ABSTRACT EXPRESSIONISM: ACTION PAINTING

            As Educators, we all know that learning does not end with formal schooling, nor does creativity end with childhood. At IJP, art is used as a forum for true exploration and expression of the inner self, to encourage each child's natural creativity and curiosity.  Inspired from the creativity manifest in our Kitah Bet activities, I’ve (Yael) developed an interest in learning and reading more about art, starting with its different styles throughout history. Gravitating towards the Abstract style the most, I was intrigued with the action paintings of artists like Jackson Pollack, as well its emphasis on utilizing art as a way of personal emotional expression. I loved his paintings and thought that this was a kind of art our Kitah Bet students could do and appreciate.

 It's okay if we paint the paper too!

 Lily likes to sing and paint at the same time. 

            After winter break, we started working on decorating blank picture frames that we had in our classroom. The type of abstract expressionism we did is called action painting, a type of painting that focuses around the hand movements and the actual process of making the art. Each child was able to choose whichever color he or she wanted and spontaneously splashed and dripped paint all over the frames. Not only did the splatter painting beautify our picture frames, but the children noticed a whole ‘nother, bigger piece of art which was being created along with them: the paper underneath the frames! The big white sheet of paper that we put underneath the frames as a back splash had now become a beautiful piece of art in its own right. After the paint dried the next day, we decided to practice cutting with scissors and cut the sheet into different shapes and designs with our new “training” scissors.

Lev thinks the backsplash looks cool!

Elliot is painting with orange, like his shirt!

 Asher and Erez are sharing the green while Adom splashes with blue.

 Orli slowly drips and splatters the yellow and blue paint.

 Mina generally paints with two hands. 

            There are no rules when it comes to art and creative expression, a fact which seems to be intuitive to children, as is seen from their uniquely expressive and abstract drawings, and is something that is highly encouraged here at school. What looks like a scribble to us can represent anything to the artist and knows no bounds. Our students’ art is showcased around our classroom, accompanied with a short description from the child. One child’s paper with circles on it is her new baby brother, while another’s colorful scribbles represent his brother taking a nap. Our Kitah Bet students are natural born abstract expressionists, their art filled with endless possibilities and lots of self-expression. 

Preschool Rocks!

Sometimes rocks can be a little intimidating. They're hard, dirty, and they could easily hurt someone if thrown. But when we look beyond those minor bumps, we see a world of opportunity for learning and creating. We can dig them up, paint them, create shapes and symbols, and the students can dream up all sorts of games to play using just rocks!  Some rocks can go home with the children, others will stay for the entire school to enjoy.  Rocks are fun, stay tuned to all of our fun rock updates!

Here we have a rock wash.  The children are using sponges and strainers to filter out the rocks and clean them up for our activities to come. 

Painting rocks for the playground is an activity everyone enjoys.  What's even more exciting is finding that rock you painted under a pile of wood chips!

Pick up rocks, similar to pick-up-sticks, without disturbing any rock other than the one you choose! This keeps everyone involved, watching to see if the pile moves or not.  Some kept count the entire time while others immediately started creating designs with their rocks. 

Pearl made a key!

"S" is for Sammy.

Brother and sister made a smiley face :)

Our rock train is TEN students long! 

This is Rock, he's our friend!! He has googly eyes and silly yarn for hair!  

Magical Painting with Kitah Alef

 Last week Morah Kim brought in a magical painting board to the class. Today Morah Myriam took the board down to see if our friends in Kitah Alef would like to try painting on it. The board sits on a  wooden box with with small rocks in it. We poured a little water into the box.

 Zoey was the first to try painting on the board. She carefully dipped the paint brush in to the water and started moving the brush across the board. At first the brush strokes make a light mark on the board. Slowly the lines turn darker and darker.

 Zoey points to the box and says: "There's water in there!"

 Everyone gathers around with curiosity to see what designs are appearing as the brush moves across the board.

 Now Yisroel wants a turn. He dips the brush in the water and starts to paint. It's Magic!

 Logan wants a turn and moves the paint brush back and forth all over the board making very interesting designs. Zoey stands next to him watching closely.

 The rocks in the box are also interesting. Yisroel grabs a few to play with on the table.

 Our new friend Yaakov Meir also wants a turn to paint. We know how to take turns in Kitah Alef.

 Morah Myriam: "What a beautiful painting we have made!"

 Avraham Chaim runs over and adds some brush strokes to the board.

 Morah Myriam paints a circle on the board. Morah: "Circle!" Avraham Chaim repeats: "Circle!"

 Now its Gaby's turn. Gaby had already painted with feathers today on the easel and still had paint in his hair. Now its time to paint with water!

 We love our magical art board and hope to spend more time painting on it. By tomorrow all of our brush strokes will have disappeared again and the board will be ready for a brand new painting.

Love is in the Air ~ Kitah Alef

It all started with a little stone that had the word 'love' written on it. This inspired us. We got to work and created our very own version KA style. Morah Ruth from Kitah Daled Hey gave us a large big piece of poster board to use. We still had sticks in our classroom collected from the playground and  we got to work!

Morah Myriam carefully glued the sticks onto the poster board as the children watched. We made letters with our sticks. We sounded out each letter and ran our fingers over the shape. We even found a special heart shaped type of acorn to make our "o"

Finally it was done! Now we were ready to paint...

Everyone put on a smock and we picked out green, pink and silver paint.

      Zoey wanted to have the green paint. Zoey: "I want green... this is for Mommy and Daddy!"

              Everyone worked hard to fill in the space around our word with pinks, greens, and shiny                                                                                silver paint.

                  We wanted to add a little texture so we added some bird seed to our painting.
                                                Avraham  Chaim: "Bird seed, bird seed!!"

            Shane sprinkled the bird seed into the pink paint very carefully. Shane: "Look, bird seed!"

              The children would leave the table and take off their smocks only to return again and again to continue the process. Everyone wanted a part in sprinkling the bird seed.

                       Sylvia took her time until she was sure of the color she wanted to use.

                 

             Rafi and Benji continued sprinkling bird seed to make the painting even more

                                                                interesting and beautiful.

         Yisroel had been busy reading books all morning in the library, but finally he came to put               some finishing touches on our work of art. Love is in the air!

Morah Myriam Morah Kim