Click here to check out our mention in French Morning’s article about bilingual French preschools in NYC. We’re thrilled!

The Artist Class challenged themselves this month to try to grow crystals in the refrigerator. We took Epsom salt, warm water, and food coloring and put this experiment to the test. After dissolving the salt into the warm water and adding our food coloring to help the crystals stand out, we put the jars into the refrigerator and waited a day for the crystals to grow. More salt can dissolve in hot water than cold, so that is why it is easier to start off with the warm water to dissolve the salt. Then, when the hot water cools in the refrigerator, the Epsom salts create crystals on the side of the cup. This is because the cold environment is not conducive for the salt to remain dissolved in the water, it only has one option: to form crystalline structures. The unique shape of Epsom salt molecules makes them form long crystals that almost look like needles!

With “construction” as their theme, Les Inventeurs received a large mystery box in the mail. After guessing what might be hiding in it, they opened it and found all the pieces to a small table and two chairs, fully dissemble. By following the illustrated instructions, they used their fine motors skills to attach the right pieces together to build their very own art center! The children were very proud of their work and quickly busied themselves creating masterpieces in their new special classroom space!

Keith Haring, renown Pop artist, had the spotlight as our Artist of the Month for February! Keith Haring developed a love for drawing at a very early age, learning basic cartooning skills from his father and from the popular culture around him, such as Dr. Seuss and Walt Disney. This development of artistic skill at a young age was something that we wanted to share with our younger friends, who are beginning to develop their own artistic talent as they grow and learn. Though reading books about Haring’s life, displaying pictures of Haring’s work at eye level, and helping friends recognize the key elements of Haring’s style, we were able to interpret Haring’s work in every classroom. We wanted students to feel a connection to the artist they are studying at school, and with Haring’s easily recognizable shapes, bright colors, and repeated themes of movement, animals, and love, we were able to solidify an understanding of the artist and his body of work. Furthermore, we chose Haring because of the lessons that his work leaves us with: be open, care and act, find strength in number, and be inspired and be inspiring. These are lessons that we hope will stay with our friends for the rest of their lives, as they grow and learn more about the art and life of Keith Haring, an artist that made such an impact in the world.

During our “Food from Scratch” theme, les Inventeurs learned how yeast works. After discussing how yeast eats sugar and releases gas, we tested it by placing sugar, yeast and water in a bottle, and covering it with a balloon. This also became an opportunity to compare salt and sugar, as they both look the same, but don’t taste the same or react the same way with the yeast. We added an extra bottle with salt and yeast to compare its reaction to the sugar bottle. Our scientists tasted both salt and sugar and voted for their favorite. As it turns out, we learned that both Les Inventeurs and yeast prefer sugar! As we observed and illustrated the results of the experiment, we explain that the air in the balloon is just like the air bubbles that yeast creates into bread dough. Later in the week, we made our own loaf of bread, first observing how the yeast made the dough grow, then finding all the little air bubbles it created once the bread was baked. Science never tasted better!

This month we studied Bridget Riley, a British artist who is best known for her singular Op Art paintings. Riley has created countless contemporary paintings over the past seventy years. We learned about her art, from early student drawings to very recent paintings, from oil on canvas portraits to abstract synthetic emulsion on board paintings to acrylic emulsion on canvas. We had a lot of fun recreating and reimagining the works of Bridget Riley. We used paper, glue, and our imaginations to create new art based off Riley’s paintings. We tried color matching, weaving, and 3D construction, all the while working on our fine motor skills.

How can we build a track that helps the wooden ball roll from the top of the wall to the bottom, without falling off? This is a difficult task that makes us think strategically about how we might engineer a successful track. Our friends helped each other think through what might work, and how we can start this process. Through strategic thinking and processing, we are able to create new variations of a working track. We used trial and error to complete this experiment as a group.

We started using the light table for a new project this month. We used transparent cylinders in multiple different colors, illuminated by the light table, to practice balancing. How can we use these cylinders, in their various colors, to construct a city. We used the blue cylinders to represent water, the green for grass, the yellow for roads, and the red for buildings. After separating these blocks into their colors, we started building a “magic city” in our creative vision. All of the students participated and practiced how to balance these cylinders on top of each other.

This month we were excited to learn about and start using a new light table that includes special marbles and color changing. In the class we are learning about color theory, composition and light. With these marbles, we are able to continue our development of fine motor skills, as well as color and pattern recognition. We are having a lot of fun collaborating with all of our friends to create new patterns.