Art Week

Bo Phloi Art week was a blast the children learned about 5 different artists and got to explore multiple mediums. We made prints and looked at how Andy Warhol used common object and people to inspire his art. Ms. Eva introduced the children to early cubism by looking at Paul Klee’s work and how he used shapes to create pictures. Like Klee the children examined art by Matisse to see how he used shapes in a different way. These are just three of the artists that we learned about this year. The children additionally dived into lines, color and composition and how they impact their art.

Mason Bees

Today we learned about the bee cycle and harvested our Mason bee cocoons from the bee house.

The children took turns gently scrapping the cocoons off the tunnel tracks. After that we did an art extension by drawing a flower on a plate, stringing yellow and black pony beads on a chenille stick and twisting it to make a bee and gluing it to our flowers.

In spring we will be watching for food sources (blossoms on our cherry trees, wildflowers in our garden) to see if it is time to bring our cocoons back outside to hatch and continue the cycle!

Making Latkas

The children have been learning a bit about Hanukkah. As an extra special treat, we also had some special guests for cooking! Elise and her mom Cheryl came in and taught the children how to make Latka’s. They also shared some Hanukkah stories and songs with the children. The children had fun tying their hand at spinning a dreidel and voted on what they thought the best Latka toppings were.

Fun in the Sun

Starting the Summer off with many fun outdoor adventures. The children learned about Moving Machines, learned about the creatures that help our Earth our “Garden Hero’s the children then learned about how and why we care for our Earth. The children ended camp with learning about our global community. The children learned about the Olympics and fairy tales from around the world.

Over the course of the summer the children’s gardens blossomed the children enjoyed eating peas, chives, radishes, raspberries, lettuce, nasturtium, and strawberries. The children also grew wildflowers for our pollinators and were excited to see the pumpkin plants they planted last fall begin to flower.

Exploring Bees- Cocoon Cleaning

In fall the pupae that were laid by the adult bees during the summer have developed into adult bees in their cocoons. We harvested these cocoons for safe-keeping over the winter. Otherwise they would be susceptible to mites and mice.

Harvesting involved a 4 step process:

  1. We collected the cocoons by scraping them out of the wood blocks.
  2. We gently washed the cocoons in warm water to remove most of the mud.
  3. We rinsed the cocoons in a .05% bleach solution to kill off any mites that might still be attached.
  4. We stored them in a ventilated container and will keep them in the refrigerator over the winter.

During the winter the cocoons will have enough food to keep the bees growing until they are ready to be placed in the garden next spring.

Tree Book

Exploring the parts of the trees to assemble our tree books. We colored leaves, made bark rubbings, glued branches, painted seeds, drew roots and decided what animals lived in our trees. Then the children expressed what they like most about trees. Outside they played with leaves and climbed trees with friends.

All about me cooking- Face Pizza and Friendship Pockets

Our cooking projects this month helped us explore our food groups and our gardens.  The children discussed what foods we have in the gardens and learned about their food groups.  We discussed where foods come from and let the children make their own food combinations. The children loved getting messy and eating and trying new and fresh foods.  Up next is food group soup!