Pre-K: Patterns, Picasso and Pollock!
Pre-K had such a fun week exploring the letter "Pp". Mainly we focused on patterns (you can see some of the results of our hard work on the Pre-K bulletin board), but we also had a chance to draw portraits of each other like Pablo Picasso as well as to paint like Jackson Pollock. Your children were enthusiastic participants!
We started the week by listing the differences between paintings and sculptures. Here are some of the differences that the class came up with as a group after we read the book Picasso and the Girl with the Ponytail.
Paintings are: not shaped like a person; made with paint; hang on an easel or wall.
Sculptures are: sometimes shaped like a person; can be made with clay, metal, shells, paper, wood and/or glass; can be moved around.
We also made a list of words we know that start with “p.” Our list ranged from “pig” to “prehistoric”! Throughout the course of the week, while we worked on patterns with unifix cubes and pompoms, we also wrote (and delivered) letters to each other and family members in our Post Office, made and played with play dough (we voted that it should be pink rather than purple), and practiced and performed the chant “Five Crispy Pancakes” for our first session with Miss Paula and the rest of the school.
One of the highlights of our week was our first session of Writing About Reading. Each week we will spend a little time looking at a book’s cover and pictures, making predictions about what it might be about, reading it and then drawing and writing about the things that seemed most important to us as we read it. This week we read Harold and the Purple Crayon, and the children drew images from the book that included buildings in the city, Harold in the water, and the apple tree. They dictated what was happening in their scenes to us, but, as the year goes on, they will be writing by themselves more and more.
On Friday we learned about Jackson Pollock and, after reading Action Jackson, we were quiet for a few minutes while we looked at Pollock’s painting Autumn Rhythm and talked about how it made us feel. Here are some of your children's reactions:
“It makes me feel sad because of the little bit of blue.”
“It makes me feel joy because it’s happy.”
“It makes me feel confused because it looks like a buzzy tv.”
We then taped a large piece of brown paper onto the floor and the children moved around it dripping, waving, dribbling and painting with silver, black, white and pink paint. As soon as it’s dry, we will hang it up for a while and then send a small piece of it home with each child.
Next week we will move onto the letter "Bb"!
Have a wonderful weekend,
-Emily and Martine
Books we read include:
Picasso and the Girl with a Ponytail
Waiting is Not Easy
Harold and the Purple Crayon
Press Here
Action Jackson
