Piano Play Summer Class

This month has been a whirlwind of fun, hands-on classes and we finished things off with a session all about the piano.

The Keys on the Piano

We learned about the keys on the piano, and the pattern that they make. 

This inspired some black-and-white piano art.

We also played some games on a large sidewalk chalk piano outside to learn about the names of the keys.

The favorite was throwing the letter beanbags to land on the correct key. 

Rhythm and Beat

We also played a lot with the beat in music, and making rhythms inside the beat. 

Painting to the beat of marching music.

I love using the visual of raindrops and rainbows to teach short and long note rhythms. 

This idea came from the Playful Piano, and it works really well!

Short-short-short-long Art, inspired by the main rhythmic pattern in Beethoven's Fifth Symphony

The Sounds of the Piano 

On the last day we celebrated what an amazing instrument the piano is- it's music can create so many different feelings and imagery. We listened to many different piano pieces, and used dance, art, storytelling, and movement to feel and experience the moods they create.

Favorites included making bees dance to "Flight of the Bumblebee"

And painting waterfalls to Jon Schmidt's "Waterfall."

 I made these mini foam piano keyboards for the kids, so they can keep playing with the piano at home.

My hope with these classes is to build background knowledge about essential musical skills in a playful and engaging way, so as to build attitude of excitement and fun toward playing an instrument in the future.

Music Summer Class: Exploring Musical Sounds

For our first session of the music summer class, we explored the different sounds that we hear in music. Here are some highlights from our fun week!

We played listening games, like Baby Bear Sits on the Chair.

We tried out different rhythm instruments, and made our own sound shakers.

We explored sounds that were loud, soft, fast, and slow.

Painting slow and fast to music.

We created our own sound songs, using shapes to represent different sounds.

On the last day we listened to a musical story, Sleeping Beauty, composed by Tchaikovsky. We made crowns and acted out the story with movement and dance as we listened to different themes of music.

Creative Kids Summer Class: In the Ocean

We used the ocean as inspiration for our last creative arts class this week. It is such a beautiful place, with so many colorful and interesting animals and plant life.

First we looked at a book about the ocean to give us some ideas, and then we used crayons to draw some ocean life. Then we painted over the whole picture with watercolor to make everything look like its underwater.

It was hard to get good pictures of our second project because I was pretty involved with the process along with the kids. In this picture the kids are chasing colored bubbles and trying to catch them on their paper.

We experimented with a few different ways to get a vibrant colored effect onto the paper, and found that if you blow the bubbles directly onto the paper or if you drip onto the paper with your bubble wand, the color is more vibrant.

Then we brought our bubble prints inside and added tinfoil fish and sea creatures.

Creative Kids Summer Class: Dot Inspired Art

This little book has been one of my favorite art books for a long time. 

Reynolds is a fun author, and has some other great books about art and creating as well.

We read the book in stages, stopping to practice things that the book models like signing your name and creating different kinds of dots.

We tried making dots with markers and dots with paint.

It was the perfect time to try out these new yogurt lid palettes that I made recently. :) 

Then after we were done practicing, we finished the book and decided to make one last piece of art inspired by dots on a canvas panel.

Everyone's work of art was different, even though we were all thinking about dots. That is my favorite kind of art. When we were finished we signed our name, just like in the story.

This story always reminds me of the Pablo Picasso quote: "Every child is an artist." 

I really believe that, and hope to fuel that belief in every child that I teach.

 

Creative Kids Summer Class: Clouds

Our first class this week was all about clouds and how sometimes, when we use our imagination, we can see shapes in the clouds that look like other things. We read the simple book, It Looked Like Spilt Milk.

Then we tried making our own cloud art and decided what our clouds looked like.

Next we made cloud "binoculars" out of paper towel rolls and tape

so we could go look for shapes in the clouds outside.

We lucked out with the weather during our class, because there were some good clouds to look at outside. Then we went inside to make it rain paint for our last project, which turned out to fit right in with the rainy weather that started soon after our class.

Creative Kids Summer Class: Nature Art

On our last day of this first session, we explored the beauty of nature. We read The Curious Garden, a sweet story about taking care of plants and how they bring color and beauty to the world.

After the story, we went outside to explore the different plants in my yard. Plants come in all different colors and shapes- nature is very creative! We collected our favorite kinds of flowers and leaves to make a nature suncatcher so we could bring some of that beauty home with us.

Some kids added their own creativity to the plants by cutting them into different shapes with scissors or making a pattern with certain colors, while others carefully designed using the leaves and petals that they liked the best.

This project was a fun way to take a closer look at nature in a new way.