Ah, the Joys of Joy School.

This week Sam started school. He was very excited and only slightly confused when he didn't actually leave to go to school. I was the teacher this week. So therefore, the kids came here and we started our rotation of Joy school. I was a bit hesitant to teach because my few talents don't lie in the same category as teacher, especially to a group of 3-4 year old's. But, I was lucky enough to be able to choose my own subject and I chose Art Appreciation. Yes, I did choose my favorite subject in school, and yes we did have a fabulous week! The kids meet Tue/Wed/Thur from 9 am to 11:30 am. We have a set schedule we go by. Circle time, alphabet time, snack time, play time, lesson etc. I had a hard time deciding which artists to highlight and what type of art to introduce to them. Then I realized, it didn't matter. So I printed off some pictures of some famous paintings and sculptures and art appreciation week began.

We looked at Art and talked about the paintings. We tried our hands at mimicking a famous artist's work, painted a mural and we even attempted sculpture.

Sam and Ben made towers every day out of the alphabet letters after alphabet time.

Asher and Stephen loved playing with the magnet animals, choosing different outfits for their super hero's!

Starry, Starry Night. Black paper makes a great night sky, and we used chalk to draw our stars.

With out even planning it, the hit of the week was "A" is for airplane! They wanted to make airplanes everyday out of their favorite colors.

Snack time!

Sculpture! I made white play dough, so they wouldn't stain their clothes. I was going to let their sculptures harden overnight so they could take them home the next day but then after trying unsuccessfully to get them to not destroy what they did make, I just sent them home with the play dough to keep.

Hard at work.

Alphabet time activity. Recognizing letters in their own names.

I think the hit of the week was painting our mural. This one, I let the kids do on their own. It was wild and fun, and I think the kids liked this project the best. Who doesn't like to make a big mess? and no one got in trouble for painting the wall today!

I hope the kids had as much fun as I did. They did awesome! I look forward to the next time I get to teach. It was crazy having all those kids around at once(even though 2 of the kids were absent this week!). I don't have to teach for a while and that's probably a good thing because I am worn out! To all those teachers out there-You rock! Teaching is tough stuff.