January 5-8

Welcome to WINTER! We began our new year by discussing the change in season and what we noticed outside and in nature. We kept our Christmas trees from December up on our artwork board (evergreen trees with colored pom poms for ornaments) to compare to a winter tree (evergreen tree outside). Through discussion and exploration of books with pictures we decided that the winter trees still have the green needles and could have snow on them. The children then created their winter tree on brown paper with paint sticks and paint.

As the children created their trees they discussed the green trees and what background they have around them. Additions of white, brown, pink and blue were included in their green winter tree creations as they created what they thought it all looked like. The next step is to take a walk outside and see what the trees actually look like in winter...

The next day it was time to find winter trees outside and explore them. Before leaving the classroom we reviewed our prior discussion about how winter trees were evergreen trees that still had the green needles on them. Once we stepped outside, the children looked around and found the evergreens on our campus. We then set out to explore them!

Once we got to the trees we realized how much we had to explore! The trees were in fact still intact with green needles and there was no snow on them yet. We also discovered how tall the trees were and how they were full of pinecones. There were also pinecones on the ground along with brown pine needles. As we collected materials from the ground, the children noticed that some branches were "up" and some branches were "down." After careful examination they realized that the branches with pinecones on them were down ("heavy from the pinecones") and the branches without pinecones were up ("no pinecones to make it heavy"). 

When we returned to the classroom we dumped our collections on the table and explored and sorted the materials. We compared the smells and textures of the pinecones, fresh needles (green) and dead needles (brown), and talked about what parts of the tree they came from. We then decided we should create art with these natural materials, so that will be tomorrow's adventure!

The children began their art experience by exploring using the pinecones and needles to paint with. They rolled and tapped the pinecones and brushed and tapped the pine needles to create different types of paintings. They then began to create their winter tree with these materials...

The children used the natural materials to paint their winter tree and attach those materials to the trees using paint. The art experience became both an exploration of how to use the natural materials as art tools as well as how to use them to create a winter tree like the ones they explored outside. They asked to paint more of the pinecones and use them again, so next week we'll do just that!