March is Youth Art Month and to celebrate we learned about some famous artists. Each of the sensory group boxes represented a different artist. The fine motor group drew inspiration from some of the styles of famous artists to make their art projects and the language group made food art! This week was lots of fun and our theme also compliments the Unique Curriculum unit our students are working on.
SENSORY GROUP
Salvador Dali has a very famous painting with some melting clocks in a desert landscape. We replicated it using kinetic sand and some craft foam clocks (drawn by Ms. Erika) so there were 3 “melting” clocks to find. It was a fun box and the students were pretty intrigued with the clocks!
Associate quantities with number names is a math access point.
The students cut different sized stars out of our Vincent Van Gogh starry night play dough! With the added blue and gold silver glitter, it sparkled quite nicely.
Recognize similarities and differences in size of common objects is a math access point.
Harold Newton was one of the Highway Men famous for their Florida landscape paintings. This Florida box was fun to put together and filled with symbols of our state such as flamingoes, dolphins, pine trees, flowers, and oranges. Lots of things to explore!
The science access point recognize a model of a real object is addressed here.
Olivia is a character in illustrator Ian Falconer’s book series. Since Olivia is a pig, we went all pink with this box. We pulled out our pink sand and included a cute little toy pig. This play sand is really fine and perfect for sifting—-our students LOVED watching it fall from the sifter back into the box!
Track a falling object is a science access point.
Piet Mondrian used primary colors for his grid paintings. We put blue, red, and yellow pompoms to sort into matching plates in this box. Some of the students could do this independently while others needed help.
Either way, this was a very bright, eye catching box!
Match objects by one observable properties, such as color, is a science access point.
Shaving cream was perfect for drawing geometric shapes—–like those used by Alexander Calder in his mobiles.
The science access point apply a push to move an object is addressed here.
Hands were rinsed in a seascape worthy of JMW Turner. There was a little sailing ship and octopus to find in the water. There were also 2 scoops, one of which had a hole in the bottom for some fun experimentation as well as scooping practice.
The science access point recognize differences in objects can be addressed here.
Flowers are the theme of some of Georgia O’Keefe’s famous paintings. She made one called Plumeria so we used that as our scent this week. We used Bath and Bodyworks plumeria and it was a light floral scent that the students really liked.
Recognize and respond to one type of sensory stimuli is a science access point.
FINE MOTOR GROUP
On Tuesday the students made “drip” paintings like Jackson Pollock.
First we discussed the shape of our paper and identified it using communication symbols.
Recognize objects with two-dimensional shapes is a math access point.
Then the students used more communication symbols to pick colors to use.
Identify objects by one observable property, such as color, is a science access point.
We used these kids eye droppers that we found at Walmart. They were fairly inexpensive and a nice size. Most of the students needed a little help with this part of the activity. They were all fascinated with the process!
The science access point recognize a change in an object is addressed here.
Ta Da!!!!!!!!!!!!
So colorful!
On Wednesday the students made art projects inspired by Gustav Klimt.
We discussed the shape of our paper and identified it using communication symbols.
Recognize objects with two-dimensional shapes is a math access point.
Then the students used a variety of cutting tools—-paper cutters, adaptive scissors, and regular scissors—-to cut strips of colorful paper.
Recognize a change in an object is a science access point.
Next we mixed all the pieces together and shared them among the students to turn OVER and glue DOWN on to their paper.
Recognize a movement that reflects a spatial relationship, such as up and down, is a math access point.
Klimt liked to add gold leaf to his paintings. We didn’t have any gold leaf but we did have gold paint and that worked pretty well!
The science access point recognize a change in an object is again addressed here.
Ta Da!
Just fabulous!
LANGUAGE GROUP
Since you know that we like to incorporate food into our language groups, it was a great excuse to use food to make art!
Each of our students got a piece of white bread which served as their blank canvas. We started out talking about the primary colors: RED, BLUE, and YELLOW.
Identify objects by one observable property, such as color, is a science access point.
We poured some sweetened condensed milk into 5 small cups. We put RED food coloring into one cup, BLUE food coloring into another cup, and YELLOW food coloring into a third cup (we put 10 drops of each coloring into each cup). Then the students got to stir the colors using brand new paint brushes!
Recognize a change in an object is a science access point.
We the talked about mixing the primary colors to make new colors. First we showed our students RED and BLUE and asked them to PREDICT what color it would make. We did the same with BLUE and YELLOW.
Then the students mixed up the colors again—–they thought it was really neat to see the colors changing!
Observe and recognize a predictable cause-effect relationship related to a science topic is a science access point.
Next, each of our students used communication symbols to indicate what color they wanted to paint with.
The colors ended up being so vibrant on the bread—-they really popped!
We found that we have some pretty good artists in our group!
Finally, after their edible art was complete, they got to eat their masterpieces.
YUM!
We will be gone next week for spring break but will back in a couple of weeks with more fun and learning——-Group by Group!