Art Lessons

I'm happy to report that in the past 10 days Cavett has only had one yellow day instead of green at school.  I think we are getting the behavior figured out and what is expected of him during the day.

On another note, I didn't quite realize how much drawing and coloring was required of the Kindergartener.  We aren't doing as well in that category as in the reading area.  So, today when he brought home this  paper, I decided we needed to have a little art lesson.  Not that I am the artist at all, that is my brother, Jonny.  But, Cavett needed to know how to draw clothes on his stick/big belly person.

The object was to place the necessary items on your person as the weather indicated.  If he could have just written--scarf, hat, umbrella, boots--he would have been fine.  But, no.  Drawing was required.

Here is his final masterpiece.  Hopefully, some of these little tips here and there will help him bridge the gap until just writing is required. 

Literacy Thursdays

**Welcome to Literacy Thursdays. This post is designed to highlight some of our favorite children's books in hopes that you will blog about yours. We are always looking for new books to discover. Literacy is so important and even at the youngest of ages is crucial to development. If you don't have children of your own volunteer at a school, read to a neighborhood child, but get involved. It's a great way to share quality time with the youngest of our society.


Here's the play by play: You blog about your book. Give me a shout out in your blog by creating a link to my blog using my Literacy button. Then at the bottom of my post, you will find Mr. Linky. Sign your name and add the web address of your post. Your post will automatically be linked to mine leaving a list for all to peruse. I hope you will join us.**

Today's book is The Dot by Peter H. Reynolds. We randomly found this book at the library as I was looking for another book that Cavett read at school earlier this week, Mouse Paint. We never found Mouse Paint, but we will try again.

I picked up "the dot" for it's illustrations as I usually always do. Illustrations are hugely important in my book. Also, I like the matte cover look, just fyi. Anyway, we read the story and I found it highly liberating and quite uplifting. As a lover and maker of the arts, to have someone confirm your art no matter what the form is highly uplifting.

The story is of a girl named Vashti. She couldn't think of a thing to draw and so she put one dot on the paper. The next class period, she found her dot framed and hanging on the wall. It inspired her to make better and more dots of all kinds. I particularly like that she made a dot by not drawing a dot. In the end, a little bly claims that he can't draw even a straight line with a ruler. Vashti asks him to show her. He scribbles a line, hands it to her, and she says, now sign it.

It's a great book for the uncertain or timid. In fact, I may need to buy this one just for myself!

Christmas Yard Art and Cookie Swap

During my annual trip to the Nutcracker Market, I saw a cute little wooden toy soldier for use outside during Christmas. I said, "I can do that!" My friends, Claire and Nichole had seen what we did with the Pumpkin at Halloween and encouraged us to do it again. I suggested that we make it a neighborhood thing and volunteered Stephen to do all the cutting.

We ended up having 2 other families, the Snows and the Buckners make yard art, but we had many more join us for cookies and playing in the street. Four hours later, we began to wind things up. I still have some detail work and the back to go, but for the most part I'm finished. I think they turned out pretty well.

Great job, Stephen! And, we are so blessed to have such fun, neighborly neighbors. If we ever have to leave, it will be a sad day. It will be hard to measure up to these friends.