Henry Moore Sculpture Garden Field Trip!

Today the 4 year old class took their final field trip of the year to the Henry Moore Sculpture Garden at the Nelson Atkins Museum. A few weeks ago,  Debbie Smith came to talk with us about sculpture, and specifically about Henry Moore. We learned some art words like positive space, negative space, symmetry, and asymmetrical, just to name a few.  As we walked around the sculpture garden today, the children were asked to point out these things in the sculptures. There are pieces in the garden that Moore did not create, including four new giant head pieces that represent the four seasons. The children loved getting right up next to the pieces and trying to figure out which head represented which season. We also made our way through the glass labyrinth. If you haven't walked through the labyrinth, you should make a trip! This was one of the favorite parts of today's trip for many children - just be sure to keep your hands in front of you and be careful, as it becomes harder to tell what is glass and what is not when you're inside! Please enjoy these pictures of our day!

looking for the "negative space" in this Moore piece

we practiced reclining just like the sculpture!

this was not a Moore piece, but we enjoyed running up the big hill to see it closer

two of the four seasons represented by these amazing head sculptures

only a few bumped heads in this amazing labyrinth experience!

 

 

 

 

 

 

we came back and did some sculpting of our own!

we used different color dough and added all sorts of pieces to our creations

a few of us thought we needed MORE 3D options for our sculptures

we found pictures of flowers and cut and glued them onto this head for our own version of a season head!

we think it might be SPRING!

Springtime! Worms! Monkeys! (wait. monkeys?)

We just wanted to show you a few photos of what we've been loving in preschool in the past few weeks. The weather has finally allowed us some great time outside.

We've been digging for worms on the playground, and just today the 3 year olds found several fat worms and a "pinching centipede" (beware if you find this one at home!)

Our 4 year old class took a walk to the creek that is just behind our playground. We skipped rocks, listened for different sounds, watched for birds, and generally just enjoyed splashing around.

Finally, a good friend shared a TED talk with us today that is certainly worth passing on. It's about a kindergarten in Japan that is unlike any other kindergarten we have seen, and it is shared and narrated by the architect who designed it. It's such a lovely way to look at the importance of children being outside as well as the importance of giving children the opportunities to explore their world. Go here to enjoy this wonderful story (and maybe some monkeys): TED talk.