The Elements of Art

Shape:

On Monday, we began our week long study about the Elements of Art. We started by listing all of them and then decided to start learning about shapes first! We traced shape stencils, put together shape puzzles, practiced cutting  shapes from construction paper, sorted buttons by their shape, painted by stamping shaped sponges on our paper and went on a shape hunt around the house and finding things that have shapes on or in them! 

Texture:

On Tuesday, we learned all about texture! We went on a texture hunt, going all around the house feeling different things and naming it's texture. This was a great way for new vocabulary to be introduced! As we went along, we wrote down all of the texture words we used. Then we did a little experiment and closed our eyes and felt two different textured objects, even without seeing what object it was, the girls knew what they were touching. Lastly, Avery and Emma made a texture collage and Kinsley made a texture tile out of clay by pressing a variety of objects into her tile and observing what kind of texture and shape they imprinted. 

"Ohh, Mom, this one is so scratchy! This one is so suvvy (fuzzy)"

Color:

On Wesnesday, we learned about the color wheel! We got dressed this morning and tried to wear all of the colors! We made our own color wheel, did some color mixing (one of my favorite lessons of all time), and read about colors too! We also sang a song that teaches the colors in Spanish! 

Line:

On Thursday, we learned all about lines! After getting everyone dressed in their stripes, we took a photo wearing our "line clothes" on the couch with lines! Then we  read "Harold and The Purple Crayon" and proceeded to draw "Avery and the Purple Crayon" pictures. We painted using a new tool to scrape lines in the paint and also practiced drawing all kinds of lines (vertical, horizontal, wavy, jagged, diagonal, dashed, wavy, swirly etc). Next, we went all around the house searching for lines - and surprisingly to the girls... they are everywhere! 

Space & Form:

Well, if this isn't this the most complicated thing to teach 2 and 5 year olds! Ha 

Emma and Kinsley came to our house for a sleepover last night and today we touched on the idea of space & form... When everyone looked at me like I had no idea what I was talking about we decided to go play outside! Needless to say, we have had a very fun day sledding, drinking hot cocoa, doing art projects, playing with magnetic gears, playing instruments, dressing up as every princess humanly possible and playing kitchen, puppy, baby and mommy! We have had a terrific day - sorry space & form, we will try again next year! ;)

Too cute!

Just to have on record... Avery's latest and greatest sayings... 

Hide and Sneek (hide and seek) "I'm playing Hide and Sneek with Holley" as she is running around the house naked like a crazy person after her bath!

Garage way  (driveway)

"Mom, can I PLEASE shovel the garage way"? 

Suvvy (Fuzzy) "oh, Mom, this blanket is so suvvy" or "I love this suvvy sweatshirt, it's so soff and suvvy"

"I very don't like this" or "I very not want to go to sleep"

"Do you care for ________?"  Instead of asking if we like something.

"You know those little guys or some ting"

"Keep me post it"

"You know those little singies (thingies)" when she is trying to describe something! 

Hibernation

This week is the perfect week to learn about hibernation - it's freezing cold ad we all wish we could hibernate inside with warm blankets, hot chocolate and good company! 

To start things off this week, we of course had to make a bear cave! The girls crawled in and cuddled up to read our first hibernation story with all of the lights off by the light of a flashlight! 

We also had fun making a "hibernation snack mix" and talked about how some animals who hibernate eat and eat and eat before they hibernate because they don't wake up all winter long to eat! We put things in our bear snack mix that we thought real bears would like to eat: 

HONEY Nut Cheerios 

Raisins (golden and regular)

FISH crackers (large and small)

Peanuts

And of course a bear snack had to have gummy bears and Teddy Grahams! 

The girls added all if the ingredients together and shook the container to mix it up! We ate out snack while watching an animated version of the book "The Bear Snores On" by Karma Wilson. 

The girls had a lot of fun bring a "real" bear to life! I ordered some empty bears for the girls to stuff and make their very own! They really had fun with all of the fluff! Then they each have their star a kids, made a wish and put it in their bears for safe keeping! 

After our bears were stuffed with love, we made them each their very own birth certificate and T-shirt! Then they came down stairs and hibernated in our bear cave with them, have then doctor check-ups to make sure they were healthy and even baked cupcakes at the play kitchen with them! 

We also spent a day making food for the birds, I know they don't hibernate, but we talked about how some animals hibernate while others migrate. We also discussed that sometimes food is hard to find in the winter for animals. The girls were all about helping the animals! We made some orange and grape bird feeders and also made some bird seed shapes to hang outside! What a fun experience! We were all laughing at linh time watching the squirrels fight over the oranges and fall out of the trees trying to reach them. It wasn't exactly our intentions to feed the squirrels, but it was a fun show! Avery kept saying "naughty squirrels, naughty squirrels, that not for you"!

I found this cute idea to make "bear cave cupcakes" and it was a hit! We hid a Teddy Graham cookie in each cupcake before baking it, and when we at the cupcakes we could find the bear hiding in his cupcake cave!! :)

We spent all of Friday hibernating! We stayed in our pajamas, snuggled under blankets, watched a movie and ate popcorn! 

I couldn't think of anyone I'd rather hibernate with! 

Annual Questions

Since Avery can really tell us all of her thoughts and ideas this year, I have decided to start this little questionnaire with her. I hope to ask her this same set of questions year after year and have her ideas documented and be able to look back and see how they have changed or which ideas stay the same! 


Here are the questions with her answers EXACTLY as she said them...

1.Who do you love?
     My  elf on a shelf and you iPad

2. What do you love?
     You!

3. When you get home at night what do you like to do?
     Play toys and dolls

4. What do you like to eat?
     Bacon and pizza

5. What are you most proud of?
     Pigs for the bacon

6. If you could buy anything in the world, what would it be?
     um, scissors or a rug

7. What makes you sad?
     Well…babies sometimes are sad

8. Who are your best friends?
     Blake and Gage… or…Brayden and Byson… or Kinsley and Emma and Harper Ashley

9. When you grow up, what do you want to be?
     Hummmm… a baby, a healthy baby

10. How tall are you?
     Well a peanut, I’m getting so big!

11. What do you like to collect?
     Peas

12. How do you feel on your first day of school at the Murray’s house?
     I do my homeworks and something like Cullen do his homeworks

13. What do you like to learn about?
     Cooking and puzzles


14. What is/was the most exciting thing we have learned at the Murray’s this year?
     Hibernation and coloring

15. Who is your favorite teacher?
     Ms. Aimee and “mashtics” gymnastics

Questions about mommy

16. What does your Mommy do all day at work?
      You not go to work silly, well you do but I just don’t know the things you work at there

17. What is her favorite book?
     Go to Bed my Love

18. What does Mommy say a lot?
     My love bug and No Hitting

19. What do you like best about Mommy?
     Her eyes


Questions about daddy

20. Where does Daddy work?
     With Lance


21. What is his favorite book?
     Camo thingies and While the World is Sleeping


22. What does Daddy say a lot?
     Time for your check up, yeah yah and Where is your duck call


23. What do you like best about Daddy?
     Hunting with my daddy and he is sometimes laughing

Advent Books

This year I decided to do an Advent Book "Calendar" with Avery. I wrapped 24 Christmas themed books and numbered each of them. Every night before bed, she will get to open the corresponding book and we will read it together as a family. I am so excited about this, and after tonight, when she opened her first book, I am 100% sure it was worth my time wrapping each and every one of those suckers! IT TOOK FOREVER!!!

Here are some pictures:

Santa 2014

Ho Ho Ho, Merry Christmas!!!

We went to visit Santa over the weekend at Tonkadale Greenhouse in Minnetonka. Shanon and Ollie have been going to see this same Santa since Cullen was little, and every year they rave about how wonderful their experience is with him. We missed it last year, but made sure it was on the calendar months ago this year! Avery was very excited to go, she knew exactly what she was going to tell Santa too. "Santa, I been a good girl, well some naughty choices, because sometimes I do hitting, but I very like you... and please can I have a Fancy Nancy doll?"

We got there and hopped in line right away, Avery didn't even want to get out of line for a second to visit her friends, she was too excited! The line went fast and before we knew it, our turn was up! We got a family photo and some of just Avery while she was visiting with Santa. After their little chat, we had some apple cider, popcorn and cookies complimentary of Santa. We had a great time visiting Santa this year and this is definitely a new tradition we have started, the Tonkadale Santa is our new Santa.