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Methodist preschoolers show off artistic side
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Kira Krezeczowski-Moore, a member of the Canfield United Methodist Church Preschool 4-year-old class, proudly displayed her celery roses painting at the school’s annual Art Show May 16.
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Kahlan Wolf pointed out her water color block on the Canfield United Methodist Church Preschool’s 4-year-old class’ group project at the school’s annual Art Show May 16.
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Neighbors | Abby Slanker.While attending the Canfield United Methodist Church Preschool’s annual Art Show, left to right, Maggie Tower, Brooklyn Nelson, a member of the three-year-old class, Rory Tower, a member of the four-year-old class and Regan Tower, a member of the three-year-old class, donned their milk jug space helmets and prepared to blast off in the space station/rocket ship the students of the school built while studying space.
By ABBY SLANKER
Students at the Canfield United Methodist Church Preschool gave their family and friends the gift of art during the school’s annual Art Show May 16.
The fellowship hall of the church was made to resemble an art gallery filled with pieces created by the students of each of the classes. The pieces were created throughout the school year with inspiration from subjects the students were learning about at the time. Each class also presented a class project.
The 3-year-old class, led by Monica Egolf, displayed pieces using such techniques as marble painting and ice painting. The students also created clothespin butterflies.
According to Egolf, the class project came about by a student who asked if they could throw paint outdoors.
“This child suggested we throw paint outdoors. I thought this was a great idea and our class began to plan,” Egolf said.
The class looked for a dark background and then talked about the canvas and what could be used as the canvas. It was decided that burlap would be the canvas. The class then had to decide how to make the paint explode on the canvas. They tried balls soaked in paint, but that did not work as well as the students had hoped.
The next idea was to take empty egg shells and fill them with paint — and it worked. The paint exploded as the children threw the egg shells at the canvas.
The 4-year-old class, led by Ellen Bennett, displayed such pieces as acorn painting, silly circles, directional art frogs, peek-a-boo colors and celery roses, which were created by applying paint to the cut off bottom of a celery stock. The class also decorated planters and displayed them full of flowers.
The class project for the 4-year-old class was creating watercolor blocks. The children chose their favorite number, one, two or three and that became the size of their wood block, one, two or three inches tall. Each child then painted all sides of their block black. They then chose three watercolors to create their masterpiece.
Once the frame was created, the children worked together to paint all sides of the frame black. When the artwork was attached to the wooden blocks, the children carefully placed their block into the frame, on top of the wood glue and pushed hard to make it stick.
A diagram with the children’s names was placed above the watercolor blocks to determine the artist of each block.
The 5-year-old class, led by Mary Lee Bush, created such works of art as gourd painting and coffee filer planets. The class also made their own paper by recycling their scrap paper after reading several books by Denis Fleming.
The children tore paper, and with careful supervision, used a blender to mix the paper scraps and water to make a ‘slurry.’ They poured the slurry onto a screen and gently pressed out the water. Within several days, the paper had dried and each child had their own handmade paper.
The group project for the class was the making of wind chimes. As part of a lesson on what the children could do to help the planet, they were asked to bring in cans for a special project.
“The idea was to help teach the children about taking an object, like a tin can, and using it to make something new. We decided to make a tin can wind chime,” Bush said.
Each class was also involved in a whole-school project, which was inspired by the 5-year-old class. After a student showed some interest in space, the 5-year-old class began a unit on studying space.
“Because of their interest in learning about space, I threw out the lesson plans I had for the class and started researching space,” Bush said.
While the class delved deeply into their space studies, the entire school collaborated in building a space station/rocket ship. The children brought in recyclable materials to build the space station/rocket ship. Materials included, egg cartons, plastic bottles, milk jugs, cardboard boxes and foil.
And, as any astronaut knows, you need a special helmet to travel into space. The students, being good astronauts, fashioned their own space helmets out of gallon milk jugs.
“This project went from occupying a little table to occupying a whole room,” Bush said.
Each class got a chance to say what they wanted to say about the space station/rocket ship via letters to the other classes, which were posted near the project. They were able to ask questions and it offered a back and forth communication between the classes.