student a handful of animal cookies.  Before the students eat their cookies, have them move the way that the animal on the cookie moves.

 

Animals on Parade: Organize a “parade of animals” either in your center or in a retirement home or hospital.   Put the names of different animals on scraps of paper, put them into a bowl, and have each student pick a piece of paper.  The animal named on the scrap of paper will be the animal that the student should pretend to be in the parade.  Have your students focus on animal movements while they are pretending to be the animal.  Optional things you can do: have your students create a “costume” to wear, have a marching band in the parade (using metal pans and spoons), or have lively music to march to.

Moveable Zoo: Have each student pick out 1 animal from the story Who Hops?.  Give each student a paper cutout of the animal they have picked and have the students color their animal however they wish.  After they have finished coloring, glue the paper animal to a large popsicle stick.  Have the students make their animals slither, hop, fly, crawl, etc.

 

Post-Activities:

 

Spiders on My Back: Mother spiders can protect their young by carrying them on their backs.  Your students can be mother (and father) spiders who are trying to get their spiderlings to safety.  Set up a designated crawl area surrounded by a yarn spider web for the students to crawl to.  Divide the students into groups of 3-4.  Have the students get into the crawl position on the floor.  For each group, place a plastic spider on one student’s back.  Have that student carefully crawl to the crawl area while trying to keep the spiderling on his/her back.  After the students have reached the crawl area, they can give the spiderling to some one else in their group.  Note: group size depends on the number of plastic spiders available to you.  If there is a spider for each student, you can have the whole group perform the activity at the same time.  You can also modify this activity into a relay race.

 

Wiggly Snakes: Mix liquid glue with water (two parts glue to one part water) and separate into different bowls.  Add a little paint or food coloring to the different bowls to make the mixture different colors.  Give each student a piece of paper and 5-6 pieces of yarn (12-15 inches each).  After the students dip their ‘snakes’ into the glue mixture, they can arrange them on the paper.  Let the snake picture dry thoroughly before hanging them or sending them home.  After they are finished creating their snake picture, have the students slither around on the floor like wiggly snakes!

 

Stalking and Walking: Read the following poem out loud to your students.  Read the poem again, adding in the motions.  Feel free to come up with your own movements!

 

Animals on the Move

 

Frogs jump, caterpillars hump (Students should jump like frogs)

Worms wiggle, bugs jiggle (Students should wiggle like worms)

Rabbits hop, horses clop (Students should hop like rabbits)

Snakes slide, seagulls glide (Students should glide like seagulls)

Mice creep, deer leap (Students should creep like mice)

Puppies bounce, kittens pounce (Students should bounce like puppies)

Lions stalk,      BUT I WALK! (Students should stalk and walk)

 

Vocabulary:

 

Hop                 Fly                 

Swim               Crawl

Slither

There’s a Hippo in my Tub

 

There’s a hippo in my tub singing in the shower.

She’s having such a jolly time she’ll be in there at least an hour.

The bathrooms filled with bubbles so that I can barely see

but I’m sure there’s a hippo in my and there’s no room left for me.

 

I guess your wondering why I’m here outside the bathroom door.

I know I’m still as dirty as can be

but peeking through the bubbles I blink my eyes to see

to see that peeking through the bubbles two eyes blink back at me.

 

There’s a penguin in my tub wearing a tuxedo.

he’s swimming under water cause he thinks he’s a torpedo.

The waters full of icebergs and frosty as can be

and I’ m sure there’s a penguin in that tub and its just to cold for me.

 

I guess your wondering why I ‘m here outside the bathroom door.

I know I’m still as dirty as can be

but peeking through the bubbles I blink my eyes to see that peeking

through the bubbles two eyes blink back at me.

 

There’s a Crocodile in my tub lounging in the water

He’s asking me to join him – but I don’t think that I ought to

He ate the soap and sponge and swallowed them with glee

and I’m sure there’s a Crocodile in my tub look he making room for me.

and I’m sure there’s a Crocodile in my tub look he’s making room for me

 

Ann Murray