440 in the studio!

We had fun filled favorite color day in the studio talking about or favorite colors abd making tortillas with cinnamon bananas! Mmmm!

Click on this link for a playful video made by a few XP boys… https://youtu.be/Av55tmXgwU0

See you back again next week!

Emerging Themes in 440

Welcome to our second studio week in 440!  Look what we've been up to!

As the season prepares to shift toward the colorful days of autumn we are discovering bugs glorious bugs!!!

And to celebrate, the children have been drawing insects using Prisma pencils on black cardstock...

Creating insects from loose parts...

And recording observations in liquid water color and graphite on mixed media paper.

Observational Drawing:

Harvest season is ramping up and the children are always eager to help prepare natures bounty for a gustatory delight.  This week we focused on apples!

An early emphasis on Observational Drawing helps us to slow down and really look at the subject with curiosity and precision. 

And the drawings communicate the time spent getting to know each subject.

Cooking:

The studio is so glad to welcome BJ back for a year of collaborative cooking!!!

Today we made apple-mixed fruit butter and it was DELICIOUS!!!

Each child is bringing home some butter to share, but if you’d like to make some too the recipe is super easy! We mostly used apples, with a few peaches, strawberries and even a plum added in (all but the strawberries came from trees at school or from home), add sugar to taste, a little water, some lemon juice, a dash of salt, a bit of cloves and a good shake of cinnamon. Cook low and slow for a long while and then purée. Bon appétit!

XP Corner:

440 is back in the studio!

I am so happy to have the studio open and running for 440! Today we explored observational drawing using natural materials from the backyard and surrounding neighborhood. I set out brown paper, 6B pencils, black pens, white Prisma pencils and water soluble graphite.

The children took their time really looking at the leaves and grapes and seeds on the table and drawing what they saw using the materials at hand.

Once our botanical illustrations were complete we added labels.

Here are a few of their wonderFULL creations!

XP Corner:

The 440 XP is interested in oceans! And things that inhabit the ocean, particularly: sharks, mermaids, sea monsters and rainbow fish!

So we began our afternoon in the studio, talking about the layers of ocean and how light has to filter through so much water. In fact the deepest ocean is darkest black. 

To further our thinking, we gradated shades of blue from lightest to dark, then created our own layered oceans using contact paper and colored tissue

Stay tuned next week when we will populate our oceans with our favorite oceanic creatures!