Good Morning Families. Mamas and Papas, how is your heart today? It is often a somber day in our grownup community as many remember the tragic shooting at Virginia Tech. Sometimes we have been able to translate those feelings into action and service, but today finds us in a different place, perhaps with a different set of fears. Maybe we can find a kinder, more connected world on the other side. Reach out today.
This morning on Sesame Street Elmo was sad that he couldn’t play with his friends, and people were using ZOOM for school. Groceries were being delivered for elderly people in the neighborhood, and Lin Manuel was homeschooling his children. I wish we could watch it together.
Can we start off the day with yoga today? I’m going to do this today too.
Let’s work with scissors today. I found us a story about an artist who created beautiful artwork with his scissors.
And here is another look at Henri Matisse and the way he creates with scissors.
There are all sorts of cutting practice sheets available online if your child would like to take these on. They look like this and there’s a lot of variety. You may need to help your child hold the scissors effectively.
You can also set up simple cutting activities with different kinds of paper. In the Honeybee class we often use interesting magazines that spark conversation as we cut. Save your pieces and assemble them into a Matisse style art work. If you don’t have plain paper, you can collage onto newspaper or book pages. I love to use thrifted book pages as a background.
You can then take your scisssors and get creative. Make a basket of colored yarn and let your Honeybee cut to their hearts content.
Playdough makes a great cutting material. Add scissors to your playdough set up. They can snip bits of playdough, roll snakes to cut, or cut the dough to create shapes. Remember those letter and number templates I talked about a few weeks ago. I showed you some free nature printables. Slide your 8 by 10 template into a sleeve protector from the office supply store, and you have a great template for making letters and numbers out of playdough.
These are free and look like something the Honeybees would like. Sliding them in a plastic sleeve makes them reusable.
Is anyone following along with Dan Zanes Social Isolation Songs? Honeybees, send me some songs that you might want to share with the friends. Show me what you’ve been interested in while we are at home.
Honeybees, put your hands in the air and say it with me. Wherever you are we wish you well.