MAXIS:
This week we continued exploring Spring and focused on Spring signs. We started our week with a story called “the signs of Spring” which tells us what the animals are doing and how nature is changing in the early Spring. Inspired by the story, maxis also did some thinking of why they like Spring. During our craft sessions we painted some Spring flowers using sponges with different colors. We have to wait patiently until they dry and then we will cut them out to decorate our Spring tree. On our trip day the bad weather didn`t bother us at all, we had a nice walk to Palolampi and the children decided which direction they would like to play, so we chose the side where there are some Gym equipment. We were so busy climbing up and down, sliding, acting like Spring animals. At the same time, we tried to find some Spring signs, not so many to be found. We still caught some signs of Spring, like the ice on the pond is melting and the birds are singing. On Thursday we reviewed the knowledge we have learned earlier this week and put an effort to learning a new song with the name” I love Spring” and had fun pretending to be animals dancing. Friday is always the best day to bring our toys in. Before show and tell, we discussed how to ask in a friendly way for permission from a friend if we would like to play with their toys and we explained to the children that “sharing is caring”. Our maxis did a great job sharing their toys today.
Have a nice weekend!
VISKARIT:
We are almost ready to display the artwork produced by the Viskarit, their exhibition consists of samples of impressionist paintings, portraits in charcoal and still life drawings. We began our exploration by trying to determine what art is. Viskarit already had some ideas about beauty, materials, media and purpose which was a great springboard to explore some more. Looking at works by various artists from different eras, the first task was to create a composition of their own choosing and paint it in the impressionist style of pointillism. Pointillism is a way of utilising colour theory to combine certain colours together in a dotted pattern, hence the name. Using cotton buds, Viskarit dotted their work and produced wonderful paintings. The second exercise was to draw a portrait of a person in charcoal. As we haven’t used charcoal before, we spent a while testing out the properties of this new media and tried blending and shading before moving on to the actual portraits. In this task, special care was asked to be taken with details of the facial features, such as eyebrows, eyelashes and so on. Last on our list was a still life drawing. Viskarit were asked to carefully look at the arrangement of objects, determine their position in relation to each other, study the colours and patterns on each object and then try to duplicate that in their own drawing. The work produced showed an interesting range in scale and perspective. As part of this project, we also looked at AR (augmented reality) in art. As an introduction we watched a video of an artwork called Rubens Cupid, by an artist group Skullmapping. As our own version of adding content into our artwork, we are using Artivive. Once the exhibition is on display, come along to view it and discover extra content behind each piece. All you need is your phone and the free Artivive app.
Enjoy your weekend, everyone!
MESTARIT:
Hello Lovely Preschool Families! 😊 I hope that you have been enjoying the sunnier weather. This week we have continued our deep dive into the world of whales. We began our research by becoming whales and attending whale school, it was fun to learn different facts about ourselves as whales. 😊 We continued our whale journey by practicing some whale writing and then learnt about whale song and communication. Hearing how whales communicate and responding to that through painting inspired us to do some more creative work. We took a trip to the forest to find beautiful things to photograph (which we will use next week during our Photo Editing Day) and then joined the Viskari for a study in charcoal. Learning how to use charcoal inspired us to create portraits of our friends. 😊 Even our math class leaned to the artistic side, with the preschoolers thinking about shapes in 2D and 3D. At the end of the week, after the business of the week was concluded, we took some time to switch off. We switched off everything electrical and turned our focus to Earth Hour. For 1 hour we discussed the Earth, what Earth Hour is and how we can take care of our Earth. 😊 We talked about activities that we like that use electricity and activities that we like that do not use electricity. We then decided to make a poster about Earth Hour that suggests things people can do during the hour. 😊 Next week, we will continue to explore the wonderful world of whales, but we will also start our Easter celebrations and crafts.
Looking forward to seeing you then! 😊
NEXT WEEK:
MAXIS
Mon: Easter introduction and Craft
Tue: Easter Craft
Wed: Easter story and songs
Thu: Field trip
Fri: Winky Wonky Day/ Toy day
VISKARIT
Mon: Easter crafts
Tue: Palolampi trip
Wed: Willow branch decoration
Thu: Easter craft
Fri: Winky Wonky Day/ Toy day
MESTARIT
Mon: Whale Poetry Day/ Finnish Class
Tue: Easter Grass and Willow Branch Decorating/Letter X Day
Wed: Whale Habitats Day
Thu: Photo Editing Day/2D and 3D Shapes
Fri: Winky Wonky Day/ Toy day
IMPORTANT DATES:
Monday 27th of March – bring in willow branches to decorate during the week
Friday 31st of March – Winky Wonky Day, dress up in silly clothes (shirt and trousers inside out, for example)
Thursday 6th April – Easter Egg Hunt
Wednesday 10th of May – Mother’s Day Celebration at 16.00