{"id":3056,"date":"2016-09-14T15:24:20","date_gmt":"2016-09-14T15:24:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/atb\/?p=3056"},"modified":"2016-09-14T19:46:45","modified_gmt":"2016-09-14T19:46:45","slug":"cc-childrens-center-fac-spark-preschoolers-imagination","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/atb\/2016\/09\/14\/cc-childrens-center-fac-spark-preschoolers-imagination\/","title":{"rendered":"CC Children\u2019s Center, FAC Spark Preschoolers’ Imagination"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Leslie Weddell<\/strong><\/p>\n

Albert Einstein once said \u201cImagination is everything. It is the preview of life\u2019s coming attractions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Imagination certainly is on display at the Colorado College Children\u2019s Center, its hallways an amazing preview of the creativity and ingenuity the preschoolers are developing.<\/p>\n

Exhibited in the front hall of the Children\u2019s Center is a \u201cPreschool Fine Art Museum\u201d\u00a0featuring Monets, Chihulys, Klimts, Warhols, and others \u2013 or at least a preschool interpretation of the masters. Recycled water bottles, painted with watercolors and permanent markers and fastened to a chicken wire base, make a striking Chihuly hanging sculpture. Another Chihuly rendition is created from melted plastic Solo cups, painted and glued to driftwood. And a third Chihuly sculpture \u2013 Chihuly being a favorite of the young students \u2013 is created from painted coffee filters strung together.<\/p>\n

Credit much of the behind-the-scenes work to Gina Thompson, an early childhood educator at the Children\u2019s Center, who did a lot of the melting, gluing, stringing, and fastening of artwork to chicken wire.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a kid-driven project,\u201d says Thompson, who works with students in the kindergarten readiness program. A recent theme in the class was artists and their art. After spending time studying and researching various artists, Thompson and others at the Children\u2019s Center, including CC student volunteers, took the preschoolers on a field trip this summer to the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, only a few blocks away. \u201cIt\u2019s so wonderful that it\u2019s within walking distance,\u201d Thompson says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe kids were really inspired when they saw many of the artists we had studied there,\u201d Thompson says. \u201cIt really sparked their imagination and they were incredibly enthusiastic about learning more.\u201d<\/p>\n

Prior to their trip, and the students examined books with pictures of the artists\u2019 work and read children\u2019s books about the artists\u2019 lives. They studied Monet, noting that many of his paintings featured gardens and bridges. They studied the Klimt cats, observing the geometric shapes, how the cats sit with their tails positioned behind them, and how Klimt\u2019s works are \"Preschooler<\/a>highlighted\u00a0with gold.<\/p>\n

They looked at Van Gogh\u2019s works, and made their own swirling \u201cStarry Nights.\u201d Cubism came to life with watercolors on paper as they drew, cut, and formed eyes, nose, mouth, and eyes. They saw paintings of fields of poppies, and then painted their own versions, a series Thompson calls \u201cPoppies in Perspective.\u201d<\/p>\n

Throughout the process, Thompson encouraged the students to use the entire paper, to have their artwork take up the whole page and not only a tiny portion of the paper. \u201cThat is one of the biggest challenges,\u201d she says. \u201cI also want them to take time and have pride in their work. Once they see what they can accomplish with the techniques, mediums, and color combinations they experiment with, the kids get so motivated to create more and take chances.\u201d<\/p>\n

The art and artist \u201cblock\u201d is over now, and Thompson and her students are moving on to a rockets and space theme. \u201cIt\u2019s providing me a chance to get to know my new students and what inspires them,\u201d Thompson says. \u201cStudent-inspired lessons are so much more meaningful to the students and it is always fun, as a teacher, to watch the kids get excited about their learning. I can\u2019t wait to see where their imaginations take them on this.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Leslie Weddell Albert Einstein once said \u201cImagination is everything. It is the preview of life\u2019s coming attractions.\u201d Imagination certainly is on display at the Colorado College Children\u2019s Center, its hallways an amazing preview of the creativity and ingenuity the preschoolers are developing. Exhibited in the front hall of the Children\u2019s Center is a \u201cPreschool … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “CC Children\u2019s Center, FAC Spark Preschoolers’ Imagination”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":648,"featured_media":3057,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[555],"class_list":["post-3056","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-around-campus","tag-fac","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/atb\/files\/2016\/09\/Chihulyart.png?fit=675%2C470","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/atb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3056","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/atb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/atb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/atb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/648"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/atb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3056"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/atb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3056\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3075,"href":"http:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/atb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3056\/revisions\/3075"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/atb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3057"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/atb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3056"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/atb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3056"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/atb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3056"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}