Week of September 28, 2015

After spending a few weeks studying lines, I was able to start the portrait process with the pre-k students. The manila paper is the self-portraits they created on the first day in the studio. The paintings are the finished portraits. Our study in lines created such a difference already in how the students look at the world around them and how they use the materials provided to them.

The portraits are coming along nicely. We are attaching the finished pieces to large sheets of acetate and installing them on the windows of the front entranceway to our school!  This way, visitors will be greeted by the faces of all 500+ students who attend Bilingual Center School 33 every time they walk in the door!  Ms. Ulak, the visual arts teacher, is working with grades three through eight, while I work with the pre-k through second graders to ensure that every student is able to create their portrait for our entranceway! 

We have installed one panel so far as a test panel. The students critiqued it with me and I asked some other teachers in the building to critique it with us, as well. We decided that it may need a black border, but we like the transparency of it. I can't wait to see it all installed! 

Camping! September 25, 2015

As I posted on the September 14th blog, the students in pre-k Room 106 were really interested in telling me about their experiences camping over the summer.  This led to many talks and pretend play about camping. On Friday, September 25th, we decided to take the kids out for a camping experience at the Valley Habitat Trail. With their permission, we pitched tents, had a campfire, hiked, ate lunch and had a really fun time.  We brought along a fifth grade class to continue the spirit of collaboration between grade levels at our school. The older students were so helpful with the younger students. They have been studying the environment, so it was perfect for everyone involved! 

Our campsite.

C found a grasshopper.

One of the two  ponds dried up and our big kid helpers were really puzzled by this.
(The adults were surprised, too!) 

Off to the woods! 

We saw many interesting things.

The grass was really overgrown in some spots! It was quite an adventure.

We found this charred wood and the older boys decided that a dragon
must have been there. 

Sometimes the trains pass and you can see them from a safe distance on the trail.

We walked to the other pond, which is still in good condition.

One of the turtles was out! 

We saw someone kayaking in the river.

Some of the students painted outdoors.

We finished our camping trip with smores, discussing the difference
between healthy food and snack food. 

Week of September 21st, 2015

The pre-k students have been studying lines to prepare them for the drawing and writing skills they will gain this year in school. We have been creating lines through different art materials, seeking lines in nature and on the school grounds and learning how lines are used for writing letters and drawing narrative pictures! Below, I've included the summary from our first documentation panel on lines and an image of the panel. 

The k-2 students have been creating self-portraits as part of their annual study of identity. The students drew themselves with pencils, outlined with markers, colored with crayons and then traced their finished portrait with marker on acetate and finished by painting the acetate portrait. So many materials to refresh their memories and get them ready for the school year. We have a big plan for these acetate portraits. Stay tuned. 

Week of September 14th, 2015

We are back for another year of Reggio-inspired, inquiry learning at School 33!

Here's what we've been up to so far:

Pre-K is just getting used to being in the studio. They created portraits of themselves using loose parts. They looked for lines and created portraits with finger paint. They explored lines with pipe cleaners and tried drawing and painting them. They looked for the lines that are in their names.

The students are already starting to tell stories using the art materials.  I sat with a small group and asked the students to look at their portraits and tell me about themselves. It turned into a discussion about camping. We are going to see where an exploration of this topic will lead the students. We are planning a nature hike to "camp" in the Valley Nature Trail, where we will set up real tents!

M- I live with dad and my mom
A- I live with my mommy and daddy and grandma and grandpa.
Teacher- Amali, did you forget someone?
A- I don't think so.
Teacher- What about that guy? [I point to her brother, who is in her class!]
A- C? Oh, yeah.
J- I go camping.
A- Dada and Mama go camping.
Teacher- What's the best part about camping?
A- You can do fire for marshmallows.
G- I go camping at my dad's house, at his backyard.

Teacher- What do you do when you're camping?
Have you ever been to the woods?
J- I was walking in the woods.
M- I was walking near my house with my mom.
A- I was walking in the woods.
J- I went camping in the woods with marshmallows.
Teacher- Where do you sleep when you camp?
G- In a tent! We were in the jungle, with my dad.
Teacher- Were you pretending?
G- Yes, we heard parrots!
J- You heard parrots?
G- Yes.
J- Them come to my house.
A- Parrots come to Reya's house. Only our Reya.
M- My mom has parrots.

Teacher- What do you eat when you go camping?
M- My mom makes pizza. For breakfast.
G- We had marshmallows and pizza it was burned in fire.

Teacher- Did you see any animals when you went camping?
G- I heard the wolfs and I heard a spider.
J- I didn't see no spiders at camp but they was crawling on me really fast.
Teacher- Do you like spiders or are you scared of them?
J- I like them. I like to pick them up. Do you like spiders?
Teacher- I'm a little scared of them.
J- They are friends. They're nice friends.

This was one of the loose part artworks created while
talking about our camping experiences.

Another story came out while a student, J, was exploring lines with black paint. I noticed that he was placing his marks with intent and purpose. Ms. Hernandez asked him about his painting. He told her, in Spanish, that there was a mother and father and a snake and a mother. At first, we didn't understand why he drew the mother twice, but he explained that one mother is a human mother and the other is the SNAKE'S mother. He told us that the snake was going to "line up" behind his mother, the way we line up at school when we travel through the halls. This shows an understanding of the word "line" in both contexts- making a line with art supplies and standing in line with other people- and it shows that he recognizes that lines can be used to represent things, in this case, a snake.  We decided that we were going to ask the other students for their stories during our next class together, and see if anyone else has a tale to tell.

A snake, its mother and a mother and father. 

Kindergarten, First Grade and Second Grade are all working on their identity walls. Each student is drawing a portrait, reviewing portraiture, redoing their portrait, coloring it to match their actual skin, hair and eye colors, then tracing it on acetate and painting it. The result will be two finished portraits- the regular crayon drawing for their classroom identity wall and the acetate version for the school entranceway. Every student in the building, from pre-k through eight, will eventually complete an acetate portrait for the entranceway, so when you come into School 33 you are greeted by the beautiful faces of our students.

Week of June 8-12, 2015

In the atelier, we have been busy creating artwork for Imagine Community Gardens new garden for Hope House on Genesee Street. I wanted to keep the story workshop idea flowing into the atelier, so the first and second grade students are working on Story Stones. The students listed as many nouns as they could think of, categorizing them under characters, places and things.

The students then chose one noun to illustrate. The provocation was, "How can you draw a word?" After they got approval for their design from me, they drew and painted it on a flat stone. To begin the second class, I placed all of the stones on the table and we divided them into visual symbols we could guess correctly and paintings that we couldn't guess the word. The students with rocks in the latter category had to revise their painting to make their symbol easier to understand. Students suggested changes to the students, such as, "You could add a triangle for the roof- that would make it look more like a house." 

Completing research for their story stone nouns.

For the Pre-k's garden project, we are continuing to make insects with wood pieces and wire. Once they finished their insects, they drew observational drawings of the insects from photographs. Students in 103 reported out about their insect: 

R- It’s a firefly. I know that their butts light up.

C- This is a lady bug. It has six legs.

E1- This is a lady bug. The lady bug flies.

E2- This is a lady bug. He’s red.

J- This is a spider. They crawl on people’s floor at their house.

C- They can eat you, too.

E1- Did you know that the lady bug, they walk up the tree? One day I was putting a leaf under the lady bug, but it was red. Sometimes, lady bugs are orange.

A- This is a bee.  It flies in the sky and it goes on the ground on the floor and it crawls in my bed.

Teacher- You had a bee crawl in your bed?
A- No.

Teacher- But you just said that.

A- I know.

Ms. Cich- Why are we afraid of bees?
L- They sting us.

I- Mine is a butterfly. They have wings. They can fly.

Ms. Cich- What do they like to eat?
I- Apples.

N- This is a butterfly. They eat apples. 

Teacher- Where do butterflies come from?

N- The sky.

Teacher- Anyone else?

R- A cocoon!

Teacher- And before that?

R- A caterpillar.

L- This is a mosquito. They got wings and they got legs. They fly around and bite you when it’s nighttime.

Teacher- What happens when you get bit by a mosquito?

J- Mosquito bite.

L- It’s a mark when you get itchy and it itch you.

B- A butterfly.

Teacher- What do you know about them?

C- They live in the garden.

A2- A firefly. It flies around.

Teacher- How do you know it’s a firefly.

E1- Because it looks like a butterfly.

A2- It flies by people. It bites people.

Ms. Cich- Have you ever been bit by a firefly?

Teacher- Has anyone been bit by a firefly?

No one knows. We look it up. They do not bite, but they are poisonous when eaten. Frogs and lizards are affected by firefly poison.

B- It’s an ant. They bite and they are on the ground. They just stand there for a few hours. 

Drawing from photographs of insects.

Playing with finished insects.

The kindergarten students are continuing to work on wire and metal loose part insects. 

Concentration faces.

Completely engrossed.

Week of June 1-5, 2015

This week, we will be taking field trips to the Burchfield Nature and Art Center.

Monday- Pre-K:

We hiked along the trails.

We saw flowers.

We noticed the creek was full and moving fast. Some of the students
believed that the water comes from the ground, others thought it was
from the ocean. One student, L, suggested it was from all of the rain. 

We saw a few robins.

A very full creek!

The students knew right away that these were the roots of plants!

Wet buds and leaves

Buds. The students think either leaves or flowers will bloom from these.

Iya counted five leaves on these plants, checking for poison ivy. 

The kids said a caterpillar must be eating these.

The students enjoyed finding the sculptures in these stumps.

We collected materials for fairy houses.

J used a technique to wrap leaves around the sticks and tried
to get the fairy house to stand up this way. It worked for a little while.

C was reluctant to try it and ended up working the longest
on making his fairy house.

Two students finish up their fairy house.

First Grade: 

They noticed a bug on this table and wanted to observe it.

I've taken photos of this area each day and it's amazing to see how
the creek is receding when there is no rain.

We became experts at spotting poison ivy! 

And the light fell just right. 

Closely observing.

Collecting materials to build a fairy house.

They laid the materials out.

They found a better place to build the house and took turns carrying
their stash over to it.

The fairy house, complete with a pool! 

The "bathroom" and "bedroom" of the fairy house feature
leaf doors.

More poison ivy! 

Hiking the trail

Second Grade:

We found a toad.

We watched the toad until he hopped away.

I enjoyed seeing how shallow the creek was today, compared to Monday!

A critter was here!

Abdirizak was really excited about these water bugs.

They found a huge daddy long legs!

They love to show the teachers all of  the treasures they find.

Making a fairy house.

Looking for materials for the fairy house.

Treasure.

Completed fairy house.

It reminds me of Falling Water, the house by Frank Lloyd Wright.

A second fairy house was completed in a different area.

Exhausted students at the end of a fun day!