Weed or Flower? This video poses the question, "What makes something a weed or a flower?" And explores the artistic possibilities available in every sunny dandelion. Have fun playing and creating!!! Supplies:
This is my favorite video I have made for the children yet. Why? Certainly not because I am looking my best. Nope. I woke early to greet the day in the woods after a poor nights sleep, giving no thought to preliminary beautification or even taming my curls. Rather, while I was building a fairy house to share with the children, I heard wild turkeys gobbling in the distance. I quietly tracked through the forest until I found these wild forest fowl with my camera! If I could share my love of nature and wild spaces with every child in the world I certainly would! But at the very least I can share it with the children I teach and all of you. I hope you enjoy this episode of Art with Angelina even half as much as I did!
I created this video for the children as a simple tool to help them quiet their minds, calm them emotions and relax their bodies throughout the day. That said, it is just as useful for the adults in the room as well. So when you have a few quiet moments, click on the link and learn how to make a rock DANCE with your breath!
Here is a singing celebration from your teachers at CGMS. We are sending our love and hoping that you are making a joyful sound in the world! Be will and keep singing!
Another fun project for the children! The postcard challenge invites your child to create a handmade postcard, put it in the mailbox and in return your child will find a handmade postcard in their mailbox in the days ahead!!! A great way to stay connected in this time of physical distancing!!! To play follow this simply video tutorial. (Participating parents should have received an email with all the details!) Supplies: Heavy duty paper (I used 120lb watercolor paper)
Drawing or painting supplies of your choice
A black pen
A metal ruler
A postage stamp
And an answer to the following question: What is the best part of being young? That's it!!
Maybe to adults it does, but children naturally understand. The heart feels love and love is a kind of chemical in the body and the heart is a big ole magnet making a symphony of sorts. And trees talk with chemicals too! In fact, there’s a cacophony of connections going on just beneath your feet.
When we listen to trees with our hearts we learn to attend to the rustling before our minds identify it as tree leaves. We pause in our pursuit to name the singular magnificence before us as an “Oak” or “Pine” and linger instead in the indefinable mystery of life itself.
This is the art of Listening Beyond Words and children are masters of it.
I enjoyed collecting their thoughts and words over the school year and now those words are featured in a window display at the Artisan Center Store on Third and Detroit St. along with the love tree the children made with Amy and I. While the children weren't able to help me with the final touches, the overall display was envisioned by the them. It is our gift to the Cherry Creek North Community at this time of physical distancing, a simple reminder that we each are part of life’s great song.
Amy shared another wonderful video with us!!! Meet Grandmother Juniper Tree and then join me for a love stone video tutorial to share a little love with the special trees in your neighborhood!!!
Supplies:
Rocks
Acrylic or similar paint
water
palette (I used a recycled lid)
Brush
Easy Peasy!
I hope you are befriending the trees around you and those you love from afar!
The children and I LOVE listening to birds and learning about them in the studio. I have always wanted to share a few of the bird songs I hear on my wanderings and what better time to do it than now! (with a little help from this new fandangled vlogging).
I hope you all enjoy these video clips and tutorial.
Supplies:
Mixed Media Paper
Waterbased Markers
Water
Paint brush
Colored pencils
Gel pens (if you have them)
That's it!
(Encourage your child to let the paper dry between steps to avoid frustrations:)
Note: I won't be posting on Thursdays but will be available for a studio zoom call. So ring in if your child would like to share their creations with the group!
This simple painting activity offers an opportunity for children (of any age) to express their feelings in paint with big movements on large surfaces. It's important for each of us to take moments to communicate our emotions in healthy ways, thus allowing them pass through us rather than concretize into protective habits of behavior.
Have fun and let me know how it goes!
For supplies:
Okay I am SO excited to share this video with you featuring the children's Tree Talk Project and installation!!!!
If you are in the Cherry Creek North Neighborhood look for our Tree Chimes and be sure to watch the video tutorial above to make your own tree chime for the tree's around your house.
All you will need are:
Some string
Some beads or metal rings or pinecones and birdseed or anything you can find in your junk drawer to add to your string and make a happy sound in the world! That's it!!!
Here is a copy of our Tree Chime Tag to print and add it to your chime if you choose:
These chimes are a gift from the children of Children’s Garden Montessori School and are meant to serve as a community invitation to listen to the trees.
Trees talk to one another in ways we are just beginning to understand. In fact, the ground beneath our feet is rich with conversations and connections as meaningful as any we are capable of.
Be Well, Stay Curious and Keep Listening.
-With love, The Children
Keep listening to the world around you, the one you can hear AND the quiet one you can't.
The children are always sharing wonderful stories with me in the studio. To encourage some of this storytelling at home, I've created a simple video provocation complete with an original story and a collage illustration activity to try on your own.
Supplies:
In this video I share an original story with the children and offer a simple observational drawing activity that can be done in your own back yard! (HINT: Your child is gonna want apples for a snack!)
Supplies:
Paper
Pencil
Markers
And a special tree.
That's it!!
Great news! I will be hosting Zoom calls on Friday for the children to share their creations with each other! If your child has been enjoying Art with Angelina, please join us on Friday for some virtual togetherness. I hope to see you there!
Who LOVES trees? WE DO!!!! This video Tutorial offers a fun activity encouraging the children to interact with the trees in their own backyards! AND below is a link to a wonderful video created by our fabulous mud specialist, Amy, for the children!!
How Glorious is that??? Happy tree exploring to all my scientist/artist/ecologists out there! Yep I am talking to you:)
Here I am at school!!! ...(well in the back yard) to share with you the findings of our research! Children do you remember when we planted all those bulbs earlier in the year and we tried to guess what they might become? (Click this post for a trip through memory lane and a reminder).
Well the results are in! Watch this video to find out more AND to join me in a fun observational drawing activity.
All you will need are these supplies:
In this video you can join me for a read aloud of Grouchies followed by an art activity geared toward drawing our FEELS!
All you will need to join in the full-feeling-fun is a pen or pencil, paper and chalk pastels.
That's it.
Let's get busy creating...
Happy Monday to all my young friends and fellow teachers out there! (The children are absolutely and unequivocally some of my best teachers!!!) I have prepared a fun video tutorial and art lesson on making expressive faces. Keep watching the video til the very end where you will see some of the outtakes I made trying to create this video! (I discard lots of videos!!!) Mistakes are WONDERFUL!!! They are part of learning and essential to being alive in the world! So have fun, make mistakes, get messy and STAY CURIOUS.
Note to Parents:
As you may remember, each studio year begins with a research question and that question sets the tone for my year of learning alongside your children. Where we will go is always a mystery but how we will get there is informed by the research question. This year I chose the following:
What might adults learn alongside young children about befriending the unknown, the art of imperfection and the value of risk taking?
I know... WHAT WAS I THINKING????? It is strangely apropos to have unwittingly selected this question for my year of inquiry. I am certainly learning a great deal about myself and the many ways I try to resist the unknown or distract myself from it. I wonder what the children can teach us right now about living this question. I have no doubt they are teaching you A LOT every day. Sometimes they teach us patience by demanding that we draw on every reserve we can muster. Sometimes they teach us to marvel at the spider weaving its web outside our window. I am sure this time together is wonderful AND exhausting. I am a mother of two children myself. My son Owen is nineteen and home from college indefinitely and my younger son Bodhi is in seventh grade starting his first official day of a spring break devoid of playdates and planned excursions. Having children home full time at any age can be absolutely delightful and unbelievably taxing, often at the same time. I have no doubt you are experiencing something similar.
I think about your children all the time. Many of whom I have known for years. They live more fully in the moment than we do as adults and perhaps because of that, they have an inviable form of resilience. As a teacher I have benefited from their wonder, curiosity and enthusiasm. In fact they have reminded me year after year, that these essential traits of childhood are within me still. I can exercise them like any muscle. I can respond with curiosity and wonder when faced with unknown circumstances. I am trying to flex those muscles, imperfectly, each day.
I offer these videos in an effort to meaningfully connect with your children around art. That said, I've also worked with children for nearly two decades and know the value of slowing down, living in the moment and observing their curiosity, moments of concentration and wonder. The truth is that young children are always learning and if honest, they are also always teaching! I want to tell each of you that you are doing a great job right now, whatever you are doing and I hope that you can find ways to stay curious, tend to yourselves with gentleness and find moments of peace in each day.
I will see you back here again tomorrow. For more art with Angelina.
Here is a fun weekend challenge inspired by some of the art you and the children have been sharing with me! This is a bit long... feel free to watch it in segments. I thought I'd just give a bonus video for some weekend fun. I'm still learning how to make videos but I AM learning!!!
All you will need is some dark paper or cardboard, a box or box lid, some white paint and a few marbles, heavy beads, balls or a pinecone. And that's it!!!
This is a picture of Bodhi's delicious waffles he was making in the video... Mmmmm good. And here's is his recipe if you want to make them at home:
3 cup gluten-free flour baking mix (baking powder is in the mix but add 2 t. if yours doesn't have it)
½ teaspoon salt
Pinch of cinnamon, optional
¾ cup room temperature milk of choice
¼ cup + 1 tablespoon melted coconut oil or 5 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
3 large eggs
1/2 mashed banana and 1/4 cup applesauce
Mix and add to heated and oiled waffle pan. Allow to cook. VOILA!
And here is a photo of our snow ice cream
The recipe is in the video but all you will need is:
Fresh snow, maple syrup or agave, milk of choice and a dash of salt. SO YUMMY!
I started my day with a gorgeous walk up Apex Trail, breathing in Nature's beauty and collecting some inspiration for our time together. Next, I set up a simple drawing activity in my kitchen studio.
The supplies you'll need are:
Some natural items for inspiration and mark making.
Some black paint (I used India ink). If you don't have black paint, some molasses (warmed and thinned a bit with hot water) will work in a pinch or some chocolate syrup. Have fun experimenting with materials.
Some papers (I used old hymnal sheets I had on hand and the back of some other scrap paper)
A pencil and brush (though I didn't use them much)
And of course, your observation, creativity and an "I Can" attitude.
Snack faces are a fun way to sneak some nutrition into your child's day and they LOVE it. Here are a few snack faces my son and I made today...
My boy loved the snack faces so much he ate them all!!! Be sure to share a photo of your creation if you can resist eating it long enough to snap a picture.
