Monthly Mural: December

We added to our monthly mural project this week. We took our inspiriation from the weather, and made it "snow" on our painting.

First we dipped stiff bristled scrub brushes in silver and white paint, then we scraped the bristles with popsicle sticks to send droplets spattering across the paper. (and our faces, and the floor...oops!)

We also rubbed couldn't resist rubbing the painty scrub brushes in circles on the painting, creating white swirls and blurs.

We even managed to find a single snowflake rubber stamp in our bin, which we added to the mix.

It's looking pretty fantastic so far!

Creative Anachronisms...

The last time we sat down to strategize about curriculum, Francine and I set only one goal; help the kids get through December. This month has historically been a bit challenging for Frog aged kids. Colder weather, plus shorter days, plus snowdays, snowsuits, and winter holidays, equals antsy preschoolers! Our goal is to do whatever we can to give the Frogs a way to blow off steam safely, and, with any luck, to re-direct some of that energy into productive, creative play.
We noticed a lot of intense, dramatic physicality creeping in to the kids' indoor play. That's why we threw these guys into the mix;

...there's nothing like a plastic dinosaur to safely channel three-year-old testosterone!

For the most part, the Dinosaurs have managed to co-exist peacefully with the invisible inhabitants of our recycled yogurt container village. Pretend "Accidents", however, do happen, which is why we also added doctors kits to our free-choice shelves. It is quite entertaining watching the same child, who moments ago was enthusiastically voicing a ferocious, car stomping dinosaur, switch gears to a caring, thorough medical professional!