Matthew Thats a long feet. Unbelievable. The wingspan is so so long. Louisa The eagle is wearing glasses. Wow

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1 February 10, 2017 We continue our eagle exploration this week with the morning class. We have had discussions with the children in the past about how wide an eagle s wingspan is and even shown them with masking tape and markings written on the wall. One of the teachers has decided to make a life size painting outline of a full grown American Bald Eagle that has measurements of 7.5 feet across and 3 feet tall. The painting is introduced at circle time. Matthew Thats a long feet. Unbelievable. The wingspan is so so long Louisa The eagle is wearing glasses. Wow Zack The wings and the tails are different the feathers Sam gets up and points to the tail feathers. Nikki The beak is long Nikki gets up to compare the size of her toy dog to the eagle painting. Louisa Like a giant After Nikki has compared the size of her toy dog to the eagle painting, we ask the children if they would like a turn to compare their own wingspan /arm length to the painting. Each child is eager to come up to the front of the room and take a turn.

2 We have been learning about eagles with the children since January, through a number of different explorations. We ve shown them numerous videos and images of eagles at different ages and sizes, and one of topics we continue to talk about is how large the eagles are. Through these discussions the children are able to get a sense of the idea that eagles are big but is different than having a physical object in front of them that they are able to touch and see. We as the teachers thought that this would be a fun activity for the group, and it was received enthusiastically. An activity such as this can also be beneficial to the children as it helps them get a sense of and feel more connected to nature and the realised world all around them. Teaching children about the natural world should be seen as one of the most important events of their lives - Thomas Berry Childhood is filled with natural wonder and curiosity. The learning environment must reflect a classroom and outdoor space that inspires and sense of wanting to investigate, to find out and to explore. -Kathy Walker

3 1 February 17, 2017 Last week we introduced the eagle drawing at circle time with the morning class, the children got to see how big a real American Bald Eagle is by standing in front of it as comparison. This week we have set out the eagle painting on two of our tables, with paints in: brown, black, yellow and white, and feathers. Zack, Nikki and Sam are excited to come and try. Sam and Nikki are quick to dip the feathers

4 2 into the paint fluffy side down. Nikki dips the feather into several paint colours and starts painting across the paper. Nikki I m mixing the colours haha Zack Me too, I m mixing it Zack discovers that if he turns the feather around and uses the end with the quill that he can make lines through the paint already on the paper. Louisa comes over to the table and confidently picks up the feather. She is focused as she paints on a small section of the eagle, concentrating to stay inside the lines. Louisa Look! Matthew comes over and is enthusiastic for a chance to try, he has a smile on his face as he works. He uses a feather to create wide energetic brush strokes.

5 3 Yuri comes over to the table and is using the feather to paint the eagle. She does this silently for several minutes, until she notices that she has paint on her fingers. Yuri dips her fingers into more of the paint and rubs her whole hand across the page, she has a big grin on her face and begins to giggle. She continues to paint contently with her hands for some time. Through this exploration it was interesting to see the children come up with a number of different ways to paint the eagle. Such as finger painting and how the different ends of the feathers make different marks on the paper. This shows to us that they took pleasure in being able to actively show their creativity and explore these materials and come up with their own ideas and strategies. Art has the role in education of helping children become like themselves instead of more like everyone else. - Sydney Gurewitz Clemens Art for toddlers and preschoolers is rarely about beauty. It s all about exploration and personal expression. - Heather Shumaker