Dragon of the Red Dawn

Ella has recently discovered the Magic Treehouse series and we finished Dragon of the Red Dawn (#37) last night. The artwork was beautiful so we were inspired to do some drawings and paintings of Japanese gardens today. They were so pleased with the results that they proceeded to play an imaginary game involving the family traveling to Japan, based on Ivy's interpretation of the Imperial Gardens from the story. We followed up with trying our hand at Haiku and short poems. The girls are developing a base of knowledge about the Japanese culture this year, including popular motifs, plants, architecture and artwork.

Ella's poem

Imperial Garden - Ella

Basho's House - Ivy

Imperial Garden with Friends - Ivy

Koi

The golden koi fish
Swimming in it's rocky pool
Quietly waiting.

-Ivy

EECO Centre - Birds of Prey

In early March we spent part of a morning at the EECO Centre at Mission Creek Park in Kelowna. Their current display is "Birds of Prey". Ivy and Ella spent most of their time looking at the various stuffed owls, noting the differences between them and listening to the sounds they make. They also leafed through magazines, did some puzzles & colouring and took advantage of the "hands on" exhibits.

Pottery

Ivy and Ella have both been working with clay over the past few weeks and are loving it. Their first items came out of the kiln today and the second batch will be fired this week.

Ivy

Ella