Today, Monday of week 2, (after reviewing what a painting was,) I had C study a painting of the nursery rhyme at Ruth Sanderson's Golden Wood Studio (scroll down to almost the bottom of the page.) I had C tell me what colors and objects she saw. I asked her if she liked the painting, and why. (She said, "I like the animals.") I asked her what time it was, and how did she know. (She said, "Nighttime, because of the dark blue sky, and the cow is jumping over the moon.) Finally, I asked her if she would like to be a painter and paint her nursery rhyme. She said yes (of course, painting!? C is always interested in painting.)
Here is what she created:
The dark blue is the night sky.
The brown lines under that are the cow's legs, but its body faded (she had too much water in her paint.) Beneath that, is a barely there yellow moon.
The purple is the laughing dog.
The brown area to the left of that is the cat playing the fiddle (painted while the paper was turned sideways.)
Then at the bottom is the dish and the spoon. The dish's face was the only thing I helped her with since she was getting frustrated that she had no white paint. So, I showed her how to color with a white crayon and paint over it with the water color to create a white area. She thought that was pretty nifty.
She loved this activity. I really think having her look at and talk about an actual painting really made it even more interesting for her. She was so proud of her painting, and I adore it. We will definitely be doing this type of thing more often.
