Suzuki Preschool 2014-2015: Half Note Class Newsletter

Dear Parents,

Even though this was such a short week, we accomplished so much. We introduced the children to some famous artists. We started the unit by having the children look through various art books. Some of the artists they discovered were: Pablo Picasso, Wassily Kandinsky, Henry Rousseau, and Andy Warhol. We then discussed which artist's work that we wanted to replicate.

The children chose Pablo Picasso. He was an artist from Spain who was famous for being the co-founder of cubism, which is a style of painting where objects of the painting are broken up and repainted in an abstract form.

We took pictures of the children's faces and then cut them in half. We then took one half of the picture and cut it up into small pieces. The children then glued them altogether to complete their faces.

Another artist we learned about this week was Vincent Van Gogh, a Dutch artist who loved sunflowers. He painted them over and over again, working in thick bumpy layers of paint. The children enjoyed creating their own sunflowers. They first did a sketch of a sunflower and then painted it, using acrylic paint. The children did an incredible job!

In music this week the children practiced marching to the beat. One child played on the drum while the other children marched to the beat. They practiced singing "Humpty Dumpty," and "Six Little Ducks," The children also practiced rest position with the violin and "bow bunnies."

We worked on our writing books. The children have shown so much progress in their writing in such a short time. So far the children have learned how to write the letter L, E, F, and H.

We ended our week by eating apples dipped in honey in honor of Rosh HaShanah, the Jewish New Year and like most Jewish holidays there are food customs associated with it. One of the most popular and well-known food customs on Rosh HaShanah has to do with dipping apple slices into honey. This sweet combination stems from an age-old Jewish tradition of eating sweet foods to express our hope for a sweet new year. We also learned a new song, "Apples Dipped in Honey."