Ava and Art Vista at Kindergarten

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Last week was a tough week on the babysitting front. My mom is out of town, my dad is working, my husband is working...all the time, my babysitter is in mourning. So last Friday, when I was scheduled to work in Ben and Lily's kindergarten classrooms, I was out of options. I really still wanted to be there - in fact, it was Art Vista week in Ben's class and I signed up to be a docent. We trekked off to school and Ben and Lily's teachers (actually, Lily had a sub) were kind enough to invite Ava in for a visit, so that I could still be there.

Ava, in true "me too" form, sat criss-cross applesauce on a carpet square and then proceeded to do some centers. In Lily's class, I was helping the kids work on patterns using Fruit Loops (I was popular!). Ava ate about 3 cups full (we brushed our teeth well after we got home). When she got bored, she headed over to the baby and kitchen area and played quietly. She liked the listening center a lot, listening to "There Was an Old Woman Who Swallowed a Bat" about three times. Lily was a bit sad that Ava wasn't able to tag along with her for the ENTIRE day ("She has to come to music! I'll watch her while you're in Ben's class. Please?! Pretty please with a cherry on top?"). During recess (oh boy, Ava was ready for recess after 2 hours of kindergarten!), she played and then lined up with Lily perfectly.

In Ben's class, Art Vista was So. Incredibly. Cool. I am so glad I was able to be there. The Art Vista program involves a project that 2-3 parents (docents) present and teach to the class once a month. There are seven projects and they all have a particular theme. For this first one, myself and the other docent (well, er, mainly the other docent, since I was watching Ava too!) talked to Ben's class about what "art" is (they are already great artists, really - just look around the room at all the stuff they have created), showed the class four famous prints involving horses, including a very abstract one by Kandinsky, and guided them through a very simple discussion about foreground and background and perspective ("if I draw the horse big, in the foreground, and then mountains small, in the background, it makes it look like the mountains are far away"). Then the kids got to draw horses (they uses stencils to trace), color their picture and do a "trick," using crayon resist, which creates a really cool effect. The kids had a great time, even though we were time limited. And, yes, we'll be seeing Ava's horse painting at the Art Show in the Spring, because...she did it too (twice, actually). Little Miss Me Too, in true form.