Last Day Of Camp Part 2 -- ETHAN

The second thing we did today was to go to the Children's Growing Garden. They handed out paper bags and then we picked the leaves from herbs they told us to pick. They told us to pick ROSEMARY, SAGE,  and BASIL.  Izzy and I both collected more Basil than any other leaf. I do  not like the smell of any of those plants.

Chalk Art 6-30-17

This is my second print.

This is Izzy's only print.

 

This is my first print.

Today for our second art  we did chalk art. The steps are: 1)  get special pastel paper; 2) do the design you want on the paper but DRAW WITH CHALK. The print you see on the left is my second print. Below is my first print .


My favorite part of camp 6-30-17
 My favorite part of camp was  the chalk art because you get to do anything and you get messy.

Last Day of Camp Part 1--Izzy

                            Last Day of Camp, Part 1 By Izzy

6-30-2017

Today was our last day of camp and we did print making! The first step was to draw your design on a piece of foam. Then, you used a roller to roll out some printing ink on a separate sheet of paper. Next, you roll the ink onto the foam until you have covered the whole piece but can still see your design. Finally, you place the paper on top of your foam and rub the entire piece to transfer some of the ink. Then you can peel the piece of paper off and you have your print! If you are going to write words, then you need to write the word and letters backwards (like mirror writing) to be able to read it when you are finished. The foam will not be as cool because the word(s) are backwards like one of mine below.

This one is mine.

This is an example of when you write words.

Ethan calls this one Mr. Piggy's selfie.

This Ethan's animal farm.

My Favorite Part of Camp

My favorite part of camp was all of the art, but my favorite art projects were the print making and the chalk drawings that Ethan's going to talk about in part 2. I liked the print making because it was really fun and I liked creating the designs. I also liked the chalk drawings because I like to blend lots of different colors together.

 

Camp Day Four Part 2--Izzy

                                Day 4 of Camp Part 2-6/29/2017

After we did our art, we went to the Children's Garden. I played on top of the hollowed out logs with some other girls from our camp. I also went into the small stream and waded around in it. Some people ran on the hills and played tag. That was our last activity of the day. Another activity we did was mirror writing. You write the words and letters backwards. Leonardo Da Vinci had a pratice of doing mirror writing.

As Ethan explained in part 1, the main activity was watercolors and here are mine:

This painting is a meadow with a lake beyond it and the sunset.

I really love cats so I decided to paint one.

When we went to the Morton Arboretum, we had a map of the arboretum that showed you how to make an origami tree. I made many, some out of newspaper and some out of origami paper. The size of the paper changed the size of the tree. The newspaper was bigger, so those trees were bigger. The trees made out of newspaper represent the city and the trees made out of origami paper show the forest. This is the final product:

Another thing we did today was calligraphy with Jiji during our Japanese lesson. We did some of the alphabet and it was very fun. Jiji showed us that the brush tip should be pointed. He said that you learn how to do calligraphy in first grade at a Japanese school.

This is when we were folding to paper to show us where to write.

Camp Day Four Part One --By ETHAN 6-29-17

Today at camp we did food coloring paintings for art. This piece came very light but I did it for the texture and this one is very smooth.The colors I used  were gray, purple, turquoise,  and green. I made it to look this way by painting a layer of gray then a layer of purple[it actually looked brown]; then I put a big dot of turquoise and a smaller dot of green on that.

This is my second piece of art and the purpose of it was to make it rough. I used green and used the clumpy part of it. The clumps made it rough when it dried.The colors were gray and green [the two gs]. I put the  gray on first and then the green. I don't know what happened but you can't see the gray.

The second thing at we did at camp was to plant Dahlias in decomposable containers. We transferred them into a bigger container when we went home to Momo's house. Again I don't know what color my Dahlia's flowers will be.
Below is a picture of Dahlias in bloom.

Camp Day 3 Part 2--By Ethan

Today at camp we went to THE COVE. The cove is sort of like a swamp or a small wetland in the Botanic Garden. It holds a bunch of wildlife.The animal we saw the most was the water snail and they were probably VERY scared! They weren't even coming out of their shells! We also saw tiny fish that keep the frogs from living there because they eat their EGGS. We had to draw a picture from the cove and I chose to sketch a picture similar to the photo above. But I don't have it now because it's in my sketchpad in the classroom.

 Izzy wrote about how to make a leaf mobile and this is my very own leaf mobile. I thought tbis was fun and I think I can another one on my own.
      THE RAIN 6-28-17

 Today we had rain  and it will rain tonight and tomorrow. We had to wear Momo's and Jiji's  rain jackets. I like the rain because we don't get to experience it San Diego.

Camp Day 3 Part 1--Izzy

                                                             Camp Day 3, Part 1

6-28-2017

Today, the first activity was making the leaf mobiles. The first step is to use the leaves to make leaf rubbings by putting the leaf underneath a piece of paper and rubbing a crayon over it. This will give you a print of the leaf. We used the leaves that we collected in the woods yesterday. We made many leaf rubbings.  Then, we cut out all of our different leaves and glued them on a piece of poster board. The next step was to cut them out again and hole-punch them. Next, we used a small branch for the base and pipe cleaners to attach the leaves to the branch. One thing I did was attach a lot of small leaves by punching a hole on both ends of the leaves and using a pipe cleaner to attach them together. It made a leaf look like it was falling. This project was very fun.

This is my leaf mobile. I used many different shapes of leaves.

                                   

                                                                      Hamilton

We have been listening to Hamilton in the car to and from camp. I really like reading the words of the songs from the CD booklet along with the music. Now I really want to see the play. Currently, we are on Act 2 and are close to being finished. The story makes sense and I am understanding the time period. Overall I really like all of the music and it is very fun to listen to!

We are reading the lyrics for Hamilton. We like to listen to it in the car and in the living room.

Camp:Day 2 Part 2--By Izzy

                                                           Camp GBG Day 2, Part 2

This is my finished stained glass project.

We planted our Zinnias in bigger pots today.

                                                 

                                          

Our second day at camp was AWESOME! After we collected our leaves, we were visited by a musician that works at Ravinia. He was a drummer and showed us the many   instruments that he used.  The musician's name was Rich Stitzel. He also took out a 20 dollar bill from his wallet and said that if anybody could spell Caixix (pronounced Ka-Shi-Shi). He gave us 4 tries, but nobody guessed it. The Caixix is a Brazilian instrument. He also let us use the different instruments and gave certain instruments a beat to follow. Ethan and I used shakers. It was a very cool experience and I am now aware of more instruments!

Back and Forth and Camp Day 2--By Ethan

As promised yesterday, here is my stained glass art project from the Botanic Garden. We taped it to the big window in the Japanese room next to the REAL glass art! They look nice and I look forward to seeing them in the sun.

Now I am back to finishing up my Zinnia project.

    

Here is my finished product.

 

I am hoping for flowers on my Zinnia before I leave and my plant  already has 2 big buds and 1 small bud. I wonder what color my flowers will be. I hope they will be red flowers.

DAY TWO OF CAMP   6-27-17 Part 1
Today the first thing thing we did was to take the tram to the McDonald's Woods.We were there to collect leaves for our next art project. I felt nervous because the staff warned us about poison ivy and oak in the woods. We saw some but we didn't go close to it. I tried to collect different types of leaves that were still green. Stay tuned tomorrow to see how this project looks.

 

First Day At Camp Part 2 -- by ETHAN

Before we went to class,we explored the children's garden.This part was the Willow Circle Garden. I liked it because it was private and quiet and would be a nice place to read. One of our activities  was the BUTTERFLY EXHIBIT.The exciting thing for me was that one actually  landed on my hand!

The IDENTIFICATION card I had said that this was a COMMON MORPHRO found in Central and South America It stayed on my hand for about 5 seconds. This was exciting because it was the first time one has ever landed on me!

The last part of our class was a stained glass art project. This was not real glass but it was substituted with wax paper and colored tissue paper. We put liquid starch on the wax paper and layered tissue paper on it. I don't have a picture yet to show you because it's still drying in the classroom.You'll have to wait until tomorrow to get to see  it.

First day at Camp CBG Part 1 -- by Izzy

In front of the Learning Center at the Chicago Botanic Garden. (CBG)

Today was our first day at Camp CBG. The camp we are doing is Alfresco Art. The first activity was planting Zinnias. We planted them in a decomposable pot that you can plant in the ground. Tomorrow we are going to plant our Zinnias in a bigger container. The second activity was visiting the Butterflies and Blooms exhibit. I was hoping a butterfly would land on me, but no such luck. 😞

                                      Before camp began, we explored the children's garden.

                                      This garden has hills to roll down and this cool little

                                       stream that surrounds the border. Kids can wade in it

                                       or play with little boats and watch them move with the 

                                       flow of the water.

Gavin's Birthday Party-- by Izzy

                                Happy Birthday Gavin!!

6-25-2017

                                           This was Gavin's cake. It showed the many places
                                                       that he was going this summer.

Today we went to Gavin's Birthday at the Ecology Center. There was a bubble show and I was able to be in a bubble and bounce one too. The bubble guy made bubble sculptures and even was able to fill some bubbles with smoke! He had many different tools that he used that could make many different sizes of bubbles. He told us that to be able to hold or put your finger through a bubble, you have to have your hand or finger wet. He also told us that a bobble wand is a long arm with an opening on the end. That means that you can also use your actual arm.

                                           Here I am standing inside one of the huge bubbles.

                                          This video shows how I could bounce a bubble on
                                          my hand with a glove. This was one of the bubbles
                                          that was filled with smoke. It dissolved into smoke
                                          with no sound.

The Evanston Artiisan Fair -- by Ethan

Today we went to the Evanston Artisan Fair. We saw a lot of cool things including pottery, paintings, clothes, outdoor  wooden furniture, and recycled art like these wind chimes made out of silverware.We bought two bottle openers made out of bicycle parts. They are cool!

 Another recycled art piece was made from cardboard box parts.There were picture paintings of cats dressed up as characters and people in the real world.  I bought a cat dressed up as a Cubs player, and Izzy bought a cat dressed up as Sailor Moon. I hope I can make my own cat dressed up as a DINOSAUR. Izzy already made one of Sailor Mars.

This was probably the best recycled art piece that I saw.  It was made out of license plates. I liked this one because it made me think of my DAD.
Dad, this one's for you!

Lovelace Park, a favorite place -- by Izzy

                                          Mom and I are on top of a big hill that we sled
                                            down during the winter. Now Mom and I are
                                            enjoying the grass on a warm sunny day.

Going to Lovelace is one of the best parts of the day--we can feed the geese, play on the play structure, and kick the ball. The geese are very friendly and brave--they even eat bread out of our hands! They are always happy to see us, but mostly if we have food! We always go to Lovelace when we visit Chicago and it is only 5 minutes away from Momo and Jiji's house. We also visit during Christmas and like to sled down the hill in the snow.

                                   Ethan and I are on one of the big hills.
                                           Ethan likes to kick the soccer ball really high and I
                                           sometimes roll down the hill.

Dinosaurs and Dickens! -- by Ethan

We went to the Brookfield Zoo on Thursday the 22nd. It is the biggest zoo in Illinois. We went there for 2 main reasons: 1) To see the mechanical dinosaurs exhibit; 2) To see Dickens the Alligator snapping turtle. I thought the dinosaurs were very lifelike. Dickens was cool even though he was sleeping!

   

This is what I mean by lifelike!

                                         There were corny Dad jokes all around the exhibit.
 

Our first week in Chicago -- by Ethan

We have been in Chicago for 3 days now! The first place we went is ... The MORTON ARBORETUM! We saw origami sculptures in the garden. They were made out of metal.There was a lot of cranes but my favorite ones were BISON and  THE PONIES!We had a very fun time and we want to go back there.
                                                                                                                     -ETHAN

Preparing for Japan -- by Izzy

Being in Chicago means that we are going to be learning some Japanese! Since we will be traveling to Japan later in the Summer, we need to practice our Japanese writing and speaking. We will be going to Japan with the Vegas for 2 weeks. Jiji does a Japanese lesson with us every day where we learn the alphabet, animal names, and some phrases that we will be able to use during our trip. We are learning how to write some Hiragana, which is one of the Japanese alphabets.
                                                                                                                    -Izzy