We got ourselves a solar system rug from Costco a few months back and PK & BB were both fascinated with it. The planets were numbered and colorfully designed to attract kids. PK has been into dolls lately and since she got the Minnie Mouse dress up dolls from a friend, she has been playing on that mat all day. As I sat down to play with her, I brought Minnie Mouse into outer space, exploring the different planets. And within a month, she can remember all the eight planets and their order around the sun, plus the dwarf planet Pluto! It is amazing how she learns things so quickly and easily. Her awesome memory skill is her forte.
So we revisited the solar system again this month as I have kept the rug away since we moved. I needed a solar system poster for my teaching so I used the opportunity to ask PK to draw the planets for me.
We borrowed some books from the library and used one of them as our reference. We worked together to draw the planets in their relative sizes and this was a good opportunity for PK to practice drawing her circles. We decided to use oil pastels for the sun and the planets and water color for the galaxy. The oil pastels was a good medium for this project as the colors can blend together to create a texture appearance of the planets. PK is getting very good at this now since she has been using this medium in her art class. I left her to color by herself while I put BB down for a nap. And by the time I came back to PK, she was already working on Jupiter!
I was surprised and very pleased with her work and of course, very proud of her. This is the finished poster, entirely done by Miss PK.
She was too tired to do the background that afternoon, so we did it on another day. Sorry, there is no picture of it, but u can imagine, a bluish-black watercolor background with a touch of silver glitter nail vanish for the twinkling stars.
This experience of creating art through learning is awesome. What are some projects that you do with your child as you learn about something new?