Friday, November 1, 2013

There was no blog post yesterday because I was out.

120 bilingual first grade. I brought a small group to the studio to work on their portraits.  Three students finished in that group.  I think these will be done shortly. We want to do a project centered around masks next.  Since day one, I've noticed that this group is very interested in holding up photos as masks and superhero themes and Halloween confirmed this love for secret identities. I am doing some research on the best materials for wearable masks.

108 monolingual first grade. Our little city is coming together.  I saw the final group of students to start the project today.  Now, I'll go through another round as students add to their initial structures.  We have the arch entrance to a zoo now.

116 bilingual second grade. I brought group one down to continue their drawings of the church and school for their community mural.  We sounded out "Bilingual Center" together because they wanted the full name of the school written on the school.  We practiced making bricks with different materials, so that they could choose the best one.  They wanted to use paint, but after seeing the colored pencils, they decided it made more sense, even if it was less exciting. 

Sorry for the sideways pic- I haven't figured out how to easily rotate the images.

118 monolingual second grade. My playground group is learning to work together and they're learning the importance of scoring and slip.  The piece for the playground that we had completed fell apart in my hands today.  Fortunately, they have been learning about scoring in their other art class, too, so now they are getting a better grasp on how to use the clay. The thing I am enjoying about this group is seeing how they are learning to work as a team.  They are improving at sharing the workload and speaking to each other- they even remind each other to use manners when asking to pass supplies.  I love the collaboration. This project is going to be successful at making them better people, even if our playground keeps falling down. (But I'm sure we can fix that, too.)

103 preschool.  We had a critique/storytelling session with our murals. I think it went really well!

Mrs. Rose- Tell me what you made in this mural. Or what you see.

J- I made a lake

Mrs. Rose- What do we see in her lake?

A1- I see blue

Mrs. Rose- What other colors did we use?

J-Orange

A2-Green

T-Red

B-Purple

A3- I made my nana

Mrs. Rose- What is a part you really like?

A1- The purple.

Mrs. Rose- What do you like about it?

The student couldn’t answer.

Mrs. Rose- What could they do to make it more beautiful?

B- I would like to make pink on it.

J- I would draw more on the purple part.

I brought out the second mural, which is less abstract.

Mrs. Rose- Tell me what you see.

T-  I see my doggie

B- I see people over there

E- I see me

A1- I see what I made

A3- yellow

B- I see my mom

A2- I see a spider

 

Our finished mural

Mrs. Rose to D- What did you make?

D- A monster

Mrs. Rose- Tell me about the monster

D- It can scare your mom

A2 is making monster hand motions- This is what he does.

Mrs. Rose- What else does he do?

This is the terrifying monster.

D- He scares my dad and sisters

A3- Monsters scare my family too

T- My doggie doesn't scare them. He's going to bite the monster!

A3- He goes ruff ruff ruff

B- I made my mommy. She's going to get the monster!

Brian- I made people. Lots of people.

Mrs. Rose- You know, we have what we need here to write our own story. Would you like to try that?  Who wants to start?  Okay, J, start with “Once upon a time…”

J- Once upon a time there were people, a doggie, Brooke's mom and A1 and E and a monster came!

T- That was my doggies dream. He came from my dogs dream and he saw Mario and he needed to defeat the monster!

D- I would dress the monster in pajamas

T- Then B’s mom killed the monster

Mrs. Rose- I don’t think killing the monster is very nice.  Is there some other way she could defeat him?

B- Maybe she put him in a cage

T- And slammed the door!

A3- Then locked the door!

B- Then they went into another room to draw!

 

The monster in the cage and the people celebrating.

(I love the ending. How do we relax after battling a monster? We draw about it!)

At this point, I asked if they wanted to add anything to the mural that would tell more about our story.  Of course, they wanted to!  They made the monster in cages, wearing pajamas, and the happy people drawing at the end. 

Some comments I heard while they drew:

I made the monster sad

I made him screaming

I locked him in now

He's a bad monster

I'm making the monsters pajamas!

I locked him up in the cage!

He's got his pajamas on!

I'm going to write his name- Saurus!

102, monolingual kindergarten.  I brought a small group down to paint their portraits.  One table did a phenomenal job and the other table decided to paint circles. In a regular art room, I would have forced the portraits, but I thought what they were doing was interesting to them and they seemed to be very interested in exploring with the paint, so I let them play.  We can always finish the portraits next time.