(bright bouncy music) - Hello, early learners, and welcome back to the Art Room.

This week, I have chosen a series of five different books, but with the same title, "Over in the Meadow."

Each author of those books choose sometimes the same animals but sometimes different animals.

And they're taking it from a poem that was written by a woman in the Ozarks named Katharine Floyd Dana.

Now it was in 1882 that she wrote the poem, but in those days, women weren't allowed to be writers.

They didn't get their books published.

No one knew about their writing, unless they just told it, so she chose a different name.

She chose the name, Olive A. Wadsworth to use as her name, as her writing name.

And she made it kind of tricky because her special letter O, her special letter on her initial of her middle name was A, and her last name special letter started with W, which stands for only a woman, and she kind of tricked them because they still thought it was a man who was writing those poems.

And then another woman put it to music and notated it and people started singing that same tune, and I'm using that tune today because the book that I chose for today will get started with after we sing our song about when cows get up in the morning and here are cows.

And you can see cows sometimes in a meadow.

They will eat the grass and live a happy life just roaming around there.

So let's sing when cows get up in the morning.

♪ When cows get up in the morning ♪ ♪ They always say, good day ♪ ♪ When cows get up in the morning ♪ ♪ They always say, good day ♪ ♪ Mo, mo, mo ♪ ♪ This is what they say ♪ ♪ Mo, mo, mo ♪ ♪ This is what they say ♪ All right back to "Over in the Meadow."

I also chose "Over in the Meadow" because spring or the vernal equinox begins on March 20, and that's the time when spring has sprung, and all of the things in the meadow, you'll see, it's everything's coming back to life, the flowers are coming back and I thought, and it also included flowers and bees and insects, which is a study that the pre-K and TK are starting very soon, and some have started just back in March 7th.

So when we learn about these books and we look at the art, I choose one creature to draw or create, and today I'm doing the bee.

Because I thought, let's do a science looking bee and then tomorrow do a cartoon-like bee with cutting and pasting.

But let me tell you about the artist today.

She's a current artist.

She's a young woman.

We can look at her picture right here.

Her name is Marissa Napoletano.

And the thing about her, she grew up with a grandma who was an artist, and the grandma had art studio in Cape Cod.

She had a gallery and she painted beautiful watercolors.

So Marisa saw artists at work and she started painting and doing art.

And in high school, she explored the idea of turning her passion for art into a career.

So she went to the University of Hartford and she graduated with a bachelor of fine arts, then she went to Italy and she studied art there.

And the art that she learned there continues to influence what she does.

Now she began illustrating children's books and magazines.

And in 2015, John M. Feierabend has a program at his college where he chooses students work to illustrate a children's song, an old folk song.

And in 2015, she was chosen.

Her art was chosen as a senior to be selected to illustrate this book, and this is the book that she illustrated and what we're using today.

So let's take a look at the book we're using today.

And I'll tell you a little bit more about Marissa.

She has spanned everything from published illustrations, she's done large scale murals, she's done logos, all kinds of things.

And now we're going to look at this book.

It's also called "Over in the Meadow."

And there are realistic cattails around this old mother turtle, and we know that we're going to see the mother turtle's one.

And when we get to the bee, I want you to look at, it has three body parts, head, thorax, abdomen and the six legs, which makes it an insect.

So look inside this book written by Marissa, well, illustrated by Marissa Napoletano.

Now the art is so scientific.

I wonder how long it took her to do each drawing, and then she's doing 10 animals.

So here's the song.

♪ Over in the meadow in the sand in the sun ♪ ♪ Lived an old mother turtle and her little turtle one ♪ ♪ Dig, said the mother ♪ ♪ I dig, said the one ♪ ♪ So he dug and was glad in the sand in the sun ♪ Now, the melody I'm using today is the original melody that was written back in the 1800s.

I also wanted to show you.

I noticed this when I first bought this book.

Look how it has the turtle footprint.

So that's also kind of scientific.

If you're going along and you're reading the trails and seeing what animal passed here, that will show you what a turtle's footprint looks like.

And this one is the fox's and here are the two fox footprints.

This book is just beautiful.

Here's the mother in the background and here are the two fox kits.

♪ Over in the meadow where the tall grasses grew ♪ ♪ Lived an old mother fox and her little foxes two ♪ ♪ Run, said the mother ♪ ♪ We run, said the two ♪ ♪ So they ran and were glad where the tall grasses grew ♪ ♪ Two grew, they both say, oh ♪ Look, these are the two wings of this robin.

You can tell 'cause a robin often has a red breast and here are 1, 2, 3.

♪ Over in the meadow in a nest in the tree ♪ ♪ Lived an old mother robin and her little birdies three ♪ ♪ Sing, said the mother ♪ ♪ We sing, said the three ♪ ♪ So they sang and were glad in that nest in the tree ♪ Here are the chipmunks footprints.

They have four toes, two that go straight up and two that go out diagonally.

♪ Over in the meadow in a tall sycamore ♪ ♪ Lived an old mother chipmunk and her little chipmunks four ♪ ♪ Play, said the mother ♪ ♪ We play, said the four ♪ ♪ So they played and were glad in that tall sycamore ♪ You can see the tree has fallen and they're living in what used to be the hollowed out part of the tree.

I wonder if it was hit by lightning and caused that hollow.

Now I don't think we could tell what the footprints of a bee would be because they are so light.

I don't think they'd make an impression.

So they're just showing their wings out to the side, the two sets of wings.

And you can see 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.

♪ Over in the meadow in a new little hive ♪ ♪ Lived an old mother bee and her honey bees five ♪ ♪ Bzz, said the mother ♪ ♪ We bzz, said the five ♪ ♪ So they bzzed and were glad in their new little hive ♪ And when we draw this, we will do the head, thorax, abdomen, and the six legs come out of the thorax, and the antenna come out of the head, and the eyes are on the side of the oval shaped head.

♪ Over in the meadow in a dam built of sticks ♪ ♪ Lived an old mother beaver and her little beaver six ♪ ♪ Build, said the mother ♪ ♪ We build, said the six ♪ ♪ So they built and were glad in the dam built of sticks ♪ And this shows that their feet are webbed somewhat because they are swimmers and it helps them have like fins on to swim, and you can see they've built the sticks over and under.

Look at the footprint of the frogs.

Four toes.

And they're all kind of sticky on the bottom so they can jump and hang on.

♪ Over in the meadow in the green wet bogs ♪ ♪ Lived an old mother froggy and her seven polliwogs ♪ Now we know this does not follow metamorphosis like any other animal we see.

When the babies are hatched, they hatch out as a tadpole or polliwog out of the eggs and then they grow their back legs and their front legs, and then finally the tail shrinks as they are growing and growing and they turn into a frog.

♪ Swim, said the mother ♪ ♪ We swim, said the wogs ♪ ♪ So they swam and were glad in the green wet bogs ♪ And the bogs is part of a pond that's kind of marshy and has these lily pads for them to rest on because they can't stay in the water their entire life.

They have to be out of the water some of the time.

And this shows the feet of the owl.

And their talons are so sharp.

Three toes in front, one toe in back.

Look at the wings expand.

The edges of the owl's feathers are so fine and thin that as they fly, you can barely hear them because that's how they can hunt, because their wings don't make a lot of noise like a hummingbird.

You can hear their wings batting so fast that it makes a sound.

♪ Over in the meadow as the day grew late ♪ ♪ Lived an old mother owl and her little owls eight ♪ And let's see the eight owls if you can find them.

If you can check this book out from the library.

This one I own so I won't be turning it back in, but if you can find this version, you can look up close and see there's one flying here, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and the eighth one, I don't know.

♪ Wink, said the mother ♪ ♪ We wink, said the eight ♪ ♪ So they winked and were glad as the day grew late ♪ Because we know that owls hunt at night.

So the day grows late and they wake up.

Ooh, look at this spider.

It doesn't show the legs, 'cause just like the bee, their footprints would not be easy to see.

♪ Over in the meadow in a web on the pine ♪ ♪ Lived an old mother spider and her little spiders nine ♪ I wonder what she'll ask them to do.

♪ Spin, said the mother ♪ ♪ We spin, said the nine ♪ ♪ So they spun and were glad in their web on the pine ♪ I love watching spiders make their web.

Comes out of the back part of their body and that they pull it up with their legs and it comes out of their spinnerets.

Now this is interesting because the rabbit, which we painted on Monday has feet kind of like a few animals, but you can tell it's rabbit because it has a heavier place.

They push down with the back of their heels and you don't see the front as well in the mud.

♪ Over in the meadow in a warm little den ♪ ♪ Lived an old mother rabbit and her little bunnies 10 ♪ ♪ Hop, said the mother ♪ ♪ We hop, said the 10 ♪ ♪ So they hopped and were glad in their warm little den ♪ And look, it looks like they're in a bird's nest, but what they do is they collect it and they just keeps twirling their bodies in a circle to make it all make a space for all those babies to have a warm place.

And that is the end.

At the end, it shows the song.

It talks about other things about "Over in the Meadow," and it tells the verses.

So this is one of my favorites.

Boys and girls, let's do our project and I'll get this open to the page where the bee is.

And I was going to draw with my black skinny pen and color in with my colored pencils.

So let me get my table.

Put that up here.

Oh, look at that painting from yesterday.

Maybe I should turn it over.

Oh, it'll be fine like this.

Maybe you'll be able to see my paper a little better even.

I brought some bubble wrap in case I wanted to make the hive and do that in the background, but we'll see.

I just save it if it ever wraps up any packages, I have this ready to just put in ink and print it.

So let's put this aside.

I'll get my paper.

I'm using that cream colored paper, or kind of like what she used in her book.

I wanted to be inspired not only by her art, but by her choice of colors.

And there is the bee.

And I wanted to make sure we saw the three body parts.

All right, you can use a pencil.

I am going to use a black pen so you can see it.

Now the head of a bee is really an oval shape.

Now remember, boys and girls, if we want to put antenna, would I put the head way at the top of my paper?

No, 'cause then there's no room for the antenna.

So I need to go down some, and I wanna make room for the thorax and room for the abdomen.

So I'm gonna bring mine down about this much.

So I'm going to go down some and do my oval like that.

Remember, you don't want to make yours too big nor too small.

Now on the side is where their big eyes are.

So I'm making it touch the side of my paper, I mean, of my oval and do the other one too.

Now I don't like to use my skinny pen to color in because it just uses so much ink.

Now, if you're using a permanent pen, make sure you have something underneath it, and not your book and not straight on your furniture because the permanent pen even with this thick paper that I'm using, it goes through and it stains and it's very, very difficult to get out and that won't make your family happy.

There we go.

Let me show you how I've done that.

Now I've got my head with the two big eyes.

Now in order for it to look like a fuzzy bee, I'm going to use my skinny pen and just put up those little furry fibers around all the way around, and I'm just making little hatch marks and I'm then going up and going up.

I start on the bottom when I'm trying to put fur or little fibers like this, because then they overlap and it doesn't look like you've gotten them out of order.

There, now I have all that little fuzzy part of the bee.

I'm going to put up the antenna, and part of it it looks as if it's coming out of the middle of the head and it goes kind of up and then out a little bit, and I'm going to go up and it stops and out a little bit.

Up and out a little bit, up and out a little bit.

Are you caught up with me?

Do you see what I've done so far?

The head and the antenna.

Now comes the thorax.

Now the thorax, I have to look at it, boys and girls.

Is kind of wider at the top and it goes down to a... What does this look like to you?

Do you see?

It might not be so pointy at the bottom, but that's where it meets up with the abdomen.

And it also has fuzzy parts.

Now the part that really makes this bee happy about having these little fibers of their furry parts is because it picks up any of the pollen on the flowers that it goes to visit.

And that pollen is necessary for the bee to live and to make food, and it's very important to our plants because they take the pollen from one flower to another, and that's what makes the fruits and vegetables grow.

So even though bees will sting you if they feel threatened, if they think that you're going to squish them, they will set up their stinger.

They don't just come after you because most bees won't come after you just because you're there.

They think if you're going to attack their home, or their babies, they will get you.

So we don't want to kill bees, bees are super, super important to our food.

Now I'm gonna make its abdomen and it's kind of pointy.

I'm going out a curve line and down.

It's not perfect, don't worry, 'cause mine isn't perfect either.

The bottom is blacker, and I'm gonna do the places where I want it to be super black like this with my skinny pen, because I told you, I don't like to use my skinny pen to color in, but I'm going to show you where I want my stripes on my bee's body.

And they get smaller and skinnier as they get up toward the thorax and I'll show you what I'm going to do with it.

There you go.

You can see now.

There's the abdomen.

Now out of the thorax is where the legs are and the wings are also there too.

So I need to look at it in order to do my wings.

Now to do your wings, you can kind of go up toward the edge of your paper and come back down to the thorax.

Here's my one wing.

I'm going to try and make my other one almost that same size and shape.

So I go up, I curve down and go in.

And do you see, I make them right across from each other.

And now I'm going to make the bottom wing.

And it kind of is up into that other one and just goes back in where that is.

I'm gonna do it on this side too.

Whatever happens on one side, happens on the other.

And the wings of flies and bees and other insects have little veins through it to keep the wings alive, and that's why we don't disturb their wings.

If you're trying to capture them to look at them and keep them for a little while to look at them in a jar with air holes, or if you have a bug keeper, you have to be careful not to damage their legs or their wings as you're putting them into the jar.

Because that, I would not wanna be a bug being trapped by human.

I'm going to be doing insects, an insect art week soon, and I am going to show you this book called "Hey Ant," and it tells the story of an ant and he grows big enough to trap a boy.

It's a make-believe story, but it kind of tells us we have to be careful about trapping things because we don't want to be trapped either.

Do you notice I put all the veins on there?

Oh, some of my wings are not the same size as the one next to it, but I'm not going to worry about it.

Now I'm going to do the legs.

And the legs, let me tell you, I'm going to start here and I'm going to first put the first section, which is kind of smallish.

I'm gonna color it in with my big black pen so you can see.

And 'cause they're joint, it's like they have their upper leg, and then they have another part that's connected with a... We only have two parts.

Well, I guess we do, 'cause we have an ankle and a knee that helps it bend, and this one's going to go down a little bit.

And then they have the, like a little clawy part that can grab onto things and stick onto things.

So I need three on this side and three on the other side.

And they have the same thing, the three parts of the leg.

Well, actually four, if you call that end, it's kind of like they have fingers or something that makes it kind of sticky.

And the one up here out of the thorax comes out between the head and the wings.

And this part has even longer one.

So it has that first part, like its shoulder down to its elbow.

The elbow to the arm.

And then its clawy part.

So 1, 2, 3.

I need two more here.

We only have a couple more minutes, boys and girls, and I wanna make sure that I do some of the coloring in so you can see so you can then finish it later, but I also wanna tell you about tomorrow.

Tomorrow when we do our art, we're going to be using black paper, yellow paper, white paper, scissors, glue, or glue stick.

I'm bringing a glue stick.

That way, when we make a make-believe bee, kind of cartoony bee, we'll cut and paste it kind of like how Matisse does.

I'm doing this a little quickly so that I can get that part finished.

I'm pretty happy with how it looks so far.

Does yours look pretty good too?

I'm gonna color this in a little darker down by where the stinger is.

It's still kind of furry so I'm doing this.

You can use color crayons or your colored pencils, or I recently got a new material that I had never seen before.

I don't know why I hadn't seen.

They're crayons that are watercolor.

I'm gonna see if it'll show up here as yellow.

Not really.

Oh, it does kind of.

And I can use this one and I can use the golden one.

Oh, I like it pretty much.

So you can just color this in.

And for me, I'm gonna add some water to it and see if I can mix these colors together.

Doesn't this look like a science book bee and rather than, oh, a make-believe bee?

I thought it would be fun to kind of do that.

And there's some little golden parts in here too, and they add a little black as well.

So I hope you enjoy doing things that are looking like scientists, 'cause we don't usually do that when we're learning about famous artists.

Boys and girls, I enjoyed spending the day with you today doing our art and doing bees.

I hope you did too.

I'm gonna use my paintbrush and mix those crayons.

Oh, it really does work, boys and girls.

All right, tomorrow we will talk about David A. Carter and cut and paste kind of like Matisse does.

Have a good rest of your day, boys and girls, and enjoy yourself in your classroom.

Be sure to send me your art if you can.

I'd love to see what you're doing.

And if you send it to me, and I could either show it online or show it here in the studio.

I'm really happy with my science bee.

I'll hold it up together with the one that we do tomorrow that is just cut and paste.

Until then, have a great day.

See you tomorrow.

(bright bouncy music)