Hello,
my name is Ms. Jessica Stafiej and I am working in Ms. Kurtjian’s classroom
with your children this semester. After
working with the children for about a week, I have seen an interest in
painting. The interest in painting began focusing on color mixing. I noticed
students were working on painting projects with primary colors but were
surprised when they created secondary colors, unsure of how they made these
colors.
To begin the project, the students began painting with different combinations of primary colors to concretely understand how to make secondary colors. After this exploration students worked on mixing all primary colors, finding brown. Students then worked with white and black paint. At first they worked on making grey, and then worked on lightening and darkening colors. Student’s exploration continued through mixing his or her own paint colors to use in paint exploration.
Students are working on developing a variety of skills. This includes: body awareness and motor skills by using their arms to control where the paint goes on the paper as well as hold the paint brush in their hand. Students are exploring their interest in art by using materials in the classroom to create their own masterpieces. Students also practice their color recognition by discussing the colors as they work on their projects and exploring new color combinations. Students have also been developing communication skills by talk to their peers about their projects as well as asking them for materials.
During these explorations, I noticed students being very interested in two main things: painting families and painting with partners. These two threads are something I plan on working with in the next couple weeks in the semester. Please feel free to send in family pictures for your children to work on painting with. We would love the extra visuals to work with to help create family portraits.
