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GARDEN: A VIEW OF NEW YORK
The Garden class has been busily studying Ezra Jack Keats this year. We learned that Keats was the first author and artist to write books about children who live in New York City! One of our favorite books by Ezra Jack Keats was The Snowy Day and while reading it, we learned that Keats created his illustrations through collage.
This year, the Garden class has been interested in buildings, particularly famous buildings of New York City. We have practiced building the Empire State Building, Chrysler Building, and Flatiron Building using blocks, art and sensorial materials! Our auction project this year reflects our combined interest in New York City and Ezra Jack Keats with a collage creation of the New York City skyline!
Value: Priceless
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1W: COLORS OF LOVE
The children of 1W scrunched tissue paper as a part of a sensorial experience, creating an exquisite masterpiece on artfully crafted paper. One piece was created by the children in our Monday-Wednesday class and the other by our Thursday-Friday class. Enjoy this colorful assortment made by the “small hands” of 1W.
Value: Priceless
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2E: A MAP OF NEW YORK
2E’s auction project is based on the sewing skills the children have developed this year, as well as their familiarity with maps and New York City. The children embroi-dered and labeled the five boroughs of NYC onto a black cloth. They also created a collage skyline of New York’s buildings (another area of interest for many children) along the bottom of the cloth. Each child is offering his or her skill level to the work, allowing everyone to create a piece of work they are very proud of!
Value: Priceless
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2WAM: COLOR EXPLORATION
In 2Wam, we have been exploring colors this year. We experience color discrimina-tion throughout our lives, and in the classroom, the children were introduced to the concept of primary colors: red, yellow and blue. We enjoyed mixing these three colors with watercolors, finger paints, modeling clay, and oil pastels, to name just a few of the media with which we have worked.
The children were awed by the fact that these colors create three completely new colors when mixed together: orange, green and purple. Just as we learned how to create new colors by mixing, we also learned that within each color there are many different shades and hues. It was so much fun to work with the classical Montessori material, Color Box 3, and discover the many shades of blue and purple. Not only did we learn how to grade shades of one color, but we also practiced creating our own. For our auction project this year, we built upon on our love for color explora-tion by designing a rice paper lamp to showcase the skills we have learned. We used the color wheel to inspire our selection of colors for our lamp.
Value: Priceless
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2WPM: ACTION JACKSON!
“What do you need to be ‘Action Jackson’?”
“You need paint and a canvas!”
The children of 2Wpm have been studying Jackson Pollock. Using the roof’s stair landing as their studio, they dripped, spread, dropped and sprayed paint. The painting they created is lovingly submitted to the auction by all the children and teachers of 2Wpm.
Jackson Pollock’s studio was a barn on Long Island, his paintings and fame came after much experimentation on his part. Our studio at WSMS has provided hours of experimentation. We painted with many different types of paint; we experimented with ways of applying paint to different surfaces. We used golf balls and marbles to paint paper. We did several paintings using sticks, spoons and paintbrushes to drop and drip paint. Then we discussed how to get action into the painting and several children carefully threw paint onto the surface.
Although Jackson Pollock’s barn floor is still covered with the paint from his paintings, our floor had to be cleaned up and what remains is this beautiful, active, exciting painting. We hope you enjoy.
Value: Priceless
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3E: OUR NORTHERN LIGHTS
Inspired by our study of the Northern Lights, the children of 3E have created a three-dimensional winter scene of the Arctic. The children used multiple techniques and mixed media to create this whimsical miniature woodland and its surroundings. Our Northern Lights is a celebration of nature and our children’s creativity. This exceptional piece of art is a beautiful addition to any room.
Value: Priceless
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3WAM: BEAD ART
The children of 3Wam have recently become experts on North America! We learned all about our continent’s geography, climate, animals and countries. With continued enthusiasm, we decided to dig even deeper and began studying the country of Mexico! We read books, made guacamole, collaged replicas of the flag and learned about an indigenous Mexican tribe called the Huichol tribe. We listened to their mythical tales and re-created our very own versions of their art using yarn and beads.
Following the children’s great interest in working with beads, we decided bead art would be the perfect medium for our Auction Project! Traditionally, the Huichol ap-plied tiny seed beads, one by one, in an intricate pattern to a gourd bowl coated in beeswax. To emulate this process, we traced Metal Insets, a classic Montessori material, to make a symmetrical geometric design onto our wood canvas. After color-coding the design, the children brushed glue into the shapes and sprinkled the beads on top. They carefully pressed the beads down to fill any open spaces. We now have an appreciation for the intricate art of the Huichol tribe!
Value: Priceless
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3WPM: OUR SEVEN CONTINENTS
“North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Africa. Don’t forget Australia! Don’t forget Antarctica!”
3Wpm has been excitedly learning about our world through a study of each of the seven continents. For our auction project, we decided to share our love of the continents by creating a beautiful world map. We incorporated skills from two of our favorite areas to explore in the classroom: Practical Life and Art. We were particu-larly inspired by a Practical Life hammering work as well as a brief study of Mexican string art.
The children began our project by carefully tracing each continent onto colored con-struction paper. After meticulously using pushpins to pin punch each continent out, they arranged them in place on a lovely piece of wood using our continent puzzle map as a guide. With safety goggles and a hammer in tow, the children hammered nails around the perimeter of each continent. Then, they brought our continents to life! The children wrapped colored embroidery floss around the nails of each conti-nent, back and forth and up and down, to give each one its unique color.
Value: Priceless
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4E: THE WALL
During the school year, 4E has conducted a series of author/illustrator studies. Our most recent artist was Ezra Jack Keats. We learned about how he created whimsical images of the lives and adventures of children in an urban setting. We experimented with many of the same techniques he used to create illustrations, including collage, paper making, printmaking and stamping.
In Whistle for Willie, we noticed scenes of brick walls, some covered with graffiti. We decided to make our own graffiti-inspired wall created in the style of another modern urban artist, Banksy. We designed and printed a brick wall using hand-carved stamps. We used photographs of the children to create stencils, which the children then used to print their own silhouette on the brick wall. The children enjoyed choosing their individual pose and guessing which silhouette belonged to each classmate. This process was truly special in that each child’s unique personality and spirit shines through in their image on “The Wall”.
Value: Priceless
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4W: A WALK AROUND WSMS
4W has been studying geography, cartography and directionality. In the classroom, the children have practiced their skills by using a compass to find objects and loca-tions, and have extended their knowledge of the neighborhood by discussing land-marks and drawing blueprints by utilizing mapping tools like rulers, measuring tape, and protractors.
Our project is a panoramic view of WSMS and two important familiar places that the children identify with the school: Hippo Park and the train station at 93rd and Broadway. To prepare for the project, children took and collected photographs of the neighborhood, and the interior and exterior of the school. The children collaged photographs, combined with textured and patterned papers, as a medium to create our project. We chose collage photography as our technique because it captures the valuable and important role West Side Montessori School plays in our com-munity. It was a challenge, but also fun to connect all the pieces together to create a vision of the path we take every day. Don’t be surprised if you spot some inside features outside, and outside features in!
Value: Priceless
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