Sunday December 23, 2012
Oodles of Noodles

Ms. Beth is traveling to visit her family for the holiday but she left several activity bags so that Cannon could still have fun Sunday mornings. This Sunday Cannon opened his first activity bag and found a bag of colorful “noodles”.  Noodles are cylinders (about one inch long) made of vegetable starch.  They can be attached by moistening them with water and then and sticking the cylinders together. Too much water and the noodle will dissolve. 

Cannon used his “pinchers” to pick up the noodle and touch it to the moistened sponge before attaching it to other noodles.  The objective – create an interesting three dimensional form. 

 

After some experimenting using the plastic grass armature, Cannon found it worked best to attach several “noodles” together and then to put those modules if noodles together to get a large colorful non objective sculpture.

 

Cannon worked with mom and dad and visited with Ms. Beth on Skype and showed her what he was doing. It was great to share an activity even when we were hundreds of miles away from each other.  

 

When Cannon was finished “noodling” he read a Zoo Book about old world monkeys.

We now know the difference between old world & new world monkeys!

 

 

 

December 16, 2012

Wrapping It Up

At last it was time to wrap up the gifts Cannon made for his mom and dad.  We filled boxes with tissue paper. Then we wrapped the boxes with the paper decorated with Christmas greetings that Cannon had finished “stamping” over the past week.

 

 

 

 

 

Cannon was the first to place gifts under the family tree. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then it was his turn to unwrap a surprise.

First he shook the package, and then he squished it and tried to guess what it could be. Then tearing, shaking and more tearing and at last. A Big Banana! Full of Banana-grams

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mom and dad helped photograph and upload the final parts of Avalon’s book and Cannon and I enjoyed a latte and some fresh cinnamon rolls while we built a banana-gram together.

 

Over the next few weeks Cannon and I will be in different places and different spaces so we will meet on the internet Sunday mornings.  Mom and dad will assist with the activities and experiments in the mysterious bags I left behind.  Hum, what can they be?  I wonder.

December 9, 2012
Colors, Colors, Colors!

Cannon’s book of colors for Avalon is almost finished!  We spent the first part of our session painting the final compositions.  It was so exciting to see Cannon grasping the new “tool holder” I had found at The Battery Store.  It is called an Apple Core and is for keeping computer cords tidy. 

 We used it to hold the paint brush in position so Cannon could get a good grasp.  The apple core is placed higher on the brush so Cannon can see where he is applying the paint.

 
Cannon independently loaded his brush with paint from the palette moved it to the paper and painted with intention.  He moved the brush in new ways and in new directions.  Then back to the water container to clean the brush, to the blotting roll to take off the extra water and back to the palette for more paint. He helped add more paint to the palette and I occasionally moved the paper so that he could reach unpainted parts.  We used several textural techniques, bubble wrap, plastic wrap and a fork.

Look, texture!  Congratulations Cannon, on using the apple core and on your independent work.

 We set the paintings aside and went to the clean and dry side of the table to finish the Christmas cards we had started last week.  After selecting the greeting he wanted on the card, Cannon used the new stamps and stamp pads to “stamp” the greeting inside the card. Next he will attach the address labels and stamps and put them in the mailbox.  Cannon also used the holiday stamps to decorate wrapping paper for his gifts.

Look at that good grip on the stamping block.

 

Then it was time for Ms. Beth’s coffee and muffin break.  But Cannon did not want to slow down. We looked on line for ideas for how to publish Avalon’s book.  Dad (or mom) will help us with this step next week.  

We had started our session by looking at the first page of the Frog and Toad story The List. Then we made a list ourselves of all of the things we would do during our time together. After he finished the cards, we finished reading the story. I substituted incorrect words as I read and Cannon caught me every time.  Then we took a look at our list for the morning and crossed off the things we had finished and started a list for the next week.  

 

First on the list – wear our Christmas pajamas!

 

 

 

December 2, 2012
Our Holiday Workshop Continues

 

                                      Getting ready to cut.  Is that a little elf watching us work?

 

As you can see Santa’s helpers are busy.  Cannon really enjoyed seeing Ms. Beth in the reindeer antlers but the Santa hat Cannon chose was a little hot and tickly so it didn’t stay on too long. Just long enough for a photo op.

 

Cannon continued working on his gift for his mom.  We learned from our first experiment and so this second one went very well. Cannon used his left hand pincher muscles and applied the dye with intention.  He used his voice to request yellow or blue.  He held the dryer with “lefty” and used a good full grasp, moving the dryer around the project. 

While waiting for things to dry we moved from the wet side of the table to the dry side.

After reading Frog and Toad’s story about The Letter lst week we decided to send some letters of our own. And since we were in Holiday Workshop mode we made Christmas cards.

§         First Cannon selected the cardstock and folded it in half. I lined the paper up and Cannon used a printers “bone” to make the fold.  After some practice he used the bone independently to get a good sharp fold. 

§         Cannon cut the tree shapes using a Fiskars cutting tool designed for scrap booking. He moved the blade back and forth independently. (I positioned the paper and held the tool in place.) He used a glue stick to cover the shape and helped position it on the card.  Then he used the printer’s bone to press it down firmly and evenly. 

                       

§         We needed a finishing touch – of course the star! Using a craft punch Cannon used his muscles to press down hard on the punch.  A perfect star.  We counted the number of stars and kept track of how many more we needed, practicing a little addition and subtraction.  

§         Then using his left index finger and a little moisture he picked up each star, touched it on the end of the glue stick and positioned it independently on the top of each tree.  

§         The last step was to round all four corners with a corner punch. We used lots of tools.
 

Between each step we moved to the opposite side of the table and applied more color to mom’s gift. Next week Cannon will add his greetings, address and stamp his letters and put them in the mailbox.  Snail mail is fun!

 

                                    Cannon is using a printer'sbone to glue the tree
                                          firmly and evenly on the card.

 

 

 

 

November 25, 2012
Dropping, Dripping and Spraying!

More experiments in moving color onto a surface. Lots of pincher exercises, our projects are still holiday secrets so we will only share a few clues.  Our processes included the use of the blow dryer to speed the drawing process.  Cannon used his big “grasp” with both right and left hands to hold and move the dryer. 

 While waiting for things to dry we moved to the pasta machine and Cannon cranked away.  We softened the sculpy clay by tucking it away in the heating pad for a few minutes.  Cannon selected colors to add to the design each time the clay was pressed and the colors merged together, more colors, more pressing to get just the right effect.

 

 

 We took a break to munch on yummy warm sweet rolls fresh from the oven.  I enjoyed a vanilla flavored (at Cannon's insistence) coffee while we read The Letter from Frog and Toad Together.  The last story in this book had poor Toad waiting for a letter from a friend.  The letter is finally delivered by the snail.  Hum, could this be the source of the term “snail mail”. 

Cannon tried out a new tool for grasping mark making materials.  It is called an Apple Core.  The first experiments with the sharpie marker pens were fairly successful. We will try them with other materials and work on mark making skills.

 

November 11, 2012

Going with the Flow

                                                                             Helen Frankenthaler

This morning after we set up all of our equipment, covered the table and took over the kitchen counter we were ready for our art experiment based on the work of Helen Frankenthaler (December 12, 1928 – December 27, 2011). She was an American abstract expressionist  painter. She worked with diluted oil paint directly on untreated canvass. So, the paint soaked or flowed into the surface.  

Cannon used liquid watercolors on multipurpose paper.  He moistened the paper with a sea sponge and then he dropped primary colors onto the paper and watched the color soak or flow into the paper.  We made lots of experiments. 






We sprinkled sea salt on the wet colors to give texture to the paint.  Where did this salt come from?  We found the coast of Spain and South Africa.

Cannon used his pincher fingers to fill and squeeze/release the paint from the dropper.  This work is in prepartion for the book Cannon is making for his baby sister for Christmas.
 

                                                                                          Blue and Yellow by Cannon 2012

While the paint was drying we took a break. We enjoyed the blueberry muffins that  Cannon and his dad had made the day before.  Then he started writing the book about colors for Avalon. He used his “talker” to find and share the information he wanted to add to the story. He typed the words onto my computer. They are ready to add to the book when the paintings are ready.

 Then it was time to get some more exercise with the clay and the pasta machine.  It is taking a lot of effort to create the right colors and patterns for this secret project.

Activities for the Week
I was so surprised when I arrived and saw baby sister dressed in a zebra print sleeper. The ZooBook I had brought was all about Zebra’s!   Cannon will put pictures fromThe Button story in sequence and talk a bit the feelings Toad had while he was looking for the button.

I think Cannon and I both felt a little sad at the end of our time together.  I think we both wanted more. We will wait for next time.

 


 

 

 

 

 

 

November 4, 2012

Poor Toad has lost a button!  We read the story A Lost Button from the book Frog and Toad are Friends.  Cannon identified many of the Dolce sight words as well as some new words to add to his reading vocabulary.  

           button                                  

            lost

            jacket

            pocket

            found

 

We looked at some of the buttons from my collection.  Many of these buttons are from my mother and my grandmother. Cannon practiced some data collection skills by sorting a packet of buttons by size. 

This week he can play some sorting games by identifying other attributes, number of holes, shape- round or square, thick or thin.  He might want to make a bar graph to show the data he collected.

Mark Making

Mark Making in art is many things including what some people call scribbling.  It is an important skill that American art educator Viktor Lowenfeld describes in his book Creative and Mental Growth and Development. He identified the types of mark making/scribbling as, a) disordered, b) longitudinal, and c) circular.  I call this Movement Mapping. 

                                    Untitled II by Cy Twombly

 Artist Cy Twombly (1928 –2011) explored these early mark making movements. He was an American artist well known for his large-scale, freely scribbled, calligraphic-style graffiti paintings, on solid fields of mostly gray, tan, or off-white colors. He exhibited his paintings worldwide.

                                             Movement Mapping I by Cannon

Cannon and I looked at some of Twomby's paintings.  Then Cannon explored mark making using ultra fine Sharpie pens.  We taped three black pens together, then worked with two and then just one pen.  He used colored pens toward the end of the exercise.

Can you Keep a Secret?
In my family there was a saying, “a gift from the hand is a gift from the heart”.  Gifting season is almost here and so it is time for us to open our secret workshop.   Our work table was out-of-bounds for dad.  I can’t tell you what we were making but I can say it involved a lot of mishing and mashing, squishing and squeezing.  I think it is safe to share a couple of things about our activity. 

 

Cannon learned to crank a pasta machine.  He grasped the handle with his left hand and vigoursly turned the handle.  He got quite a workout extending his arm fully and bringing his hand and arm back to his shoulder. He repeated this movement again and again until our project was ready for the squishing and squeezing part. Cannon’s every movement was energetic and heartfelt.  Next we will let Righty have a turn at cranking the machine. Sorry, you will have to wait until after Christmas to see Cannon’s creations.
Above - Cannon uses his muscles to turn the "crank" on the pasta machine.

Left - I guess there is nothing for me to do but watch as Cannon does all of the work.

 

 

 

Activities for Next Week
Cannon has a Turtle magazine of activities to enjoy during the week.  I left the magnetic white board and some Dolce sight words and some of the words from our word building activites so that he can compose sentences to tell a story.  He can move the magnetic words around and even add words with dry erase marker to make his sentences.  Hum, what will he write, I wonder?   

Election Day November 6
Hey, Cannon!  As I was standing in line waiting my turn to vote early this morning, I was thinking of you.  I thought, “you have to be 18 years old to vote, how many years will it be before Cannon is old enough to vote?” 

Then I thought – “what year will be the first year Cannon will be old enough to vote?”

Can you figure this out?

Have a very good week.  930

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                    Pond Waiting for Water Lilies by Cannon 10/21/12
                                                                
October 28 2012
Art Making
This morning we unpacked my trolley and started by looking at excerpts from a documentary about Gerhard Richter the contemporary German artist whose artistic career has been likened to Pablo Picasso’s.  His work goes from super realism to a more abstract expressionism. He works with many mediums and materials. Cannon and I looked at his abstract compositions. In the documentary we watched him using giant - large (1-5 foot long) palette “knives” or squeegees to move paint on large canvasses. We decided to experiment with Richter’s method of layering colors and moving paint on a surface with large flat edged tools. We used approx 12”x24”– 130lb watercolor paper.

The Process

1. Cannon helped spray the paper with water before adding a base color. Cannon chose two colors from the four that were offered – red, yellow, blue and purple – plus white. By using just two colors Cannon got a feel for color mixing and for making tints by adding white to colors.

2. The acrylic paints come in large tubes so Cannon put his hand over mine and directed my hand to the area he wanted the paint on and then helped squeeze the paint onto the paper.

3. Then he selected one of the painting tools available for this experiment. (We soon discovered which tools were most effective and easiest to grip and manipulate.)

4.  He got a good grip on the handle and then pulled the tool across the surface of the paper – pulling water and color across. 

5.  Cannon pulled the tools across from right to left and down from top to bottom. He changed tools and we added paint at his direction. 

6.  We took 10-15 min breaks between layers to allow the paint to dry so the under layers would show through and not just be mixed in with the new layer. 

 

 

Reflection

Cannon was very engaged in our painting activity.  Like Richter his “intention” grew as the painting developed.  He was very clear on his color choices and placement; guiding the paint tube to the place he wanted it and helping to squeeze paint out onto the paper. The acrylic tube paints worked well.   He really stretched his arm out to move the paint and made choices of painting tools.  He found the best way to grip the tool.  He needed my assistance to put pressure on the tool as he dragged it across the paper.  The pressure I put on the tool was close to where the tool and the paper made contact. This created some resistance which made him use his muscles more and assured the paint made contact with the paper.  He also knew when the painting was finished.    I am trying to be a facilitator, information source – idea stimulator.  I am conscious of offering minimal manual guidance so as to keep his work authentically his.  I was so pleased that Cannon used so many of his spoken words to tell me what he wanted while we were working. I am understanding more of Cannon's gestures, signs and vocal communications.  

Cleaning up – I sprayed Cannon's hands with water and he very effectively used the cloth rag to clean his hands of almost all of the dried acrylic.  The vinyl table covering worked well and let us both relax even more in our processes. The kitchen/dining spaces are working very well.  Thanks for making the space user friendly, I feel comfortable and am not overly concerned about “splashing”. 

 

 

 

Dolce Sight Words

During our paint drying breaks Cannon located and marked the sight words I called out and used in a sentence. We worked the first 50 words on cards 1and 2.  There were some inconsistencies in his responses so we will review this again next time. 

Decoding and word building – I demonstrated how letters are “sound pictures” using the example of how a simple picture of a house and mountains could have become the letters that symbolize/stand for the letter sounds of h and m. We started word building with the letters p-m-a-t-f-s-o-c

Frog and Toad – I read The Story from Frog and Toad Are Friends. I stopped several times and asked Cannon to find one of the sight words.
Writing our own story – we had fun building sentences on the magnetic board about A Fat Cat using some of the Dolce sight words and our decoded words.

A Fat Cat

by Cannon Hoops

The fat cat sat on a mat.

Pat the fat cat.

Prrr!

Tea Time – A friend gave me some fresh mint from her herb garden. The leaves had dried.  Cannon looked closely at the dried leaves with his super large magnifying glass.  Then he used his pinching fingers to pull the dried leaves off of the stem.  Mom helped us press the dried leaves into a tea ball.  We put the tea ball in a cup and poured hot water over it.  We let it steep until it became mint tea. We noticed that the dried leaves had "re-hydrated" soaked up the water and looked like fresh wet leaves. We had a tea tasting during one of the painting breaks. Cannon decided it was okay but not a favorite and one taste was enough.

It was a full Sunday morning. 

Monet! Making an Impression

Impressions of Monet's Water Lilies

October 21, 2012
Our first art lesson!  We experimented with wet and dry materials and used Monet's painting of water lilies as our inspiration. We saw two cityscapes by Monet at the IMA.  Claude Monet was interested in how light worked.  He knew that plain sunlight could be bent and "broken" into a rainbow of colors.  Scientists were studying light to understand how and why could be broken into different colors.

Artists in the late 1800's were interested in how to use this information to make art in new and different ways.  Since there were many new and easier ways of making photographs artists no longer needed to make "picture perfect" realistic paintings.  They were free to make paintings that could comunicate the exciting "impressions" of color and light.

Monet had a house and large garden in France.  In the garden there was a large pond. Many water lilies grew in the pond.  Monet painted scenes of the pond with water lilies many times.  All of the paintings were different because the "light" was different each day.  We looked at several of his paintings on the computer.

We experimented with dry Pan Pastels using different sizes and types of sponges and even a rubber ball to put the colors on the pastel paper. Then we worked on a larger paper to create our "impression" of Monet's painting of water lilies on a pond.

Then we got out the paints and experimented with a technique called "wet on wet" water color.  We sprayed the water color paper (very absorbant paper from India) and then added lots of water to the water color pallette.  Using a large watercolor brush we dropped and moved color around the paper. We also used bubble wrap to create textures and patterns. 

Dolce Words
We whized through the first 25 words on the Dolce word list.  It was clear these words were easily recognized and understood.  And then we met Frog and Toad and found these words in the text of the first chapter of Frog and Toad Together.  We used a ven diagram to compare and contrast frogs and toads to start to understand how they are different and how they are the same.

Taking a Closer Look!
We got out the giant magnifying glass and took a very close look at a large dried sunflower.  We could see how different it was from the fresh sunflowers we saw at the beginning of school. Each large sunflower is made up of lots of tiny individual flowers this makes it a composite flower.  Each little flower makes a seed.  We could see the geometric pattern of the seeds.  We took a seed out and broke it open to find the soft inside part.  That is the part that people like to eat.  We can tie the dry sunflower to a tree or fence and watch birds, squirrels and chipmunks come by to eat the seeds.

Introducing Frog and Toad



 

 



 

 

Frog and Toad will lead us to many adventures.  Like Toad we will have many questions to explore.  First we will learn how to decode the words in their stories.  But that is not all.  We will have our own questions and like Sherlock Holmes we will search for answers.  But be careful in finding answers we may find more questions.  Where will it end? 

Before we even  open the book what is the first question we may have? What is the difference between a frog and a toad? Get out your thinking cap and go to this site to find the answer.  http://www.kidzone.ws/lw/frogs/facts8.htm