Our little friends have been very busy inventors, painters, and explorers! *Leaf Collage Invitation* Continuing our study of leaves and fall, we used our huge leaf collection to collage! Our Wednesday friends organized our leaves for us according to color which made it easier to choose which leaves we wanted to use for our masterpieces. This exercise was a great way for our minds to warm up in the morning as it took some good imagining and planning to foresee our leaf collage

Today we kicked off our Whole Child Program with our Wednesday students! We couldn't be more excited to expand Side by Side Studio to include a nature preschool dedicated to child-led learning and exploration! For our first weeks together, we will be learning about ourselves and each other. We will work with reflections and faces - practicing self portraits and recognizing facial features. Our main focus will be to establish our little community and figure out what interests

Our last day together has arrived! Today was filled with finishing our projects and completing our week of pebble meditation. Day 5: *Sun Print Tapestry Embroidery* The campers excelled at using real needles to create their own embroidery designs. *Pebble Pouch Necklaces* We added necklace strings to our painted pebble meditation pouches so that we can carry them with us wherever we go! *Habitat Construction Completion* Finishing our habitats required us to be focused! Some c

What an absolutely positively terrific Thursday! Day 4: *Mindful Morning* After some Bunny Breathing we walked our dogs. :-) Yoga zombies slowly rolling up from their forward folds. There was a competition to see who could be the slowest zombie. *Clay Creature Painting* The campers concentrated on getting their characters just right! *Nature Shadows* Using some of the materials we had collected during our nature walks, we printed and stamped with leaves on our spray watercolo

As one of our campers wrote, "Welcome to the best place to make new friends!" I couldn't agree more! Day 3: *Mindful Morning* Relaxing in Child's Pose. Standing firm in Tree Pose. Together we are warriors of peace. *Clay Creatures* Using feathers, acorns, wood shapes, dried pasta, pinecones, googly eyes, and imagination the campers created clay animals, aliens, and food. After they were satisfied with their creations we set our clay out to dry. Each camper made such a unique

Another wonderful day at camp! Today we spent a majority of our time in the sun - walking, playing, sketching, and printing! Day 2: *Mindful Morning* This morning we closed our eyes and shut ourselves off from the outside world - learning to be truly present in the moment. We had a room full of trees - some solid in their roots and some blowing softly in the wind. *Sun Printing Tapestries* Our first step was to paint our fabric with special light sensitive paint in our makesh

Summer Camp Season Has Begun! This week we kick off our summer camps with Art-Nature-Mindfulness Camp. Each day we will begin with a group welcome in our "relaxing room" where we will learn different breathing exercises and stretch our muscles. The rest of the day will include a variety of process art projects, a mindful nature walk, and a snack! Day 1: *Elephant Breathing* This morning we introduced Elephant Breathing to our campers! Just as elephants use their trunks to sho

Family Art & Storytime at Side by Side! In case you missed us last Sunday, we a had a great time reading and creating as families! After reading Inch by Inch by Leo Lionni, our families enjoyed collecting natural materials to use in their collages. We let our inspiration from Leo Lionni's illustrations guide us! Each collage was different and each told a unique story! *Working together, we can find a variety of materials in nature!* *We like to call this our glue concentratio

Beautiful art created by the children at the Chestnut St. YMCA! Art made from loose parts. An activity that involves building and painting! #Reggio #LooseParts #nature #Painting

The recent rain and sunshine has filled my yard with yummy smelling herbs! Five years ago I planted two small catnip and lemon balm plants that now grow abundantly throughout my yard. They are fairly invasive just like their cousin mint, however for an art teacher who loves to create with nature I’m excited by their abundance and ability to grow quickly! This week I brought the children cuttings of both catnip and lemon balm to explore, cut, and create with! This is a great a