Monday, May 12, 2014

120- I was able to bring another group of students into the studio to glaze their animals. I can't wait to see the students' reactions when they see their glazed finished pieces post-firing.

116- I brought Group One down to the studio to continue our illustrations for the book on the Riverkeepers visit. The power of multiple drafts is revealing itself to them and their drawing abilities have grown so much!

108- I brought a group down to start the project that 120 is finishing. We used the same process, except now I have examples of student work from 120 that the students can refer to.

This image shows our new kangaroo and shark from 108
hanging out with the glazed pieces from 120. 

118- We introduced the Fairy House Festival Project.  The Fairy House Festival is a wonderful outdoor festival at Artpark in Lewiston.  I went last year with my daughters and when I saw the fairy houses, I was struck by how "Reggio" they were.  I knew they would be fun and inspiring to the students and cover a lot of standards, so we are going to incorporate them into the learning for the next few weeks, in all of the pre-k through second grade classes.

Click here for more information on this festival!

My daughters inspecting some of the fairy houses- School #33
students will have the chance to make their own fairy houses this year! 

After our introduction to fairy houses, we had a compare and contrast discussion about the Burchfield-Penney and the Albright-Knox. 

102- We had our first introduction to working with wire.  It was difficult to get the students to participate and explore.  The provocation was, "Can you make a leaf?" and they drew the leaves, no problem, but then looked at me like I was crazy when I said, "Now try with this!" and handed them wire.  I think this group needs a second session to get more comfortable with it.  I'll try again the next time I see them. Practice and multiple drafts are never a waste of time! 

101- I let 101 play with the painted pine cones that the other pre-k class created.  There were a few students who immediately got into creating designs with them and others who were more concerned with just the sensory experience of playing with the pine cones. 

Some flowers were formed.

"I made a spider!" 

Week of May 6-9

This week was a different kind of week!

On Tuesday, our students had a half-day.  I spent the morning in my regular classes.
118 and 116- We held a whole class critique of our observational drawings of the local fauna.  This was really beneficial to the students. Ron Berger really knows his stuff. One student, I, had a drawing that was very "symbolic"- he drew a raccoon and it had a human smiley face.  After the critique, he was determined to draw from observation and he's been showing me drawings of racoons since then that he's done in his spare time.

112-  The students continued their drawings of local fauna.  I had a breakthrough with S.  He was really struggling and having him trace the lines and trace the drawing on acetate didn't help.  I sat him down with D, our observational drawing expert in that class, and myself and we both went slowly, demonstrating the technique with him.  This is the second time this month when I had a student who really struggled to understand suddenly get it.  It really shows that anyone can learn to draw. It's not only for those who are born "talented."

Wednesday was a day of training for the Art Department.  I love those days.  I learned about incorporating the common core ELA shifts five and six into the curriculum, learned about new materials (water soluble oil paint) and new techniques.  These conference days are not only fun and informative, they're rejuvenating.  They make you want to run back to the classroom and start teaching immediately.

Thursday and Friday were ALL DAY field trips to the Burchfield Penney Art Center and the Albright Knox Art Gallery, with a picnic lunch in the park in the middle.


We started by pretending to put on tall boots and flashlight helmets so we could "walk" into the video by Alberto Rey that features the tunnel in which the Scajaqueda Creek runs.

We talked about shadows and light.

 Our picnic lunch was so much fun!

The kids said this squirrel thought the sculpture was a real tree.  This was the start of jokes about the squirrel looking at his reflection and being confusion by the shiny tree.

 Second Grade Trip:
Our observational drawing practice is really paying off!

At lunch, the students showed off their many outdoor talents, like splits and rolling down hills.

 The students noticed that the fishermen were catching catfish- the SAME catfish they were studying in class.  They noticed litter in the lake, too, and you could see the connections being made. What a fortunate coincidence for us!

My tour today didn't feature any rooms of the Albright in which photography is allowed, so all I have for our afternoon is some of the outside sculpture.

 As an active supervisor of students on the trip, it's difficult for me to record their dialogue, but I was able to grab a few connections:

On the Tunnel video:
Yalin- It looks like the inside of a whale.
Eliani- Mrs. Rose showed us a picture of a whale that was on the beach.
(We were talking about the size of a blue whale, so I showed them a photo from a recent event where a deceased whale washed up on the beach in Canada.  The humans standing near the whale in the photo enabled them to grasp an understanding of the size of whales. They also thought a dead whale was pretty interesting.)

Grand Island Bridges by AJ Fries:
Layla- We're in a car, driving down the road.
Joe- We couldn't go to Fantasy Island on that day because it's too cold. There's snow!

They next tried to guess if the artwork is a photograph or a painting.
Layla- It's a painting because someone painted it.
Yalin- It looks like the car goes fast and you can do that in a painting, but a photograph looks like it's standing still.
Joe- It's gray and white, so it looks like a photograph.

We compare the artwork to another work. The docent instructs them that their answer must include a reason to explain their thinking. This is creating an argument based on a primary source using evidence from the text- a perfect example of hitting the Common Core ELA standard.

The students give reasons for their guesses and are surprised by the results. They inspect the painting closely to see that it is, in fact, a painting. If you look closely, you can see the brushstrokes. Those who guessed it was a photograph were amazed by the artist's skill.  They looked at the photograph and could not see brush strokes.  I thought this was an excellent presentation by our docent and I loved that they could compare, contrast and argue all in one short critique.


At the Albright-Knox, we looked at a painting of a cave in the water.

Docent- Can you go into this dark place?
I- Yes. It's the tunnel!
The docent was looking for a "no" I suspect.
I- Yes, you can. The video did.
I explain that the video he was referring to is the video Alberto Rey made that is on display at the Burchfield-Penney and that the artist walked into the tunnel, which looks a lot like the painting of the cave at the Albright-Knox.  I was impressed that he was comparing a work on video at one gallery to a painting at another gallery and making those visual connections.

I was impressed over and over again with their answers and with the recollection and connections they made from all of the learning that has taken place over the last few months.

Monday, May 5, 2014

Happy Cinco De Mayo!

120- I pushed in to continue working with groups on creating designs with geometric shapes. Our ceramic animals should be fired soon and we'll begin the process of glazing them.  The boys I worked with today created robots. I asked them to try to use their written language to describe their robots.

Nelson's robot is sad because his parents left him. He likes to play and jump.
He is mad because another robot hit him. He likes to run and work.

Aniel's robot loves to play games. 

Jean Luis ran out of time to write about his robot because
he was adding lots of details to his drawing.

108- I pushed in and worked with the students on their habitat. One student was starting a gorilla habitat, so I helped him begin.  We watched a video on gorillas in Africa. Then we collected some green weeds from the courtyard. I could tell from observation that he was making conscious aesthetic choices about the placement of his materials. It was really fascinating to watch him, because he put so much thought into the placement of each item.

112- I had the students continue their reflections on the visit from the Riverkeepers. They transferred their drawings to watercolor paper and will paint them with watercolors.

The beginning stages of a watercolor catfish.

103- 

104-

Week of April 28- May 2nd

We've had a busy week here at School #33.  I feel like I can say that any time of the year, but this week was exceptional in all of the right ways.

It started on Monday with a visit from the Buffalo Niagara Riverkeepers for all of the second grade classes. This is a volunteer organization that devotes itself to cleaning our rivers and the shorelines and parks that line the rivers. Chris was wonderful, showing the students the wildlife that lives in the Red Jacket Park so close to our school.  The students were enthralled and the half-hour demonstration went a whole hour due to the questions and student interest levels! We hope to work with them again in the future.  Click here to visit the Riverkeepers' site.

Later that day, the kindergarten classes and I went for a nature walk to the river.  We talked about our senses, saw a train go over the train bridge, drew something that we found interesting and just enjoyed a beautiful spring day together in nature.

This was an exciting find! 

Tuesday and Wednesday:

On these days, we had a visit from our mentors of the Reggio-Emilia Approach- Ashley and Louise Cadwell. These were busy days, as we learned, reflected and critiqued our program. Everyone feels revitalized and ready to finish off the year with a bang! 

Tuesday was also an exciting day for us because it was the Day of the Child, a celebration in which many Buffalo dignitaries came to School #33 to visit and read to our students. I love when visitors meet our kids and see how wonderful they are. They are always impressed. 

Thursday:

120- I pushed in and we worked on creating drawings using geometric shapes.

116- We relived the Riverkeeper visit by looking at the photos I took, discussing the animals Chris taught us about and drew observational drawings about the wildlife.  The students will add a fact about their animal and I want to compile the final copies in a book to send to the Riverkeepers.

108- I pushed in and observed both the habitat diorama creation and block areas. One of the goals of our professional development was to encourage more writing in our Reggio inquiries, so I asked the block area students to write and draw about what they've created.

118- We did the same as 116- revisiting the Riverkeeper visit through photos and drawings.

102- I brought in some students to finish their nocturnal animal paintings. We're almost done with these and moving onto plants next. 

101- I met with Ms. Burdick to do curriculum planning while the students worked in centers. 

Friday

120- Same as Thursday- I pushed in and worked on geometric drawings.

112- We did the same as the 116 and 118 riverkeeper revisit. 

108- I helped students work on their habitat dioramas.

118- I took the other half of 118 for the Riverkeeper revisit. 

101- I pushed in to finish up a project. 

103- The students had a chance to arrange the pine cones they'd previously painted.