Composers. Swan Lake Painting and Hand Print Art.

Hand Print Swans Preschool Art with Poppins Book Nook

We listened and danced to the beautiful music of Tchaikovsky, created Swan Lake art, and learned a wonderful Princess Swan story. Composers is the theme for July at Poppins Book Nook. You can find our previous Poppins Book Nook activities here: Over in the Forest: Leaves Collage and Forest Small World.

 

Writers, Artists, Composers

With our preschoolers, we worked on one basic concept:

Writers write books.
Artists create art.
Composers create music.

This is not an easy one for little kids. My Firefly had heard words "writer" and "artist" before. Now she had an opportunity to discover that there was a real person behind the beautiful music she loved to dance to.

We considered the examples from Swan Lakes activities:

• Tchaikovsky is a composer of Swan Lake.
• James Mayhew is a writer of the Ella Bella book as we can find out from the cover of the book.
• We will be artists creating the Swan Lake painting!

Swan Lake Painting and Hand Print Art

• Outline the lake leaving white margins for grass and flowers around the lake.
• Kids colored the water first. The painting was finished when the lake was completely dry.
• Start by applying several long strokes across the lake with the green paint.
• Color the lake. Kids were offered the blue paint to color all the water: green mixed into blue with some interesting effects.
• We talked about the sun reflections on the water surface: the observations we made on a sunny day before the activity helped here.
• Choose the colors. Kids were offered small jars of paint with a cotton swab inside each jar. This helped to contain the mess and allowed them to use all the bright colors without worrying about finding/ washing the brush.
• Paint using cotton swabs. Kids learned to make short strokes and dots. If there was a stroke they didn't like, we used the brush to brush over the stroke to mix it in.
• Evaluate if the painting is done! It is important to stop before the lake turns solid brown.

 

Kids loved painting their lakes! The lake above was painted over three times: the thicker watercolor paper survived the layers of tempera paint.

Kids made hand prints of both hands using white tempera paint. The swans' heads are finger prints. We used black and red markers for eyes and beaks. The grass and flowers around the lake are done with Do-A-Dot markers.

Amazon affiliate link: Do A Dot Art Marker Brilliant 6-pack

We enjoyed painting the white swans so much! The exploration of the colors of animals is always engaging for little ones. Some fun ideas for observing the colors of animals can be found here: Animal Covers from Pinay Homeschooler.

Ella Bella Ballerina and Swan Lake

"Ella Bella Ballerina and Swan Lake" by James Mayhew is our book of the month. It's a story of Princess Swan and her new little friend. Ella Bella is carried into the story by the beautiful music and the dancing princess. She witnesses the fight: white against black, good against evil.

My Firefly loved this new princess story. And listening to the music and looking at the beautiful watercolor paintings in this book made her "dance as a Princess Swan" for several days after.

Amazon affiliate link: Ella Bella Ballerina and Swan lake (Ella Bella Ballerina Series)

Composers - the Theme for July at PBN

It's time for the Poppins Book Nook - a book club that goes live on the last Monday of each months.
You can find our previous Poppins Book Nook books and activities here:
 Poppins Book Nook.

Enchanted Homeschooling Mom - 3 Dinosaurs - ABC Creative Learning - As We Walk Along the Road - Brain Power Boy - Chestnut Grove Academy - Embracing Destiny - Every Bed of Roses - Farm Fresh Adventures - Growing in God's Grace - Kathys Cluttered Mind - My Bright Firefly - Peakle Pie - Preschool Powol Packets - Pray Species - SAHM I am - Stir The Wonder - Sunny Day Family - Sweet Silly Sara - Teach Beside Me - To the Moon and Back - Tots and Me - Tree Valley Academy - Witty Hoots

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