Week 2 - Art and Music in the Air!
WATER from the Well
Week 2 · August 31, 2026 · 2026–2027 Program Year
Music filled the air as both the Oaks and Seeds Programs learned about Antonio Vivaldi! The Garden kids also lifted up their voices in song during their time in worship. Painting and drawing were also a great part of this week’s lessons.
Scroll to the end of each section to see some photos from the week.
THE GARDEN
Mrs. Doreen and Mrs. Vivi have been taking the time to observe, listen, and spend time with each child so we can get to know them better. We are so excited and expect this year to be wonderful! We continue to review the days of creation, having fun trying to remember them while Mrs. Vivi uses hand movements and props to help us along. We have some wonderful singers in our group, and they do their best during worship time, as we sing the songs: “Jesus Loves Me,” “And God Said,” and “In the Beginning.”
We also continue to learn and practice the proper way to use the materials in each of our play centers and, most importantly, learn how to share and have fun together. During playground time, the children have enjoyed using their imaginations and developing teamwork skills as they build things together using materials they can find outside.
We have some wonderful singers in our group…
At the end of our day together, we continue to enjoy a story-time favorite from The Garden: books from the “Gossie & Friends” collection by Oliver Dunrea.
SEEDS
In Science we began to learn more about how scientists classify animals in the Kingdom Animalia. We learned how important it is to have order with the millions of animals that God created. We learned that the biggest division within the animal kingdom is based on whether or not animals have a backbone; animals can be vertebrates and invertebrates. It is interesting to see that even though most of the animals we see are vertebrates, they only account for 3% of God, created animals with invertebrates making up a whopping 97% of the animals in creation. We will study vertebrates first, going through the five kinds of vertebrates: mammals, reptiles, fish, birds, and amphibians.
The day finally arrived in Studio Time for our students to open up the new watercolor paints. We learned how to setup our watercolor stations and how to take care of our brushes first. Then, the students were guided by Whitney Newby of Brighter Day Press to try different brushstrokes with two different sized paintbrushes. They were able to make thin lines holding the paintbrush vertically as well as broader strokes using the brush horizontally. They were also introduced to their first project we will begin this week: painting a jellyfish.
After having our class on Zoom on Wednesday, where we learned about Antonio Vivaldi’s composition, The Four Seasons, we returned on Friday to begin our drawing project. The students folded up their papers in four sections, took their chairs outside and began to draw the Moringa tree that is right by our classroom window. We listened to “The Four Seasons” as the wind blew and the students sketched using observation and imagination to depict the tree in each of the four seasons. At our next class, we will work on coloring and finishing up this piece of art inspired by Vivaldi’s composition.
We listened to “The Four Seasons” as the wind blew and the students sketched…
No additional readings this week.
OAKS
This week, we focused on the History of Music, which will be a significant theme this year. We read an article about Antonio Vivaldi, who grew up in the 1700s and was famous for his Baroque style of music. The violin was the star of his compositions as, in his words, it sounded like a human voice. He is most famous for his composition The Four Seasons. We listened to each of the movements and identified the ways the music evoked each season. Check out this link of the music with beautiful Italian landscapes to inspire you at home:
Our students are moving quickly through the introductory chapters of their Physics and Pre-Anatomy and Physiology books. As we concluded chapter two this week, the students reviewed together in class and implemented some of the retrieval practices taught by Mr. Landry to remember facts about the metric system, note taking, and the scientific method, to name a few. Next week we will prepare for their first test, which will be open-book and cover the first three chapters.
The students reviewed together in class and implemented some of the retrieval practices taught by our online Science teacher, Mr. Landry…
No additional readings this week.
