Dear Spanish Lime Families,
February was filled with date night, new friendships, baking and lots of history and storytelling! On February 24th the Spanish Lime students celebrated Friendship Day with our fellow toddler classes. We prepared applesauce in the crockpot and joined our toddler community’s group and snack time. The students enjoyed sharing this special day with their small friends.
The hardest part about teaching world history is deciding what to leave out! Throughout the past month we have kept history simple and straightforward by highlighting major events, personalities and national stories of the world’s culture. From the first nomads, to the rich lands of the Fertile Crescent, to ancient Egypt we are immersed in it all! We discussed the rise and fall of Athens and the barbarians that took control. The three Americas (North America, South America and Central America) and the Nazca’s that made sky drawings and the Olmec’s who built ancient temples and left giant stone heads of their rulers. We’ve discussed democracies and monarchies and learned about the Roman consuls. These stories give us a small glimpse of what life was like long, long ago. For the next month we will be digging deeper into our world’s history from the Fall of Rome to the Rise of the Renaissance. Look out for weekly emails describing our unit study further.
Ms. Nancy will be joining us every Tuesday afternoon to teach folk dancing. She hopes to have a performance by April 4th. Physical Education will be moved to Mondays until Ms. Ann (Music Teacher) will return after her recovery from ear surgery. We miss her dearly! In physical education we have finished up our badminton unit and have now started T-Ball! Ms. Dee Dee Green, the Solid Waste and Recycling Coordinator came by last week and gave the students a presentation on the importance of recycling, how to recycle and up cycle materials we use on a daily basis. Sean Hickey a fellow Spanish Lime parent has graciously invited the students to view his medical transport helicopter next week on March 6th at the Key West Hospital!
A note from Ms. Ann – Spanish Lime Art Teacher
In January, the children were introduced to the works of American Pop Artist, Jim Dine. Born in
Ohio in 1935, he is also a sculptor, printmaker, illustrator, performance artist, stage designer and poet. He is most well-known, however, for his many paintings of hearts, and it is this area of his work that we studied. His style is bold and colorful and often heavily textured. He favors the use of complementary and metallic colors, and often creates shadow and light in his paintings.
All these techniques were discussed and the children chose which ones to incorporate into their own heart designs. Dine often uses objects from everyday life (such as toolboxes and bathrobes) as the subjects for his artwork, which has earned him his pop artist status. These objects often hold personal meaning for him – the toolbox representing happy memories from spending time as a child in his family’s hardware store, and the bathrobe is a projection of himself, a self-portrait. But it is his heart paintings which are the true signature of his work.
“I use it [the heart] as a template for all my emotions. It’s a landscape for everything.”
Jim Dine, 2017
The students have now moved on to discussing another famous artist, Henri Matisse and his later work with paper cut outs! Thank you Ms. Ann for making our Spanish Lime class a more creative and beautiful place to be!
Many Thanks,
Ms. Sally
