Literature Highlight & Activity - Dappled Apples

The last few mornings I have loved the fresh crisp smell of fall in the air... with the start of fall many classrooms are doing activities involving apples. One book I must read each and every fall is the the lovely book Dappled Apples by Jan Carr.




The words in this book flow with delightful rhymes and alliteration..."flutter, flitter, gold as glitter, colors crackle round the tree....pumpkin pile-up...evil fairy, Yikes! She's scary! Patched-up pirate, Who is he?..." From jumping in piles of fall leaves to pumpkin patches and trick-or-treating this book highlights all the reasons children (and adults) love the fall. The illustrations are made of bright, colorful cut-paper collages that give the reader a 3-D effect.

I read Dappled Apples several times during the fall season and do the following after each phase of the book:

After reading the first part about apples: take your child to an apple orchard. Children love the act of picking their own apples just like the children in the book. It teaches your children about seasonal foods and where apples come from.

After reading about fall leaves: go outside and pile up leaves with your children. Then join them in a leave jumping (which usually also ends up in leaf throwing) party.

After reading about the pumpkin patch, take your children to a pumpkin patch. Pack the following items: crayons (or other drawing utensils), paper, and a clipboard. (You don't HAVE to take a clipboard, anything hard will work, but children LOVE using clipboards, plus with the wind that comes in the fall it will be easier to hold your children's paper... so I highly recommend purchasing one... or several if you are a teacher. I will continue to post activities where children do things outside and will need clipboards.) While at the pumpkin patch have your children go on a hunt for interesting looking pumpkins. Once they find their favorite unique pumpkin have them draw a picture of it (or of a whole group of pumpkins). If you have a little extra cash, I also recommend buying the pumpkins. It is always fun to actually take one of the pumpkins home.



After reading the part about trick-or-treating have your children sit around your art table (my art table is our dining room table covered in a plastic table cloth I purchased at a dollar store). Place scissors (I recommend children's scissors, also if you can get some scissors with different blades they are really fun to use), construction paper, and glue at the table. Then have your children make their own cut-paper collage pictures of Halloween costumes.

Happy Dappled Apple-ing!!!

Rainy Day Activities

At home or at school it is always a good idea to have access to ideas for a "rainy day." Many of the activities I will post on this blog can be used as a rainy day activity (my music drawings for example. Click this link to see what I am referring to: http://sugarnspicesnailsntales.blogspot.com/2009/08/art-activity-music-drawings.html )

Collecting ideas is easy, it is the organization and updating that is easily left behind... when this happens many rainy days can go by without actually using these days to have fun with your children/students. Here are a couple of suggestions that have worked for me:

1. Purchase a three-ring binger, a hole punch, dividers with tabs, and some plastic storage sheets to keep in the binder. When you have a good idea on my blog or elsewhere you can print out the idea and place it in your binder. As you begin to collect ideas use the dividers to categorize your ideas. If you are really organized you can also include an index at the front of your binder. Simply write down a list of your tabs and leave space under each tab name. As you add items to your binder you can write in the activities under the tab name in your index. The plastic storage sheets can be used to put your printed out ideas if you access your binder frequently. If you don't I would save the storage sheets to store games or activities that you have created to keep the entire project together (for example if you make a paper BINGO game you could keep the boards, call cards, and paper markers...if you choose to use markers over cereal or candy... all in the storage sheet so you know where to find it when you need it).

2. You can do basically the same thing as above only write/print the ideas on index cards and keep them in an index box... this is less convenient for storing pre-made games/activities, but it still works.

3. Same thing as above only use a shoe box, gift box, or other box so you can store activities and ideas all in the same place. Organize as you desire depending on the size of box and contents.

4. Purchase some books. The use of books that already have activity ideas in them is a fast and easy way to accumulate and store ideas. Plus you can keep them on your bookshelf (on my bookshelves at home and in the classroom I have books as well as binders). Here are a few book suggestions:



Finally, regardless of the choice of books, binders, or boxes, always keep them in the same designated place so you can access them quickly. It is also helpful to have a little storage bin stocked with crayons, paper, markers, glitter, glue etc. so you have materials ready when you need them. This doesn't have to be expensive and it doesn't have to be done at the same time. Add one item a week and you will be surprised at how quickly you have a little craft center. I recently found a great way to store my craft supplies at home:



The drawers have lids and handles so you can pull out an entire drawer dedicated to one or more items and carry it where you are going to do your activitying/crafting. When you are done using the supplies simply put them back in the drawer, close the lid (which is attached) and easily slide it back into its place. This has worked wonders for my daughter at home...no more cramming things into drawers that won't close.

Happy Rainy Days!

Quick Tip - Coloring inside the lines

When my daughter was three she attended a daycare for a couple hours a week. One day she came home and was distressed about coloring inside the lines. The "teacher" said she shouldn't "scribble" and needed to "color inside the lines." Needless to say I was upset... and thus today's post!

If you are the parent of a preschooler, let him/her color anyway she/he wants to color. Just the manipulation of and basic hand-eye coordination used when coloring with crayons/markers/pencils is a good start for children this age. Do NOT, I repeat, do NOT push the "color inside the lines" bit.. that will come with age and maturity.

Teachers, if you teach in the primary grades (K-3) your students likely have many opportunities to color. This goes back to an earlier post about art vs. skill-focused projects... If the purpose of the coloring sheet is to work on eye-hand coordination and controlling writing utensils by all means, teach them how to color inside the lines. INSIST that they try their best to "stay inside the lines." However, if you are NOT teaching a skill, and the child is coloring for the sake of coloring or to create a piece of art, let them color however they wish. Let them express themselves while they are still young enough to feel good about their coloring regardless of how "messy" you as the adult view it. (You never know if you have the next Jackson Pollock in your room and you would hate to stifle his/her creativity at such an early age!!)

With that said... simply saying "color inside the lines" or "stay inside the lines" is NOT teaching the children a skill. You need to demonstrate coloring. You need to "think out loud" while you color on the board or on an overhead. Walk around the room and give one-on-one assistance to your students. Then.... have days where they can color for colorings sake... for the sake of being a child... cuz dagnabit sometimes it does feel good to just SCRIBBLE!!!

Quick Tip - Art vs. Skill-Focused-Projects

Quite often people who work with children confuse art and skill-focused-projects as the same thing. (There are a plethora of skills, but for today's post I am referring to skills usually associated with art.) Each have their place within a classroom or home setting but they are NOT the same and therefore the terms should NOT be used interchangably. In my classroom I not only teach them separately (although many projects are a combination of both) but I use those two terms with the children so they can learn the difference.

Skills: following directions, cutting, cutting along a line, glueing, coloring INSIDE the line, drawing straight lines, drawing shapes, etc.

Skill Focused Projects: a classic example of a skill focused project that is often confused as "art": handing children pieces of construction paper with pre-drawn lines on them, telling the students to cut out the objects on the paper, and glue the cut pieces of paper together... all of the students end up with almost identical "creations"...snowmen, frogs, teddy bears, lions, etc.; the only difference is the quality of cutting, glueing, and placement of the glued papers. I am not anti skill-focused-projects; they have a place in a child's development and should be used (in fact I will post some good ideas for those I have used in future posts), but DO NOT CALL THE END RESULT OF THESE PROJECTS "ART"!

Art: any activity where children can use self expression to create something. Yesterday's post about music art, is art... they used self expression to create drawings or paintings. Another example of art is giving students modeling clay and allowing them to mold/sculpt it into something, and depending on the type of clay used, they can also paint it once it has dried. It is okay and in fact good to teach skills while completing art projects, if children ASK for some pointers it is okay to provide some feedback and guidance...but let each student's art be a creation of their own. Sometimes it may be hard to stop yourself from saying something when you see a child using a medium in a way that is different to you, but bite your tongue and allow them to explore (provided they are not ruining furniture or the medium itself so it cannot be used again in the future when applicable). That is the best way for them to learn.

Here are a couple of books I have used either as is, or as a springboard for other SKILL-FOCUSED projects (yes I know that the one says art activities...but you now know better):




Here is a book I have used either as is, or as a springboard for other ART projects:




Happy Projecting!!!

Art Activity-Music Drawings

Two things children love: free reign coloring and music.
Free reign coloring and music=music drawings.

Step One: select fun lively music - one of my favorites for this activity is a c.d. my sister gave me- Herb Alpert's Whipped Cream and Other Delights-one of the great things about this music is that it is likely different from music many children are typically exposed to and every child I have played this music for has had a good time listening to it...even a few students who usually keep to themselves can't help but move to the rhythms.





Step Two: play music and let children dance to music in any way they see fit (without hurting themselves or others.. this can be difficult in a classroom setting so lay out expectations of keeping enough distance between peers that they can stretch out their arms without touching anyone, they must sit out for a song if they can't do this...)

Step Three: stop music and provide each student with a large piece of paper and markers, crayons, or for a lot of fun...finger paints (I like to get messy)!!!

Step Four: explain to children that they can only use their coloring tools on the paper when the music is playing and that they are supposed to "color to the music". Do NOT even attempt to explain what that means. Let the children engage in self expression and discover their own interpretation of what it means.

Step Five: play music and watch the children have fun. After a minute or so on a song I switch to a different song to keep the children interested by hearing different songs.

Step Six: have the students show what they did and allow them to verbalize what they did, IF THEY WOULD LIKE. Self expression is personal. Some children won't want to share so don't make them. Giving them the freedom of choice will help these children enjoy self expression activities because they dont' have to worry about what other's will think of their creations.

*A variation of this is to pour washable finger paint in shallow pans outside on a sidewalk or other large paved area. Have the children take off socks and shoes, step in the paint them dance around to the music (best if children are wearing shorts or skirts). Giving students different colors and assigning groups of children to specific colors will make great TEMPORARY sidewalk art. After it has dried have the children look at the footprints and challenge them to select and follow a trail of footprints...which could also lead to a science activity about animal tracks and trails.