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Friday, March 20, 2015

Week of March 16- 20, 2015

This week:

First Grade
My second group came in to glaze their hearts.  I asked them what they think "glaze" means and Jayden replied, "Delicious?" because he was thinking of glazed doughnuts.  You could hear a pin drop during this class period- the students were so interested in how the glaze covered the fired clay.

We finished glazing all of our organs, so all that's left is to fire these and compile documentation to share the knowledge we learned about the human body when we display the sculptures! 



As each child glazed their ceramic organs, I asked them to reflect on something they know about the organ.  Here are the results:

The brain:
J'Mar- The brain is like the heart. They both help you. The brain helps you realize things.
Layla- The brain helps you be smart.
Thalish- The brain can help you think.
Remi- The brain is pink.
Jada- The brain looks like meat. An adult brain is three pounds and a kid brain is one pound.
Camron- The brain helps you think.
Ericsson- The brain looks like gum.
Tatiana- The brain is wrinkly.
Yarilys- The brain is round. 

The lungs:
Anthony- If you smoke, your lungs get black.
Miguel- When you run, you breathe a lot. Your lungs go big to little.
Hannah- The lungs help you breathe.

The heart: 
Eliseo- The heart is the size of a fist. 
Julia- The heart pumps blood through your body so it can keep you alive.
Denali- The heart pumps blood.
Shaytara- The heart beats. When you run, it beats fast and when you don't run, it beats slow.
Kiarelys- When you grow up, your hands grow and your heart grows, too. 
Jayden- We thought the heart looked like Valentine's Day, but this is what the heart really looks like.
Wilberto- The fist is the same size as your heart.
Sandieliz- The heart protects your body. If you don't have a heart, you die.
Mimi- When you are old, your heart weakens and you die.
Jangel- The heart doesn't look like a heart from Valentine's.
Elias- Your heart protects you by pumping.
Jazmira- Your heart pumps blood around your body.



Kindergarten: 
 A second small group from 102 came with me to the atelier to explore products of the farm. They said a few of the same products as the first group, but they also thought of a few new ideas.  Some of them created multiple drafts and had a book worthy drawing ready by the end of the period! I was impressed with their enthusiasm today.


We are simultaneously working on some large scale murals of the farm, the desert, the forest and the savannah. Today, a group looked at images of the desert, then, as a team, created a drawing of what their desert landscape would look like. They each drew a component. It was really remarkable to see them work together to design it. We then mixed colors and each student picked a section to work on.





Pre-K:
The pre-K students are still looking at the lines we see in animals. This lesson is really helping them grasp observational drawing. I've got centers going on in the studio. Students drew a pre-drawing, then traced their animals on acetate to see the lines. After that, the students are trying to draw the animal again from close observation of the photograph. Slowly, one or two students at a time are breaking through and learning to see the lines and draw them on paper. Once they've accomplished the line drawing, they work with plasticine clay to try to sculpt their animal. After the plasticine, they are creating the animals in firing clay. The last step will be to glaze the clay. 





Second Grade:

After seeing how much the students are interested in storytelling, we've decided that the atelier will support Story Workshop in helping students create strong illustrations to go with their stories. For 116, we are working on stories about plants, a subject they are very interested in lately. We've decided to start by writing down as much as we know about plants.  Some students were curious about the paper making process, others want to show how plants grow, while others were interested in learning and sharing about the many varieties of plants.





For 118, I worked with students on illustrations for their different stories. One boy is working on a comic book character named Piranha Man for his story workshop. I helped him shape his character by asking open ended questions. The other three boys wanted to create a book about animals. We looked at fantasy and nature books about animals and they decided that they wanted to make a nonfiction text about them, with observational drawings and facts.



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