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