Friday, April 25, 2014

120- We had a busy day.  Mrs. Christie suggested I create a display based on the work the students completed with the Burchfield-Penney docents this week.  We brainstormed and came up with the idea of using Charles Burchfield's initials as the center of the display and adding the student work around it. 

I had a group of students from 120 go with me to each classroom and curate the best examples of nature collages from each group. We ended up with three to five pieces per classroom. We sorted the collages, as some didn't have brown backgrounds, some were on different plates, and some were on paper.  The students helped me arrange the plates and we hot glued them to the tile.

This display is so much fun!

 After our discussion about the display, I decided that I needed to turn this into a timeline, like the other two timelines we've created this year. I added the work students did at the Burchfield-Penney next.

This is the wall as it stands now: 

Next week, I will add photographs from our field trips and labels. 

After 120, the Burchfield docents came to work with the second graders. 

112- We are working on maps of the school community. 

103- I had the students paint our interesting pinecones different colors.  When they come in next time, I will set up a provocation asking them what they could make out of the colored pinecones.  I'm hoping for some faces or rainbows, perhaps they will use them as blocks, or characters.  The symmetry of the pinecones intrigues me, so I hope it will interest them, as well.  We've arranged them in clear, plastic cups by color, so I think they will appeal to their senses, which is our current theme.

104- The students have been working on the theme of birthdays and it was one student's birthday today, so I pushed in while they had a party.  Not a bad way to end a week! 

Thursday, April 24, 2014

120- The last of the students finished their clay animals.  We'll let these dry for a little while, then fire them.

The Burchfield-Penney Art Center visited our first grade classes today.  We finally had a beautiful day for our nature walk!

I handed my camera to students and asked them to take some landscape photography.  I plan on having them draw and watercolor paint these landscapes in the future.

118- We finished the maps of the School #33 Community on acetate. 

101- The students finished their identity wall portraits!

103- We did the drawings from observation of the pine cones, focusing on the information our senses give us about the object.

One student did an extra-fantastic observational drawing. 

One more fun thing- the kids in 116 borrowed a big box of sharpie markers from the studio.  When they returned them, I wasn't in the room.  Imagine my surprise to find them with a note from the kids and the markers organized by color!  The attention to aesthetic organization in our Reggio-inspired rooms is rubbing off on the students for sure!

Wednesday, April 23, 2014

120- We are almost finished with the clay animals. This was a smooth, enjoyable process for almost all of the children. I have two students who needed the first day to become comfortable with the clay, so I will provide them another opportunity to create their animals.  Once they finish, we will be done with this step.  We will fire and glaze them over the next few weeks.  In the meantime, the students will be working on their habitats and other provocations in the classroom.

The Burchfield Penney Docents visited the kindergarten classes today and we were able to get outside for a nature walk!  The weather wasn't exactly ideal, but the children really don't mind.

118- The students want to track the areas in our community where we find the most pollution. We were going to have the students draw maps and then compare the maps with 116's maps, which will track the living creatures we see on our walk. The problem is that every student's map in 116 ended up slightly different.  To enable them to use this as more of a science experiment, we had the students trace the map of the community from a printout. They labeled the sites and streets that are important to us.  We'll trace our path in a different color and labeled the areas we find the pollution/living things. This is giving them real world experience with maps, to demonstrate the purpose of maps and allowing them to use maps to conduct research on the community around them. 

102- I worked with a small group on finishing their nocturnal animals. We should hopefully finish these within the next week and a half. Next month is going to be the start of an exciting, end-of-the-year project. 

101- We began exploring our senses in the same way 103 has been doing.  I introduced the senses and we used these beautiful, symmetric pine cones that Mrs. Call, our Assistant Principal, brought in. 

Tuesday, April 22, 2014

116- I brought group one in to continue their maps of our community.  Two students finished and the others will finish tomorrow. I showed them how to "age" the paper by creating a wash with tempera paint. They will take these maps on a walk around our community to learn to relate the lines and words on the map to reality, so they understand the purpose of maps and gain greater knowledge about our community.

The Burchfield-Penney Art Center docents visited the pre-k today!  One grade level per day will receive a visit from the Burchfield-Penney this week. We were hoping to take a nature walk with the docents, but the weather did not cooperate.  Instead, we took a nature walk inside of the classrooms, searching for natural objects that our school and the Burchfield-Penney provided. The students looked at images from the Burchfield's collection, including images of Burchfield's work, and created a collage with one image and the objects from nature. 

One student completed the collage, but then was inspired to draw one of the houses in a Charles Burchfield painting. She made the facade transparent, so you can see the rooms and the stairs inside.  The detail work is pretty fantastic and the fact that the image inspired her to create this artwork is a wonderful thing.

                                      

112- I started creating maps with 112.  All of the second grade classes are going to complete these maps of the community and collaborate on the last few projects of the year. 

101- We're working on finishing up their identity wall. One student demonstrated the power of 

104- We are finishing up nocturnal animals.