The animal kingdom was well and alive in Casa Búho this week! We continued our discussion of the ongoing fires and events in the Amazon Rainforest and paired the topic with Jungle-themed books for our Mañana and Tarde de Lectura sessions.
For our hora de creatividad, the students explored their use of several new and familiar art terms such as horizon, proportion, background, and warm and cool colors. So… what did we make?
On Monday, we used watercolors and crayons to make seals popping out of the water. Seals aren’t native to Machalilla wildlife, but we drew inspiration for the islands in the background from our very own Isla de Sucre that rests just off the shore from Machalilla’s beach. I was so excited to see how the seals turned out- each student had their own take on the setting and texture and colors.
The Tuesday morning Baby Búhos class explored their sense of touch and sight with ocean-themed sensory bags. They’re super fun to decorate, and super easy to make- I used glitter and seed beads with blue-tinted water. When they held them up against the window they could experiment with their sense of sight to see how the color changes and morphs when light and touch are added.
Based on the llama in a sweater that was in our book, El Día de la Ecologia, we drew llamas on Tuesday. Although the afternoon class is younger, they were super diligent about following the steps and the results were beautiful! The kiddos even insisted on using chalk to color it in, something I didn’t even think of, and made for a very pleasant result, almost just like the illustrations in our book! Fortunately for me, as well, the word llama in Spanish is also perfect for jokes…
Cual es el color favorito de la llama? (What’s a llama’s favorite color?)
Llamarillo! (yellow… pronounced amarillo in Spanish)
Wednesday and Thursday afternoons, (mi Tarde de Lectura and Peque Búhos), were filled with insects! After reading more jungle-related tales, legends from our very own Ecuadorian Amazon, the kiddos used scrap paper to collage together different insects that they could think of- centipedes, ladybugs, butterflies, and even a worm! We mustn’t forget about even the tiniest inhabitants of the jungle, especially if they’re as colorful and lively as these creations. It’s so exciting to see what can be invented with an inventive mind and a few scraps of paper.
On Thursday morning we visited our local school, Escuela Alfredo Villarreal, to help out in the third-grade classroom. They are working on learning English words, so we reviewed the basic emotions with them- happy, sad, angry, surprised, and scared. To apply these words and themes to art, they practiced drawing their own self-portraits and then filled them in with a color that reminded them of their current emotions.
While Ecuador doesn’t celebrate Labor Day like we do in the United States, Casa Búho still had a three-day weekend with Friday off due to our garage sale the previous Saturday. I’m excited to start creating again on Monday!
