Hi friends,
We have lots of things to say about the letter "A" (oooo that rhymes!)
Can you think of some things that start with the letter "A"?
You can sing along with me: I'm glad you came today, I'm glad you came today! Hello to everyone, I'm glad you came today. We'll have some fun today, we'll have some fun today! Hello to everyone, we'll have some fun today.
My kids decided to put up the tent the other night & so we had quite an ADVENTURE sleeping outside. We heard many sounds, the late summer crickets, sweet birds & the plip-plop-drip-drop of rain on the nylon roof. It was quite a lullaby! Luckily, we had our little friend, Itsy Bitsy Spider to protect us from the mosquitoes.
The other thing that I thought was really cool, was waking up to the interesting shadows on the tent. Do you know what makes the shadows? Sunlight shines down & where *things* are blocking the light, a shadow is made! Here are some pictures of the shadows on our tent. My favorite one is the fence pattern:)
Then we went on a Shadow Hunt...can you guess what made each of these shadows:
It could be a fun adventure for YOU to go outside & hunt for shadows! Maybe find a piece of chalk (or you could paint with a brush & little cup of plain water) & trace the edges of a shadow on the pavement. It's kinda like looking at clouds; you can play identifying what *things* do the shadows look like? Here's an example of a shadow that the Maple tree cast on my driveway. I thought it looked like a couple of ducks. The second picture is the same spot taken a few hours later; since the sun moves, the shadow cast by our dear Maple tree is different! Now it looks like a lounging lion to me.
So you see, we can think like an artist, just by LOOKING & THINKING.
There are lots of different ways to be an artist. One of my favorite artists is a potter named Ron Korczynski. A potter is an artist who uses clay (mud, sand & water) to make things like sculptures, tiles & dishes. This picture shows Ron working on a large platter. He uses lots of colors & patterns to make the dishes look wild & wonderful!
(Maybe later you can watch some kids play on the potter's wheel, more ceramic artwork, a short documentary about Maria Martinez & try out this simple 3 ingredient modeling clay recipe.)
Another kind of art that I really like & one that most of our readers are familiar with is illustration. Think about how important the images (pictures) are to understanding a story! These illustrations are often the first kind of art that kids encounter. Would you like to watch a short video of an illustrator at work? This is Ashley Barron working on the book My Ocean is Blue by Darren Lebeuf.
Another beautiful story by the same author/illustrator team is My Forest is Green. Come along for a fun storytime with the BICS librarian, Ms. McKay.
I'm glad YOU came today, I hope you had some fun on our letter A adventure today!
And now it's time for one last story all for my art-lovin, nature-lookin, neighbor-tastic friends:
Toodleloo, Kangaroos!