Wednesday, January 16, 2013

118- A group of students came to the studio with me to help me reorganize the studio. I gave them the task of organizing our wooden shapes.  They sorted the shapes into twenty or so different groups. A few key quotes I heard were:

"Thin wins!" (when noticing that the thin blocks were the most plentiful)

"These look like noses!"

"There are SO MANY different shapes!" 

"These are all flower shapes."

"These are all ball shapes."

The finished product

102- I sat with the group working in the block area. Jada is lining tiny green squares of fabric along the top of a horizontal rectangular block, which is balancing between two vertical rectangular blocks of the same size. She then places rocks on each of the squares, excepting the center one, on which she is lining up more fabric squares.

Jazmira is lining up the fabric squares and placing a flat-sided marble on each fabric square.

Cameron has created a platform by placing a large, flat piece of wood into the cubbies, so the wood sticks out.  He has horses and Native American figures going for a ride off the platform. They jump to the second table of blocks and then jump back again.

At the second table, Devon and Max are playing with zoo animals. They've built an arch with Ingrid. She has eight foam rectangles with the flat-sided marbles resting on top, one per rectangle, sitting beneath the arch.

Marciano joins Cameron at the platform and turns it into a diving board. The horses are jumping a few times on the board, just as you might on a diving board, then "diving" back to the table.

Marciano- we've made a sidewalk for the horses.

Teacher- is it up high?

Marciano- they need to fall.

The boys demonstrate how the horses fall.

I ask Jada to tell me about hers.

Jada- I'm making a tower of rocks. I'm putting rocks on it so people can get them.

Teacher- Tell me about the middle spot.

Jada- I'm making that for the pretty rock. It needs to be high.

Ingrid- Do you want to know what I'm making?

Teacher- Yes!

Ingrid- I'm making a zoo for the animals, but first I have to make the rocks and then I can do the animals.

Jada- Look! I found a mattress for me!

She refers to two fabric squares of a matching color. I now notice that she is placing the fabric squares in an organized manner- the pile has sections of royal blue, hunter green, and sky blue.  The fabric beneath the stones is all light green. The color choices are purposeful.

Jazmira is now creating an arch like Ingrid's zoo, with a rectangular bridge at the top with the flat-sided marbles on top.  In front of this are blocks that created two second, smaller arches that meet at the center, with rectangles beneath them.

Ingrid soon borrows the idea of lining up the fabric squares, like Jada.

Jada- Are you copying me?

Ingrid- Yes.

Jada doesn't seem to mind. She points out that hers isn't quite the same because the colors are different. She is struggling to keep her tower of fabric squares from falling, getting frustrated at this point in the building process. She decides it's tall enough and places the "pretty stone" on it, which serves a double purpose- it is displaying the stone and the stone is holding the fabric in place.

She then begins to decorate the base of her tower with blue fabric and a special rock on that, with other rocks lined up around the perimeter of the base.

Jada- This rock has blue under it. The beautiful rock needs to be there so they can see it.

Teacher- how do you choose which is the beautiful rock?

Jada- I look for the beautiful colors and a beautiful shape.

Teacher- what makes it different?

Jada- the color is light, but the other rocks are black, brown and black, white, brown and black. There are three that are the best. I have two now and I have to find one other one.  Oh, this is a good one. There are three that are the prettiest and they need to be seen.

A display for the beautiful rocks

104- We drew their houses for the block house project.  I asked them to close their eyes and really think about the details on their houses, teaching them the word, "detail," in the process.