Grade 1 and 2 campers enjoyed visiting our frog pond here on campus. We were excited to find snails, sakata shells, tadpoles, and a praying mantis. We are looking forward to seeing the tadpoles transform!
Exploring our PJS campus this Week!
Grade 1 and 2 campers enjoyed visiting our frog pond here on campus. We were excited to find snails, sakata shells, tadpoles, and a praying mantis. We are looking forward to seeing the tadpoles transform!
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Exploring the work of Matisse: We have learned that Henri Matisse was inspired by nature and other things he saw in his every day life. On Wednesday we focused on several of Matisse’s paintings of flowers, looking at and discussing our observations about the colors and styles of each painting. We compared and contrasted the paintings to each other, and also to a vase of real flowers we brought into the classroom. Our preschool artists then used watercolors to create their own masterpieces, painting the vase of flowers in the style of Henri Matisse. Check out these photos of the project inspiration and process, as well as a sneak-peak at a few finished samples. We can’t wait to display them at our showcase next Friday morning! Campers 2-3 years old This session we entered into the world of Henri Matisse. The toddlers enjoyed hearing about Matisse as a small boy growing up and searching for beauty and color in his dreary, gray town in France. We looked at some examples of Matisse’s artwork, and closely examined Matisse’s leaves. The kids noticed they looked like hearts and enjoyed the swirly patterns the veins made. We headed outside to compare Matisse’s leaves to the ones that grow around our playgroud. The kids collected leaves from the ground and explored the different textures of leaves on the trees and in our garden. They compared different sizes and shapes and even found some natural swirly designs growing in our garden boxes. They used all of this as their inspiration as they painted their own heart shaped leaves with green tempera paint, and added “swirling” vein designs with a black marker. Session 3: Curiosity Camp:
We are having a great time getting familiar with West African culture this week at PJS. Children have been able to explore maps, write out their wonders about West Africa, and make some jewelry. We explored some of the reasons West Africans use masks, watched some wooden masks being made, and worked on paper masks of our own. On Wednesday, children went to the kitchen to make Nigerian meat pies and vegetable pies. While delicious smells came from the kitchen, other children were learning some African dances down the hall. All in all, a busy and exciting week to be at camp. Session 1: Grades 1-5 The Clay Creators (as they called themselves) started camp off with a lesson in basic hand modeling in clay. They approached of going from the whole to the parts to make almost anything was conveyed in the making of animal forms. From a lump of clay a sphere or ball was made, and then transformed into an egg shape and finally modeled into mice, hens, dogs and even an elephant. The children were encouraged to push and pull clay from the whole sphere instead of "adding pieces on" to realize their final animal form. From there a pinch pot was made from the whole sphere opening up many new opportunities for realizing objects. The bells and beads project required a well formed pinch pot to form the bell shape, and the beads were formed from small spheres of clay. The work was painted with colored glazes and fired in the kiln. The coil bowl was covered with the important skill of "score and slip" to attach coils. This score and slip skill was very important in building more complex sculptural forms. The Kusamono pot (a Japanese planter for planting humble plants) required well executed coils, smoothed to make solid walls. A footed bottom also had to be scored and slipped into place. The final technique covered was slab built construction. Slabs of clay must be rolled out to an even thickness with no air bubbles trapped inside that could explode in the kiln. From these slabs we made tiles with found natural objects that we pressed into the clay, fired and finished with shoe polish and hung with cord and sticks. The second slab built project was a hand rattle. Formed around egg shaped newspaper two slabs had to be joined with the slip and score method, left to dry to a leathery hardness, cut open to take the newspaper out and clay beads added. Finally it was resealed using a coil with slip and score once again. Students had the option of using the technique known as "Sgraffito" - once colored slip is painted on an object a design can scratched away revealing the raw clay underneath. In all the children were exposed to the basics of hand building, construction, glazing and kiln firing of ceramics for both practical and decorative uses. The campers held a showcase of their work the last day and invited parents to enjoy their work. Andy Warhol’s long time friend James Name was both the inspiration and creator of the shiny space known as the Silver Factory. Using tin foil and silver paint the men covered the entire space, turning it into a piece artwork itself. From the 1960’s through the 1970’s Andy Warhol’s Silver Factory was a meeting places for some the greatest thinkers, writers, performers, and artists of the time.
The Art and Nature campers, ages 2-5, created their own version of the silver factory as a place to display some of their own creations. They explored how tinfoil folds and crinkles by first wrapping up blocks, and then quickly moved onto the table, chairs, and walls in our corner. The kids had a great time transforming these ordinary objects into something extraordinary! Session 1: Grandma Moses
Art and Nature Campers Ages 2-3 years old enjoyed sharing about their Grandmas: "I like to play supercars with my Grandma" "My Grandma is my friend" "I read with my Grandma" "I love my Grandma. I have two of them. I like to play with them." After hearing all about what makes Grandma special, we created a piece of art for them! What a great way to kick off the first week of camp by celebrating the 4th of July! Inspired by Grandma Moses' "Old glory" painting, we created our own American flags. Campers enjoyed using tape to make the stripes and stickers for the stars. In honor of the special holiday, we also baked cupcakes. Our campers were such great helpers! They cracked the eggs, poured in and mixed the ingredients, and scooped the batter into the cupcake tins. After letting the cupcakes bake and cool down, each camper got to ice and decorate their own cupcake with white icing and red and blue sprinkles. We ate our cupcakes as a special snack at the end of the day - YUM! We are excited to announce that registration is open for 2018 summer camp! Please visit our website at pjssummercamp.weebly.com for more information!
What a great week at camp! Third through Fifth grade campers continued learning about our partner country Nicaragua this week. After being inspired by some Nicaraguan pottery, campers painted pots of their own. Campers also made tres leches cake so they could sample a Nicaraguan treat. We continued our quest to defeat Halys and his insectivores in our role-playing game SEED. Campers have really enjoyed this math game, and we are looking forward to finding out who our point champion is on Friday. |
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