Wow! We’re fully back into the swing of things! Our IEYC unit, Imagine That! is going well.
We began this week looking at different types of houses – we even went outside to see the new apartment blocks being built near the school – and discussed their features and similarities. We had a look at some castles from around the world and spent some time building our own castles out of the different types of blocks we have in the classroom. Then we looked at Paul Klee’s artwork “Castle and the Sun” and saw how he made a beautiful cityscape not using blocks but using different shapes. We practiced identifying the shapes in the image as well as having a discussion about colour before moving on to create our own shape castle out of cut paper!
Then we spent a few days learning about animals from Africa and a style of art that originated in Tanzania but is now all over East Africa called Tingatinga art. Its beautiful, bold colours capture tourists’ eyes and certainly captured the eyes of the students. We created a mixed-media Tingatinga artwork in our new art journals by painting a solid background and then colouring an animal using our choice of crayons, coloured pencils, or markers. Then we cut out the animal and stuck it on our beautiful painted background.
Finally, we did a thorough investigation of squares and rectangles by looking at Piet Mondrian’s work. We had a scavenger hunt in the classroom for some squares and rectangles that Ms. M had hidden and then we used sponges and primary colours to stamp out square and rectangle patterns in our art journal. Finally we used cut paper to create a Mondrian-inspired artwork.
We’re back doing phonics again and with the alphabet finished before Christmas we have moved on to digraphs. This week we looked at SH, TH, and CH. These are a little trickier for the children to remember so we may spend extra time on them. After the Seollal holiday we have 3 more digraphs to look at and then a quick assessment will be done to see how far we’ve come.
Speaking of phonics, our students who are not in the phonics group that meets after lunch have started new Maths Centres. We’re looking at the numbers 6-10.
Speaking of the holiday, I hope you all have a restful time however your family is spending it. I look forward to seeing everyone next Wednesday!