Barn Dance

Though not an actual FIAR book, this week we read Barn Dance by Bill Martin Jr. and John Archambault to go with our field trip to Amy's Farm.

We've done lots watercolor before, but didn't have much luck with these pre-printed ones. Until now. L has the patience to paint one color at a time, and clean the brush in-between.

We colored a mural of a Farm. I found this on-line somewhere. I sketched it on our 36" wide roll for us to color together.

We did pastel drawings. I love my nu-pastels. This set I've had since college. These were an exercise in following directions. My mom brought over a binder titled 'Brain Games for Learning Gains.' These drawings were in there, the kids draw them from my words without seeing an example of what they are drawing. For the pig: Draw a large circle. Then, draw a circle inside for the head. Then a smaller circle for the snout. Add eyes, triangle ears, hooves (pull down straight, slide right, slant up, slant down, slide right, push up straight...the same language that is in our manuscript curriculum), and a curly-que tail. L chose green.

T chose orange. And he had a little help. He's been drawing circles clockwise. That won't work as we begin manuscript practise. I need to help his hand understand counter-clockwise. We have a few months since he doesn't start Kinder until the fall, but I want him to form good habits.

Then the barn. This was a horizontal rectangle, topped with a pentagon. Then I asked them to draw a square in the top shape and put an X in it. I had them draw the bottom door and windows too. Then, L did his own thing.

T wanted to surround his barn in mud. I had him practise counter-clockwise circles for the tree and sun. He really wanted to see what happened when you smudge the pastels.

R enjoyed this one too. She took a nap after she colored hers and that let me have time with just the boys.

All in all, this was a great week. I really need to remember to pull out the art supplies more often.