Thursday, September 25, 2014

We saw a snake. We made a snake.

Mr. Medina saw this packing material and thought of us.  We love to repurpose trash in the studio and create art from it.  When I arrived from dropping off a class, I saw it laying in my room like a giant garter snake. 

I think it would also make great material for giant roses. I have more
so it could come up as we study plants of the Valley Nature Trail.

I wondered if the students would think the same thing, so I wrapped the "snake" around myself and went into 103.  

Kids- It's a snake!  Mrs. Rose has a snake! 

Me- Do you think it looks like a snake?  Could we paint it to make it look more like a snake? 

Kids- YES!

Teacher - Does anyone want to tell me about the snake?

Ryan- The snake needs eyes!

Teacher- The other students picked them out- we will add them.You are going to make up a story about the snake.

Ryan- The snake is a boy.

Aniya- It scares the butterflies away.

Teacher- Maybe we need to make butterflies. We can think about that. Where did the snake come from?

Aniya- The grass.

Ryan- He comes from the driveway.

Aniya- And he goes to the grass.

Josiah- And he flies away.

Aniya- Snakes don't fly.

Josiah- The butterfly.

Ellis- The snake came from the sticks.

Aniya- He lives in the grass.

Elias- Not no more.  He lives in the sticks.

Teacher- Why did he move to the sticks?

Josiah- He maybe goes in the grass and in the trees. Where there's grass, he goes far up the tree.

Elias- He didn't bump his head.  He was paying attention. He tried to find his mom under the tree to find a home.

Cidmarie- No, he's not a baby.

Ryan- The big one is named the daddy snake.

Teacher- Is this the daddy snake?  What is his name?

Ryan- Daddy Snake.

Teacher- What should we do with daddy snake when he dries?

Elias- Put him in the grass.

Teacher- What will he do out there?

Elias- He can look for the snake

Aniya- He can look for Fuzzy

Elias- No, he can't because fuzzy is in the house, the room.

Cidmarie- He's already in his cocoon.

Ryan- I think he's getting out right now.

Teacher- What else could we do with a giant paper snake?

 Josiah- We could run around.

Teacher- Could one person carry him?

Aniya- We will carry him.

Teacher- Where should we go?

Aniya- Chase the snake outside.

Teacher- Should be take Daddy Snake to your room?

Ellis- Yes. If we take him outside and it rains, the rain will ruin him. If it rains, all the paint could get off him.

Aniya- We can walk him inside.

Ryan- I want to walk him down to see my mom! <She is a teacher in the building.> 

We ended up carrying him back to class, for now, with the intention of adding more detail to his scaley skin later.  This will be our special project that we work on during open studio on D days.


102- Kindergarten-  One student showed so much progress in his portraiture over the last four classes that even I was amazed.