Friday, January 17, 2013

This week has been exciting and exhausting! The studio is reorganized and the students are noticing the difference the minute they walk in.  Everything is very open now and purposeful.

116- I brought Group Three in to work on their observational drawings. This group needs the most intense help with this.  Three of the six students have shown great improvement and I'm so proud of the them.  The other three still struggle, but I think they are starting to understand it more each time we practice.

118- My group from the previous day came in and worked on the story their block exploration inspired.  I used their own words, re-reading and reminding them as they told their story, so that there weren't any inconsistencies or loopholes.  They drew while they worked. I'm so impressed with both the story and their drawings. The level of creativity brought out of them simply from exploring the block area of the room and then allowing them time to work together to compose the story is so telling of their ability and potential.

I'm going to post their story and some drawings that accompany it, but my goal is to take this story and create a book for them using their artwork.

The Navy Seals Versus The Evil Doctor

By Evan, Justin, Raymond, and A

A navy seal named Frank One Eye was practicing how to fight criminals when a lady spy named Jessica captured him.  He was taken to a ship owned by a bad man named The Evil Doctor.  Jessica began to ask him lots of questions and used a taser on him.

Meanwhile, there were four navy seals who were friends with Frank. A quiet-but-deadly guy named Sniper 26, a computer genius named Cold Blooded Viper, a strong fighter named Dead-Eye Jack and a ninja named Frost who is really quiet like a bat and can jump like a monkey. The four navy seals decided to find Jessica and save Frank.  They invited their friend Emily to go with them because Emily has a phone to check for bad people and search for Frank. Jessica was pretending to be Emily's friend.

The navy seals found the ship and they saw that that there were lions on it. The seals put their gear on and Cold Blooded Viper and Frost put suits on the tigers they brought to fight on their side. They jumped in the water with the tigers and swam to the ship. 

Tigers, navy seals and sharks...

Emily, Sniper 26 and Dead-Eye Jack stayed on their own ship to fire cannonballs at the bad guy's ship. A shark came along and bit a big hole in their ship. Dead-Eye Jack had to go down there and fight the shark. He killed it and plugged the hole. He was so strong that he fixed it and then the boat started moving again.

Sniper 26 decided to hop on one of the sharks surrounding their ship because it’s a quicker way to get to the bad guy’s ship. Dead-Eye Jack and Emily decided to follow Sniper 26 and also rode on sharks.  On the way to the bad guy’s ship, Cold Blooded Viper found a killer whale and then started riding on it.

 

This story has a lot of action

The navy seals and the tigers all climbed the side of the bad guy’s ship. Then, they tried to find Frank.  They headed to the jail under the ship. They saw some of the bad guys and they fought them. The tigers attacked the bad guys so the navy seals could rescue Frank.

There were more bad guys and the navy seals had to fight them with their swords.  Then they had to find the key to save Frank. Emily used her phone to track the key and they found it. When they got to the jail, they saw that Frank wasn’t there. Emily’s phone showed them that Frank was on a submarine under the bad guy’s ship!

 

Oh no! Frank is under the ship!

Sniper 26 decided to call his sharks and Frost called in his vultures. The vultures flew the navy seals off of the bad guy’s ship and the sharks helped them get into the submarine. The navy seals had their diving suits on and they jumped from the vultures to the sharks. Dead Eye Jack used a hook to open the submarine door and Cold Blood Viper’s Killer Whale made the hole bigger so the submarine would sink.

 

I love that there's a caption with this drawing, so I don't even have to caption it.

When the submarine sunk, the navy seals had to swim in to rescue Frank, who happened to have his diving suit on and his mask in his backpack.  The navy seals went inside the submarine and two of their sharks broke the jail.  Sniper 26 and Cold Blooded Viper got Frank out, while Frost and Dead-Eye Jack went to fight the bad guys.

When the water hit Jessica, they found out she was a robot, because the water made her start getting electric all over. She started shooting her hook guns at the navy seals’ whale and sharks but then she blew up, along with her submarine, just as Sniper 26, Cold Blooded Viper and Frank One Eye swam out of the submarine.

Emily brought the navy seals ship back by pushing a button on her phone. She found The Evil Doctor, Jessica’s boss, and his house is a castle, filled with weapons and booby traps. All of the navy seals except for Sniper 26, and Emily head to his castle on their ship. Sniper 26 stayed with the ship.

When they get to The Evil Doctor’s castle, the navy seals sneak into his castle. They took out their weapons and prepared to fight the bad guys.  The Evil Doctor heard them coming and he used a zipline out of his window to get to his ship.  The navy seals followed him on the same zipline and they started to get the bad guys.

 

The Evil Doctor's Castle and Zipline Escape Route

The Evil Doctor called up one more submarine and went into it.  The navy seals and Emily hopped back on their own ship and followed him. Emily tried to make the weapons stop with her phone. They followed him faster and faster and they tried to sink his submarine with their ship by bumping it. His submarine stopped and they went on it and they fought the rest of the bad guys.  They cornered him and captured him so that he could be put in jail.

 

The Evil Doctor is in jail.

Once The Evil Doctor was in jail, the navy seals, with Frank and Emily, celebrated with a party.

THE END.

108- The class seems to have lower attendance today, so instead of pulling a group, I push in to document.

I sit with a group using colored transparent markers, magnifying glasses, and tweezers. The interesting thing is that the markers are divided by a piece if styrofoam and the styrofoam itself has become an item to investigate. They crumble tiny bits of it and use the tweezers to carry the pieces, one by one, from the storage container to a jar.

Jaylin- we're doctors. These are boogers!

I wonder how the light table would enhance this play (I imagine X-rays and the transparent colored viewers, similar to magnifying glasses but lacking magnification, would be incorporated into the pretend doctor play) so I turn the light table on and lay out a few items I think might enhance their play- the transparent colored viewers, rubberbands, small colored rectangles and a peg board.

Teacher- you may go to the light table if you would like to study your items there or use the items there to help you with what you're doing here.

They all say, "No, thanks" and continue with their previous play.

Within five minutes, A, went to the table and grabbed one of the transparent viewers. He takes it back to the table and uses it paired with the microscope. He shows me and the other students. Soon Sadi and Jaylin move over to the light table with their doctor items.

Sadi- I'm looking to see how many boogers are in the jar.

A uses the tweezers to lay out the rectangles. 

A- it's food for the people in the hospital

A doctor, hard at work

Of note, one of the students in the kitchen area made a discovery today! The heater near the kitchen has a grate on top which creates the perfect grill! He places the pretend meat on it and begins to grill!

Grilling on the heater!

The talk of doctors, the discovery of the kitchen, the creation of a theater yesterday- these incidents show that our social studies theme of places in the community and community helpers is being fully explored and incorporated in their experiences.

112- Ms. Natal and I decide to tie the ocean investigation we've been working with all year and bring it into the block area. The provocation was adding shells and foam pieces that resemble waves of sea foam green to the block area. Ms. Natal asked the question, "What does it look like under the ocean?" and set that question up on paper near the block area. I arranged the shells and foam in an interesting way and we then introduced the area to the children.

At first, they looked at us like, "What do you want us to do?" But then David and Jaydee started to set up scenes and explore the possibilities.

David found a darker piece of foam and it resembled the dorsal fin of a shark. The animal he is investigating is the shark, so he is making a visual connection here. He sets up walls on two sides of the area where he works, which allow him to pile up the foam to create more volume. Then he places the "shark fin" in the pile so it looks like the shark is under the water.

A- there are rocks on the bottom and this is the branches.

Ms. Natal- Are there branches under the ocean?

A explains what she means and we figure out that she means kelp.

She is using the foam as water and places it over the shell "rocks."

Teacher- what is on the bottom of the ocean?

A- rocks and sand! I'm going to put these here so the rocks can't be seen.

Teacher- what are those?

A- the water.  Now the branches fall.

Teacher- what does your animal, the whale, eat?

A- when they aren't potty trained, they don't eat fish,but when they are, they do?

Teacher- you mean when they are young, they don't eat fish, but they will when they grow bigger?

A- yes!

 101- The students worked on their spring mural.  I decided to introduce oil pastels. I thought that oil pastels would give us the brightness of paint, but would offer the students more control and a chance to work on their fine motor skills. 

A small section of the Spring mural

A small section of the Spring mural

104- I pulled the same six students who created the portraits for the Many Faces of Puerto Rico video and had them go back and touch up their portraits.  I will be hanging these six faces as part of the Limitless Boundaries Art Show at the Student Placement Offices for the month of February!  Congratulations to those students on a job well done! 

And the blog is caught up! Such a busy, informative, exciting week!  Could it have ended on a better note?  I don't think so!  

I hope everyone enjoys the long weekend and remembers why we celebrate it! We'll be back on Tuesday!