Bella Luna

Today we are back from a two week break, and back on a full moon.

I have noticed that full moons often effect people of all ages, but preschoolers in particular.

Something wild takes over.  Instead of worrying about it, today I decided to embrace the energy of the full moon and talk about it with the kids.

So, we created our own full moons.  We also looked at the phases of the moon, and talked about the different images we see in the moon.  We saw rabbits and faces.  We also talked about why the moon glows at night, and my favorite reason was Jasper's: "the moon glows because it has electricity."

This was a simple and fun project, because the kids loved watching the marker bleed on the paper with just a few drops from the eye dropper.

Start by using water color paper or a thick absorbent paper, then have children color all over with a washable marker.

 Give the children a cup of water and an eye dropper and let them go to town.

After the paper drys, let them draw with glue on the circle.



Then let the glitter fun begin.  let them sprinkle it on top of the glue, make sure to keep a dish or a cookie sheet under them to catch the glitter.  We would also knock some of the excess glitter off now and then.  It is a fun project because they love experimenting with materials; The way the marker bleeds, the pouring of glue, the shaking of the glitter, it is just plain old fun!

Following our art time, we sang some songs about the moon, and instead of a sun salutation during yoga, we did a moon salutation.  We had a dance party to "Can you Catch the Moon" by Elizabeth Mitchell and Lisa Loeb

Later we read a couple great books with the moon in them, which I listed below along with our songs.

It was a beautiful lunar day for us at school.

Books we read:

Just the parts on Winter Moons.

Great book!

Songs we Sang:

"Can you catch the moon?"  Lisa Loeb and Elizabeth Mitchell

hit the link below to see the video and hear the song...very sweet

http://youtu.be/epRWUbgw9V4

THE MOON IS CIRCLING ‘ROUND THE EARTHTune: “When Johnny Comes Marching Home Again” or “The Ants Go Marching”

The moon is circling ‘round the earth, hurrah!, hurrah!
We cannot see it, in the day, the day.
But when day turns into night,
We can see the moon so bright.
Oh, we’re oh so glad that the moon is in the sky.

Jean Warren

MAN IN THE MOON

Man in the moon,
Man in the moon,
Shinning in the night.
What a happy face you have,
Big, round and white.

                        Jean Warren

I SEE THE MOON

I see the moon
And the moon see me.
God bless the moon
And God bless me!

                        Traditional



Wild Flower Paper Making

This is an old post revisited because we made our homemade paper yesterday and as always the children impressed me with their abilities and patience as each of the 8 kids waited their turn to use the blender and scoop out their paper.  Here is the original post from last year, though the pictures have not been updated, this show sour process:

One of our recent activities at Art and Soul Preschool was paper making.  The children loved the process of choosing their colored paper pulp, blending it and sifting it out on a screen.  We have been studying seeds and plants, so we added wild flower seeds along with flower petals and lavender to our paper, making it an extra special treat.   We gave them away as Mother's Day cards, and Elianna and I planted ours in the garden.  They really came out beautifully, and I cannot wait for my wild flowers to grow. 

Bowls of paper pulp cut up from old paintings the students did on construction paper.

A very dirty, yet highly functional blender and trays of clean water in which the

paper pulp was added.  Each student used one side of the tray for their pulp.

Adding paper pulp to the blender. After the pulp is added, fill the blender half way with clean water.  The pulp should be cut up and soaked over night.

Pouring the paper pulp in the trays with about a 1/2 inch of clean water.

You can see where one student already poured the pulp on the left side.

Adding the wild flower seeds and petals to the paper pulp

Placing the screen in the pulp to pull the paper

Our paper ready to be laid on top of dry towels.  we placed a paper towel on top of each paper then folded the towels over to speed up the drying process.

After the paper has dried enough to peel it off the screen, we hung it up to dry fully

Lovely Wild Flower Paper

Elianna and I picked a place in our flower garden to plant our paper

Ellie working hard in the garden covering her paper with dirt

A final touch, a bit of water to help it grow!