Where are you Spring?

I don't know about you guys, but I am ready for some warm weather, bright colors and fresh air around here! I felt like my Pre- K and Kindergarteners agreed, so we created printed Cherry Blossom trees inspired by Japanese Sumi E painting.

We began by looking at some Sumi E paintings like this:

(image from bing image search)

They we used recycled cardboard piece to dip and print tree limbs like this:

and then added wadded up tiny pieces of tissue to add the blossoms like this:

Finishing off with a "chop mark" cut from e-z cut linoleum to make our painting look as authentic as possible.

I'm hoping that warmed you up a little... only 28 days left of winter, but who's counting?

Up, up and Away!

Continuing with our "Traveling Around the World" theme, we "visited" France where the hot air balloon was invented. After a brief science lesson on hot vs. cold air, we began assembling our balloons.

 

We started by decorating the balloon with pattern and coloring in with oil pastels.

 

Then cutting and gluing construction paper to create a layered background.

 

 

And finishing with a photo in a basket held on my yarn.

 

All of them turned out great...and the kids really enjoyed posing for their high-flying pictures!