"They come and wave at you and you get to go make stuff!"

Tuesday mornings are becoming a universal favorite at the West Broad Street YMCA... ART MORNING...




"they come and wave at you and you get to go make stuff"-- Kevin, age 3 (in the orange shirt!)

We spent last week drawing with the two year olds. I've been reading some articles about the amazing benefits of drawing(http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-healing-arts/200907/helping-children-draw-out-their-traumas)and honestly there is no better way to instantly get every child involved! Caitlin and Loop It Up new comers Laura and Kirby set up a huge piece of paper on the floor and the results were wonderful. We did this little experiment where we didn't even really talk too much about what the kids were "supposed" to do. We let them come into the room and see the piles of crayons sitting on the paper.... THIS ensued within the next few minutes!




With the three year olds, we put out a big piece of clear contact paper and got out the "nature things" that we collected and sorted last week. The simple task of placing leaves, dried peppers and seeds on the sticky paper proved to be plenty entertaining and led to many interesting observations...




" These leaves are scratchy now that they dry. When they were flat they were soft. smooth."


"oh yeah.... scratch. You're right!"

When we had placed all of our specimins, we covered the whole thing up with another sheet of contact paper.


We'll be hanging it in the window!

Laura brought her baby Ellie to visit with us! She fit right in!



Having the baby there was exciting for the kids-- everyone wanted to touch her and snuggle her! I had a good talk with a few of the boys about how you touch a baby, we concluded that you have to be "so gentle and soft. If you rough, she fall down."

The fours spent the day sorting out our nature stuff onto big pizza pie graphs--
each type of specimen got its own spot.



We had a nice visit from Mr. Peter, who helped with the sorting!!! (YMCA directors are very good at sorting!)

a good first week

* * *
It began last tuesday, working with the 2, 3 and 4 year olds.
Caitlin and I arrived at the Y around 9:30 and set up a variety of collection containers--- trays, bins, boxes with several different compartments.

With the 2s and 3s we explored the playground for interesting "nature things"--- leaves, rocks, sticks, seeds, flowers, mulch...

SOme children were more interested in sorting, some in collecting...



"Red go here on the side. There are more yellows. Yellow here, no... here."



Leaves around us:


"Mine has yellow and red. special leaf, I know

With the 4 year olds, we ventured out into the garden.



Our garden at the Y is reletively new, and there is a fresh enthusiasm for figuring out what its all about!



"Peppers, baby-little watermelons, flowers. Hot peppers that you don't eat unless you want somethin too spicy for most people"



"Watermelons have to be in their own place so that they dont mush the flowers."




On Friday, worked with the elementary kids -- a lot of old timers and some new faces too! Each child got a big name tag



and a pile of beautiful stuff which we used to decorate their name :



London works with Ms. Nancy, finding all the right little things!

Quion worked quietly on his own and spent a lot of time picking the right materials and using the right amount of glue.



"sometimes I use the bottle and squeeze a line [of glue] out. Thats good for rounder things to stick. A lot, I just do the paint brush for these flat circles."





"I use as many kinds of things as I can find. Different shapes and textures make it interesting and good."

HandEye Magazine!

a little story about lalaloop.......
http://www.handeyemagazine.com/content/loop-it-savannah

AND.... we're back!

This Fall marks our third year! I've been basking in all the incredible progress and growth that have happened at the Y and for us! (I'll do a retrospective soon......)

We WILL be starting our classes over the next two weeks!
here is the plan:

TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 21 9:30-11:30AM beginning a local nature unit with the pre-k kids at the YMCA daycare! I worked with these cuties over the summer... so good we need to continue!

FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 24 4:30-6PM YMCA afterschool elementary kids! all the old timers!
we will be starting with decorating some big name tags for a wall display. all volunteers welcome! We specifically need someone to be in charge of taking pictures of ALL the kids! Let me know if you can come!!!!

MONDAY SEPTEMBER 27 4:30- 6PM Keyton/ Frazier Boys and Girls Club! Elementary kids!
more old timers. Ocean themed projects to add to the display we began in the front hall over the summer.

TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 28 9:30-11:30AM - More local nature with the Pre-K kids

THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 30 5-6 - Open Art for all neighborhood kids.
Work on ocean peojects.

FRIDAY OCTOBER 1 4:30-6PM - YMCA ELEMENTARY. OCEAN PROJECTS

**** IN THE WEEKS THAT FOLLOW, we will keep up with all parts of this schedule.
All volunteers are welcome! Bring whatever ideas and know-how you have, or just your sweet selves!

email looplinktangle@gmail.com for more info// with questions!
looking VERY forward to it!

10,000,000 Beads!

Much to my excitement, a Pre-School on Whitmarsh Island donated a large collection of "Hamma" or "Pearler" Beads and the little pegboards that go with them. For those of you not farmilliar with this incredible product, let me explain....

The 4" plastic pegboards come in a variety of shapes; hearts, stars, hexagons... and all you do is put small plastic beads onto the boards in any design that you like.






When you fill up the whole thing, put a piece of waxed paper on top and iron it for a few minutes until the beads melt together and become a solid shape.




AWESOME! Always my favorite when I was little. Needless to say, it became a camp craze!!! Every single one of our kids (ages 6-16) made at lease one of these creations!

This is a fantastic example of a play-based project. It may not be the most open ended of all activities, but it is fun, quick and builds great fine motor skills and focus. It is also a great way to begin learning about pattern.



"A pattern is a thing where you go one of one thing, and then three of another thing. And then back to one of the first thing. My pattern is just one of one, one of another one. Pinks and reds. I like those."

It was really amazing to see how the kids took this process on as their own. As new kids joined in, the veteran art devotees explained and demonstrated how it worked.




I think that even beyond teaching the kids actual skills, we want to encourage this sense of involvement and belonging. It's wonderful to feel like you have all the tools and know how to fully belong and carry on in a group. We achieved that with all one hundred and fifty of our campers during bead week!

cutie pie

Flying Time! Flying Fish!

Somehow we find ourselves nearing the middle of July! We have about 150 kids enrolled in camp at the Y! Everyone, ages 4-15, comes to art class on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Here are some highights... Last was OCEAN WEEK and we made stuffed sea creature mobils with paper.

This video is unfortunately sideways.... and i can't fugure out how to flip it, but worth a look anyway:


There has been so much art enthusiasm this summer! There is a group of 6 kids that keep working on their projects thru snack everday and then stay to help with the younger kids. The other night as I was heading home a few kids came up to me in the hallway and asked if they could have some stuff to do drawing in the hallway while they waited for their parents.....


We also made some Ocean Collages, using many different kinds of materials:




There has been so much art enthusiasm this summer! There is a group of 6 kids that keep working on their projects thru snack everday and then stay to help with the younger kids. The other night as I was heading home a few kids came up to me in the hallway and asked if they could have some stuff to do drawing in the hallway while they waited for their parents.....