Art Supplies Needed

The Urban Arts Academy will be accepting any unneeded art and building supplies you may have around the house during our Takin it to the Streets event. Useful supplies: yarn, buttons, cloth, tin cans, tools, wood, glue, paper, paints, brushes, hot glue guns, etc... If you have items around the house that you aren't using and you want to find a home where they will get used, please bring them Thursday, May 22 to our end of the year celebration. There will be a receptacle with a sign for donations. Thank you and hope to see you there!

Affordable Family Fun

If you have any fun activities that you enjoy doing with your family that are cost friendly, please feel free to post a comment and it will be put on the blog.

Here is a link to Arty Pants. The Tuesday Play Date at the Walker Art Center for 2-5 year olds. They are from 11-1 a couple Tuesdays each month. Children and activities are free with adult admission.

http://calendar.walkerart.org/event.wac?id=3541

Summer Preschool Camps

Summer Preschool Camps are filling quickly! Print-It, week 7, is now closed. We are excited about the huge response we have received for our camps. What a fun summer this will be!

A Message From Lisa

Mondays at preschool have been focused on nature, bugs, water, and frogs this session. We have been preparing for our class video of 5 Green and Speckled Frogs. We will continue this nature focus as we watch for the many changes and new growth that Spring will bring to our environment.

We are in the middle of a clay project. The children enjoyed going down to the clay room and getting dirty as they began the work on their projects a few weeks ago.

We will have show and tell this coming Monday, May 5. Your child is invited to bring an item to show the class during our circle time.

End of the Year Celebration

Please mark your calendar and plan to attend our end of the year celebration for all Urban Arts children!

Takin' It To The Streets
Thursday, May 22 from 5-7 in the Calvary Parking Lot

Come share hot dogs, performances, and art with the preschool and urban arts students.

A Message From JoAnne

Hello Preschool Families! As you may have noticed, we are making movies this spring. Each day of the week will be represented by a short film to be unveiled at our end-of-the-year family night. For my three days, we'll be producing "There Was an Old Lady Who Lived in a Shoe" (Tuesday), "Urban Arts Had a Farm" (Thursday) and "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" (Friday). We're making props, sets, costumes, puppets. . .everything we need for some top-rate productions!

There seems to be so few weeks left all of a sudden (and so much fun art still to try!). We'll fill in the rest of our weeks with more spring art (animals, plants, wind and rain). As part of our exploration of spring, I'd like to make a wind sculpture out of paper-covered dry-cleaner hangers. On a recent trip to Washington D.C., I saw an interesting sculpture made out of hangers at an art museum on the National Mall. I appreciated it for the reasons art museum patrons are supposed to, but my strongest reaction was: I could try this with preschoolers! So, if you have any paper-covered wire hangers around, or any connections at an area dry cleaner, we could use at least 15 - I've got two already. We'll paint on the paper and then connect them into a hanging sculpture that moves in a breeze.

I'm also interested in collecting large empty oatmeal cartons and plastic tubs with lids (the kind jumbo packs of pretzels and animal crackers come in). I'll use them this summer to make drums in our Shake It! Make It! camp.

When the weather improves (think warm thoughts everyone) I'd love to get us outside to make kites, sidewalk chalk and paint in the courtyard. Any day now. . . .

JoAnne

Summer Arts Camps

You can now register for our Summer Arts Camps. More information about camp offerings can be found at http://urbanartsacademy.org/summer_preschool_camps_2008_90441.html