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. 

Once Upon a Time There Was a Tree.. (KB-5)

In honor of Tu B'Shvat- the birthday of the trees, we decided to start the children off with a sentence starting a story about a tree, and see where it would go and what they would come up with. We did it in two separate groups so there are two stories. Here are our stories: can you tell we've been learning about trees, weather, and animals recently? 

Once upon a time there was a tree…

Zoey: “It got broken”

Logan: “They cut it”

Rafi: “Then it fell down”

Maddy: “Then the leaves fell down”

Menny: “The grey clouds went up and it rained on the tree”

Rafi: “And the rain fell on the tree”

Zoey: “And it made a puddle”

Maddy: “We need rainboots and umbrellas”

Rafi: “The rain made the tree grow and it was fixed”

Zoey: “And then it was sunny”

Maddy: “We need sunglasses”

Zoey: “And a hat”

Zoey: “Fruit started growing on the tree”

Sylvia: “Apples, and pears grow on the tree

Maddy: “And oranges”

Menny: “And blueberries”

Rafi: “And nuts”

Logan: “And red apples”

The end

Once upon a time there was a tree…

Emmett: “The leaves were falling down and then the trees had a birthday”

Avraham Chaim: “They had a cake”

Emmett: “It was made out of tree”

Eli Lipskier: “The children were in the tree and they played with the animals”

Eli S: “I have a penguin at my house”

Avraham Chaim: “I have a giant panda”

Avraham Chaim: “The squirrels ate all of the cake, and then they ate squirrel food and went back to the tree.

The end

Extended Day Delights

Every Friday our school gets delivered boxes and boxes of pizza. Every Friday those pizza boxes get sent to recycling and our wonderful garbage removal team kindly take them to the recycling facility.  Last Friday Morah Stephanie was able to save a few in hopes that the children would find something creative to do with them.  When we looked at them this Monday we suggested many different options for the boxes.  Shaya insisted that we make a ramp.  So, with a little bit of tape and a lot of imagination we had the perfect ingredients for a marble-racing ramp.  We built a straight shoot at first then added little obstacles for the balls to go around.  Once we figured out that the obstacles were only slowing down the balls, we went back to our high speed racing and carried the activity on to Tuesday.  We love it when we find activities that have the children asking for more. 

While some were racing, others were building onto our cardboard house, twisting pipe cleaners together to make bracelets, and creating magic flower gardens out of random, flower-like toys. Last week Henia made a computer for our cardboard house, and then it went missing.  This week something great happened; we found it!  Here you can see Sammy Typing away busily

Our little builders once again created another unique structure equipped with an array of features.  Did you know that there's a spaceship out there that has an obstacle course, a house with beds, ramps, bridges, and a secret room? Yep, our students imagined all of that up themselves. 

While some like to build giant structures, others may feel more inclined to color, cut, tear, and glue. So, we turned our reading nook into an art station because sometimes it's fun to do art somewhere other than the table, as long as everyone is safe and mindful of the supplies we are using.  

Togetherness and fun go hand in hand during our extended hours. The concept of teamwork is a great social skill and will be carried with our young minds throughout their lives.  We practiced working together and cheering on our teammates using balloons, hoops, bean bags and some very simple instructions.  We were pleasantly surprised how well the children remembered the sequence of the races so well.  For example, during one race, we picked up bean bags, set each one in its own hoop, then did five jumping jacks, retrieved our bean bags then finished on our starting dot.  They all did a great job remembering all of those steps; very few needed the Morahs to remind them of the steps or walk them through.

It's Not Playdough! Exploration with Clay in Kitah Alef

 Morah brought clay into the classroom. The children called it playdough. Morah: "This is clay!" Can you say 'clay'?" Everyone repeated: "Clay!"

 We had tools to work with the clay. Zoey formed the clay into a ball and stuck it on top of her wooden Popsicle stick.

                  Zoey: "Lollipop" handing it to Morah Myriam. Morah: "Thank you Zoey!"
                                                         Zoey: "You can do it yourself!"

 Then other friends made Popsicle sticks as well. Morah made long strips of clay and formed the strips into circles. Morah: "Look its a circle! It looks like a doughnut." Eli: "I want a doughnut!"

                                                   Rafi: "I want a doughnut too!"

                        Avraham Chaim held up his Popsicle stick. Avraham Chaim: "I did it!"

             Logan took his time with forming the clay and used some kitchen utensils and sticks.

Our friends enjoyed working with and exploring the malleable medium that is clay.

KDH and Ponce City Market

Each day is an adventure in KDH but some days are more .....

On Tuesday morning during center time the children took the straw manipulatives and connectors and erected a large building. We asked them, "What is this?" Jules replied, "It's the Ponce City Market." 

Watch how the building progressed!

It was a beautiful day outside. We asked the children, "Would you like to walk on the Beltline to the Ponce City Market?" We got a resounding response, "Yes!"

We lined up with partners and were on our way. We sang as we walked and enjoyed the gorgeous day.The children expressed a special interest in finding all the bridges on the walk. The first one that we walked under was renamed by KDH, "The Echo Bridge."

We noticed the bridge over Ponce de Leon. The one bridge that was a disappointment was the bridge to the Ponce City Market. It was closed for repairs. So after the long walk, we sat on what Amitai called, "the squiggly bench," to rest up before our walk back.

We only have these two pictures from the outing and wanted to create something about our outing. On Wednesday morning, the children drew the the bridges, flowers, trees, friends, the Ponce City Market with its many windows and flag on top and more....Next, we sat down and the children dictated to us what to write in the book.

Ms. Donna scanned the pictures and turned it into a book for us!

What excitement! 

The only way we could make it even better is by going inside the Ponce City Market.

Next time!!

Morah Ruth

Waterfalls and Bridges - Kitah Alef

 We filled different colored plastic eggs with rice and beans this morning to make groggers.
As Rafi poured out the rice from the egg he said "Look, I'm making a waterfall."

 Then Yisroel tried it and pretty soon all of our friends watched the rice trickle down in between our fingers. Morah: "Let's make more waterfalls!"

 Kitah Alef could not get enough of this. We used spoons to scoop  rice and beans into the egg halves. Then we taped the two halves together to make a grogger for Purim.

 Outside we found big wooden blocks. Zoey strated placing the blocks into a long row. Very diligently she took block after block and lined them up.

 Morah: "What are you making Zoey?" Zoey: "It's a bridge!" We all took turns walking on the long bridge.

 Rafi wanted a turn to and when he got to the end of the bridge he ran back to the beginning to make another crossing.

 There was colorful chalk available so Zoey started coloring the blocks one by one. It made the bridge look even more interesting.

                             Rafi: "Let's do it again!" And he walked across the bridge once more.

What a nice sunny day to take a walk on such a colorful, long bridge!