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Welcome back to Latticed Learning! This year, we're continuing to learn while we play - repeating many of our favorites from the past while adding in all sorts of new activities as well.
This day's post is devoted to our weekly themes - some weeks have more activities than others, but each lesson will be fun for you to explore with your little one!
Read All About It
Katie and the Mona Lisa is easily one of Gv's all-time favorite books. I wrote about this wonderful series in this post and we want to own them all!
The Art Book for Children (Books One & Two) is amazing. Large photos of some of the world's best artwork adorns every page along with interesting little tidbits of information about each artist or work.
A Child's Introduction to Art is equally wonderful and also interjects art tips amongst all the art appreciation information.
Art & Max contains illustrations that are works of art in themselves, besides being the perfect accompaniments to a fun story.
The Art Lesson reads like fiction, but is obviously the story of the artist/author himself, Tomie dePaola. Who doesn't love his books?
What Makes a Rainbow
The Day the Crayons Quit & The Day the Crayons Came Home
The Crayon Box That Talked
I Am a Rainbow
Color Dance
Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?
A Rainbow of My Own
Baby Bear Sees Blue
The Rainbow Book
The Art Book for Children (Books One & Two) is amazing. Large photos of some of the world's best artwork adorns every page along with interesting little tidbits of information about each artist or work.
A Child's Introduction to Art is equally wonderful and also interjects art tips amongst all the art appreciation information.
Art & Max contains illustrations that are works of art in themselves, besides being the perfect accompaniments to a fun story.
The Art Lesson reads like fiction, but is obviously the story of the artist/author himself, Tomie dePaola. Who doesn't love his books?
Other Great Books We Read
Katie's Sunday Afternoon, Katie and the Sunflowers, Katie and the Waterlily Pond, Katie Meets the Impressionists & Katie and the British ArtistsWhat Makes a Rainbow
The Day the Crayons Quit & The Day the Crayons Came Home
The Crayon Box That Talked
I Am a Rainbow
Color Dance
Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?
A Rainbow of My Own
Baby Bear Sees Blue
The Rainbow Book
Sing Some Songs
We listened to these selections this week:
We did several things to correspond to our topic this week:
I printed page 18 of this pack as a fun review of colors.
I followed the idea here and we made our own Keith Haring "dancing" art:
After seeing this idea, we created a Matisse-inspired work:
This post gave me the idea to create little secondary-color bugs for Gv to hang and reference. I used construction paper to make them, then Gv decided they had to all have some googly eyes!
I took three index cards, folded them and cut out butterfly shapes, then had Gv squirt a drop of color on either wing to fold back together and mix up:
I'd come across this cool Fibonacci art project. Even though the math aspect was lost on Gv at this point in time, I knew she'd still have fun playing with the neat (& safe!) compass G had brought home from his classroom.
We channeled Piet Mondrain and made our own modern plate masterpiece:
I love pointillism, so we dabbled a bit in that style. First, we created a color wheel on a paper plate, using a pencil eraser as our "brush":
Gv did all the painting herself (I held my hands over the surrounding sections of the plate, to contain her jabbing) and I thought she filled in each section nicely, but I wasn't super-happy with the way the secondary colors turned out...
...until I stood on the other side of the room, where the effect became much more clear!
Once we saw how cool the plate turned out, we decided to try our hands at an actual scene:
I had also planned for us to make one of these Pollack-like paintings, but Gv just wasn't in the mood to paint any more, so I let it go.
I am thinking, however, that I might have to create something like this myself on a canvas to hang up somewhere around the house. It would be the perfect way to display our family Bible verse!
Gv's already seen a fair amount of Chihuly pieces in person, so I got all excited when I ran across this idea.
I didn't think Gv colored her coffee filter enough (mine's the rainbow one - big surprise, right?), but it still turned out really cool:
I took Gv to "visit" some of my favorite museums around the world, like the Louvre, Musée d'Orsay, Museo del Prado, Tate Modern, National Gallery, Art Institute of Chicago, Rijksmuseum, and Alte Pinakothek.
Then we went and visited a real local art museum in person:
We finished up by each coloring in one of our favorite masterpieces from the week. You can find a bunch of free, printable coloring pages here, here and here.
A Masterpiece and I Like Art from two of the amazing albums I talk about here.
Several songs from this jewel-toned singer touched on colors and the rainbow.
Fuzzy & Blue (& Orange) and Bein' Green from this album.
Rainbow Connection and another rendition of Bein' Green from this.
I played the entire soundtrack to this movie, because it just made total sense.
Several songs from this jewel-toned singer touched on colors and the rainbow.
Fuzzy & Blue (& Orange) and Bein' Green from this album.
Rainbow Connection and another rendition of Bein' Green from this.
I played the entire soundtrack to this movie, because it just made total sense.
Watch Some Videos
Play and Create
We did several things to correspond to our topic this week:
I printed page 18 of this pack as a fun review of colors.
I followed the idea here and we made our own Keith Haring "dancing" art:
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| I had to completely cut & assemble the brad figures. Gv positioned & traced the figures herself (in pencil) onto construction paper & then I went over the lines in black marker. She cut them out & glued them down on her own. |
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| I cut out the orange piece, just to give her the idea of what to do, then she did the rest. |
This post gave me the idea to create little secondary-color bugs for Gv to hang and reference. I used construction paper to make them, then Gv decided they had to all have some googly eyes!
I took three index cards, folded them and cut out butterfly shapes, then had Gv squirt a drop of color on either wing to fold back together and mix up:
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| The purple didn't get mixed up as well as the other two, but this was still a very effective activity and loads of fun for Gv - I can see making more of these colorful butterflies to decorate with, once spring arrives. |
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| I did the orange circle for an example, then Gv did the rest herself. |
We channeled Piet Mondrain and made our own modern plate masterpiece:
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| I couldn't get past my OCD tendencies on this one, so I cut out a variety of primary-color rectangles and squares (along with some black strips), but then the rest was up to Gv to choose which ones to use, where to place them, and then do the gluing. |
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| Yes, I totally sectioned the plate off into 8 pieces before realizing that we only needed 6...that's what I get for trying to eat lunch and do something else at the same time! |
...until I stood on the other side of the room, where the effect became much more clear!
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| Clear color mixing, despite my fuzzy-photo-taking skills...and yes, that is still the same collection of dust up there above the fireplace, thanks for noticing! |
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| I sketched this drawing in pencil, then Gv and I filled in the paint together. Her painting patience was running out, but it was still fun for her to see how the picture turned out, with only dots of color. |
I had also planned for us to make one of these Pollack-like paintings, but Gv just wasn't in the mood to paint any more, so I let it go.
I am thinking, however, that I might have to create something like this myself on a canvas to hang up somewhere around the house. It would be the perfect way to display our family Bible verse!
Gv's already seen a fair amount of Chihuly pieces in person, so I got all excited when I ran across this idea.
I didn't think Gv colored her coffee filter enough (mine's the rainbow one - big surprise, right?), but it still turned out really cool:
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| Color one side of a coffee filter with marker, cut around the outer edge to make it irregular, drape it over a cup, then spray the heck out of it with spray starch. |
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| After the starch has dried, remove them from the cup - don't you just love how the colors have bled? |
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| Then stick them up on the wall by their bases and admire how cool it all looks! |
I took Gv to "visit" some of my favorite museums around the world, like the Louvre, Musée d'Orsay, Museo del Prado, Tate Modern, National Gallery, Art Institute of Chicago, Rijksmuseum, and Alte Pinakothek.
Then we went and visited a real local art museum in person:
We finished up by each coloring in one of our favorite masterpieces from the week. You can find a bunch of free, printable coloring pages here, here and here.
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Looking for all the great posts associated with this concept in one place? Check out my Latticed Learning page here!
What's your favorite thing that we did this week? I'd love to hear! Either leave a comment below or email me at lisahealy (at) outlook (dot) com.
Also, if you don't want to miss a single minute of great tips like this and all the fun around here, be sure to sign up for free updates and then look forward to having each post delivered straight to your inbox!
Looking for all the great posts associated with this concept in one place? Check out my Latticed Learning page here!
What's your favorite thing that we did this week? I'd love to hear! Either leave a comment below or email me at lisahealy (at) outlook (dot) com.
Also, if you don't want to miss a single minute of great tips like this and all the fun around here, be sure to sign up for free updates and then look forward to having each post delivered straight to your inbox!
