Flower Pressing: Part 1 {Art Friday}

I have really fond memories of pressing flowers as a little one with our flower press. This week we found some lovely local flowers at the farmers market and as they started to fade I thought we would try to preserve them. 

You don't need anything fancy, just a heavy book, some flowers, and some paper. You can also place the flowers inside the book if you have a heavy used one that has minimal value. 

Pick the flowers you want to press. Lay flat on you paper. 

Cover with another sheet and place book on top gently. 

Wait a few weeks for them to dry.  Once ours are dry and pressed we'll use them for a fun project so be sure to check in! 

This was inspired by the lovely ladies over at Wild + Free. They have a free content bundle available  and a new monthly online magazine. September's theme is Garden. Be sure to get a copy before the end of the month! 

Landscape Art {Art Friday}

I had planned to take the kids up to the mountains to sketch this week but after a hectic few days we really needed that extra day at home. I'm sure we will make it up there next week. 

This morning we looked at some landscape art in our Can you Hear it? book along with searching for landscape art in our Usborne Famous Painting Art Cards. We also listened to  The four Seasons: Summer by Vivaldi. 

The selected cards that the kids felt fit a "landscape" description. 

They picked a card that inspired them. Indie picked Apples and Oranges by Paul Cezanne.

Barrett picked The Water Lily Pond by Claude-Oscar Monet. 

Chrysanthemums {Art Fridays}

We used the piece, Chrysanthemums by Utagawa Hiroshige along with some hand picked chrysanthemums and sunflowers for our Art inspiration this week. We also listened to The Flight of the Bumblebee by Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov. 

You can find both of these in the book Can You Hear it? or you can find them online of course! 

One of the hardest lessons for me with my oldest has been understanding his thought process with his drawings.  He can draw things in great detail and proportion if he chooses too- but other times it appears that he doesn't care and the page just looks like a bunch of scribbles. Today I took some time to sit down with them and realized that he was drawing with the music. He would speed up or slow down, use more pressure or less, depending on the dynamics in the song. It wasn't that he didn't care- he was just experiencing the activity in a different way!  We've referred to it as his "action" drawings. 

Dad's monochromatic approach. The kids really enjoyed having him here this morning! I love seeing his drawings and think I might start stashing them away. 

Next week we will say goodbye to summer by looking at View from Mount Holyoke, Northampton, Massachusetts, After a Thunderstorm- The Oxbow by Thomas Cole and listen to The Four Seasons: Summer by Vivaldi. 

Can You Hear It? {Art Friday}

This particular book has been on my wish list for a while and I was super excited to add it to our collection this year. It's a book of various artists and a cd with music to go along with it. Each page has questions about the music to inspire little ones. The kids LOVE it. I intended to do a page a week but we went through the whole book the first day and it has a coveted place on our bookshelf. 

I pulled out our instrument three part cards (from Peter and the Wolf) and did a three part lesson on a few of the instruments while we listened to some of the music. 

There are so many extensions. Listen to the music and count the beats. Listen to more from the composer or search for more art work from the artist. You could easily do a lesson on Bees after listening to the flight of the bumblebee. We are excited to get to know these artists and their works in the coming months! 

Have fun appreciating art this week! 

Famous Paintings {Wordless Wednesday}

Virtual Book Club for Kids {Amy Krouse Rosenthal}

We are excited to be a part of this really great book club! The link to the facebook page is on the right of your screen. The blog hop is here at The Educators' Spin on It. 

This month is Amy Krouse Rosenthal.  We've been reading Chopsticks, It's not Fair,  Duck! Rabbit!,  and Bedtime for Mommy.

Bear decided to go with Duck Rabbit for his art project. He used ink and watercolor for his picture. 

"Duck! Rabbit! is my favourite because it looks cool."

It's hard to get this little guy excited about art so I love that the pictures really meant something to him! It took him a while to "see" both the Duck and the Rabbit and his reaction when it clicked was priceless. 

We are very much looking forward to reading some more of her books and finding inspiration this month!