Tuesday, October 15, 2013

118, monolingual second grade- I took half of the class to work on their portraits. They are a really fun group and the portraits look pretty good. They will be finished after one more class.  (See the last photo for both the portraits and the kindergarten tree trunk.)

112, self-contained class- I took half of the class to paint their globes. I gave them paint and three tools- a roller, a flat brush and a small round brush. It was interesting to see them figure out which brush was best for which purpose. They told me that the roller is the quickest way to cover the balloon and the brushes work for the small parts. I asked for comparisons about painting the paper mâché globe versus the self-portrait and they said this was easier, though messier.

108, monolingual first grade- I took a small group to work on playground drawings.  This group made me really proud because they are already critiquing each other in a natural and kind manner.
Some dialogue:
"They made it too fat and I made it too skinny!"
"That's okay. I made mine too big!"
"I'm just going to cross it out.  You can always do another draft."

We discussed how many colors appear to exist on the dark green slide- white, light green, dark green, black- but how the colors are really just the product of the sunlight and shadows. They are learning to "see" like an artist.  I expect this group, especially, will make great strides this year.

120, bilingual first grade. I worked with small groups.  The students drew portraits of community helpers- doctors, construction workers, teachers, police officers, etc.

102, monolingual kindergarten- We continue our exploration of materials with a class jam-packed with painting concepts.  The students received three primary colors and roller brushes.  They guessed which colors would form when the primary colors were mixed.  Most guessed correctly, which is great because it means they already knew the information. After they played with the color mixing, I gave them black and white and asked them to paint geometric shapes on top, so we were able to review geometric shapes and see how tints and shades are created.  The paintings are fabulous.  I love them. :)

104, bilingual kindergarten- The students are working on an inquiry about trees and nature.  We are creating a huge tree to hang in their classroom. Today, we painted the trunk.  The students were given a choice of roller brushes, sponge brushes and paintbrushes, a huge piece of brown paper and black and brown paint.  We looked at the lines on a piece of bark we'd brought in from a dead tree outside and the students tried to mimic the lines on the bark.