Tuesday, October 22, 2013

There was no blog post yesterday because I wasn't here.  I apologize.

120, bilingual first grade. I continued with my second group of students in the atelier for portrait painting.  The students in this group did a great job and were thrilled to use the paint.  I love working in small groups- not only do you have a much better opportunity to understand the students' strengths and weaknesses, you also get to know the personalities of the children. I never had the opportunity, much, in my previous experience, to work in groups like this. I really appreciate this aspect of the position.

116, bilingual second grade. I took my final group outside to study the clouds.  The students were THRILLED to see that the moon was out in the daytime.  This became a big focus of the discussion we had outside and then we had to take a vote when we came in to see who would be the lucky person to paint the moon.  The students in this group worked really well together.

The moon is still out! 

Here is the discussion we had while the students painted:

Teacher- What did we see on our walk in the community?

S1- The moon! 
S2-Clouds!
S3- Trees
S2-Houses
S1-Grass

Teacher- What living things are outside?
S1-Birds
S2-Animals
S3-Turtles
S1-There are no turtles outside in buffalo! (Laughing) But there are cats!

Teacher- What are the non-living things outside?
S4-Flowers?
S3-They are living- I want to draw some flowers on the mural! Zombies are non-living. But they're not real.
S1- I know- they are only in the movies.
S2- The big building over there with the door hanging open!
Teacher- yes! That is a big building in our community. I think it's very interesting.
S1-The church is on the other side of the school. There is a store down that way, with pizza.
Teacher- We have something new next to the school- what's that?
S1- You are new to our school! (Laughs)
S3- They built a park for us!
Teacher- That's right! They did! 

Teacher-  Finish this sentence: Our mural is...
S3- Beautiful
S1- I like my moon
S2- Pretty

Teacher- Should we fix anything?
S3- No... Yes!
Teacher- What specifically needs to be fixed? We have to be specific or we won't know how to fix it.
S3- These clouds are shapes and we shouldn't put a shape in as a cloud.
S5- Did I do it ugly?
S1- No, it looks cool, but it just looks like a rectangle and we made it more like a cloud.

108 was on a field trip so I used the free period to clean and organize the atelier.  I hung the observational drawings that didn't fit on the wall in the second grade wing and did some general room organization.  The classroom environment is as important as the teacher in the Reggio Emilia Approach.  It is important that our environment reflects the creative and high expectations we have for the students and our studio was looking a little too static. It was nice to have some time to change it up!

112 came in and we began our study of the continents to add to our globes.  The students cut out the continents- strengthening their fine motor and cutting skills- and they will draw them on the globes next class.

103 finished their exploration of primary color mixing.  Next class, I will lay out all three primary colors and let them create anything they want as partners.  I'm curious to see who mixes and who uses the colors as they are.

104 created the smaller branches and twigs for their trees. I laid out paper and pipe cleaners and they figured it out on their own.  Some branches are more decorative, some are more realistic.  They were very proud of their tree.
"This is important- that we make a tree."
"Our tree is going to make every other class say 'Wow! I wish we had that tree!'" 

A small branch

The pile of branches