First grade- I brought the same group down that I had on Friday and they progressed with their work. I have a few students who want to add fun colors instead of realistic colors, so tomorrow I plan to start the time with a discussion on why we use real colors and when it's fun to use other colors.
While they worked, one student brought up the topic of terrorism and war. He saw something on the news and he was very upset about it. I assume he's talking about the ISIS terrorist group. Knowing that we will be covering the topic of community helpers, I ask him a few questions. (Note- this is edited because the conversation went in circles and off-topic for a bit.)
W- They are going to kill persons and throw bombs. They put something in the hole and they put fire in the thing and they go like that <pretends to throw it> and it goes there and explodes...
Teacher- Why do they want to do that?
W- Everybody being bad. If somebody be bad and everything, they going to kill everybody. If one person is bad, they will kill everyone.
Teacher- Who will protect us?
W- The United States. <A little later> The police.
J- My dad, because he's real strong.
W- All of them can help us <the police and the dad, I assume.> They are going to get a plane and drive it to everywhere. You know the plane of the police? They will get that and drive it everywhere.
I- Then the police will change to an army suit and join the army and shoot them.
W- The army gonna help us.
I- The good army.
W- They our army.
Though this is a dark subject, the student clearly had a need to get it off his chest. The other students helped him solve a problem- who would save us? Now I have to show this dialogue to my colleagues and discuss how we can use the information we've received from the students.
Edited to add: I met with Mrs. Wagner, Ms. Boyd and Ms. Donner yesterday and read the dialogue to them. We decided that I would set up a provocation called, "How do we stay safe?" to encourage talk of community helpers and safety in our community.
Second grade- I began with a new group today. It was interesting to hear my students from last year explaining tips they'd learned the year before.
L- No, the eyes are here. In the middle.
Most of the students who were here quickly drew their portraits with pretty good results. The students who are new to our building were more reserved and took their time observing the other kids before plunging in. I think it's a good observation to note that our students who were here are pretty comfortable with the supplies and provocations. They didn't regress at all over the summer.
K- I brought kindergarten in for the first time. They had an interesting class because when we began to work, one student, S, decided he had a problem. He wanted the mirror to stand up on its own so he could look into it without holding it. I let him go to the wood shelf and see if any of the objects over there would work to prop up his mirror. This led to most of the class going to the shelf and experimenting with different objects. They excitedly shared their observations and were quick to switch objects to one that worked for someone else. It seems like letting them get off task, if one weren't used to this approach, but this was a great opportunity for them to try to understand physics and leverage. Once the problem was solved, they were able to concentrate on their drawings.
 |
| "She got it to work! Look at hers!" |
 |
| A simple solution to a problem. |
103- The pre-k students from this class came in for the first time today. We started drawing portraits. The results were all over the place. The students who were successful at creating a portrait will have the chance to work freely on the easels next class, while I work more closely with the students who struggled.
Second grade 118-
My students from 118 began their portraits today. They helped me create a Venn diagram comparing and contrasting two self-portraits by famous artists and created their own portraits.
No comments:
Post a Comment