The Yeshivat He’atid kindergarten students continued their amazing artist study unit, this time on Georgia O’Keefe, just in time for Shavuot. As the children learned about the different minhagim of Shavuot, one that stood out was that many people decorate their homes with flowers. Georgia O’Keefe was an American artist who is well known for her paintings of flowers. To prepare the students for this unit of study, they read books about her life and how she started drawing as a child. Since O’Keefe mostly painted flowers up close, they looked at individual flowers up close with magnifying glasses to see the hidden details on each petal and stem. The best part was when the children drafted beautiful flowers of their own. They learned about the use of bold and vibrant colors as they selected various tones to add color to their drawings. The completed art pieces complimented the special minhag to adorn our homes with flowers for Shavuot.

The children continued to their next artist study unit on Paul Cezanne. They learned about his impressionistic art style, particularly his approach to still life art. The students were learning about the mitzvah of bikkurim and how the first fruits were brought by farmers in Israel to be placed near the altar in the Beit Hamikdash. Cezanne was famous for painting still lifes of fruits, so students connected to this mitzvah through art. The children took turns in groups, sitting around a table, drawing the fruit basket from their point of view. They compared how the pictures differed based on which side of the basket each child sat on. The children also explored a new book in class, “Cezanne and the Apple Boy” by Laurence Anholt, and enjoyed many discussions regarding the characters and storyline in this book. To complete their art unit, they analyzed the colors of each fruit in the basket and the light reflections in order to bring their drawings to life with oil pastels.