Monday, March 31, 2014

The faculty at School #33 has been participating in a lot of professional development this year. We've been holding professional learning opportunities on Saturdays.  Last Saturday,we held a gallery walk around the building to share our student work with the rest of the staff. After that, I was able to lead a presentation in the studio on observational drawing and watercolor painting.  It was great!

Today:

120- I pushed in as Mrs. Wagner introduced our next project.  The students will be learning about habitats and studying one particular animal in depth.  The students saw the animal toys they could choose from today and we talked about types of animals and habitats. 

I loved the way the kids lined the animals up as they were introduced.

116- With 116, 118 and 112, we've been talking about pollution and solutions that community helpers can work with. I invited the Niagara Riverkeepers in to visit our students and do a clean-up in the park with them. The Riverkeepers are a volunteer organization that keeps our rivers and beaches clean. In addition to the map lesson and the Riverkeepers, I invited the students to create a poster for the New York Recycles Poster Contest because one of the themes is "Litter- Let's pick it up, New York!" and it goes along perfectly with what we're doing. So we'll be taking a break from maps to work on this contest. Normally, I'm not a big fan of poster contests, but this fits in so well and I can teach horizon line and overlapping while teaching the students that art can be used to bring awareness to a problem and offer solutions.  It's a win all around.  Plus, their work will be displayed in public and maybe one of my talented students will win!

108- I pushed in as Ms. Boyd introduced the same lesson to the first graders that Mrs. Wagner introduced this morning! We took a walk to see 112's ocean mural with the many drafts the students created in order to perfect their final drawings.  The students were inspired by this.  They created a first draft of their animal sight-unseen so we can see what their prior knowledge is and use it to make a comparison at the end of the project.  The students will next get the realistic animal toys or photographs so that they can improve their ability to draw their animal by becoming familiar with how it really looks.  They will research the animal and its habitat, as well. This will be a long-term project. 

112- The same as 116, above.

103- I pushed in and asked the students to explain their block stories to me, one at a time. 

102- One group of students started drawing the background of their nocturnal landscapes. They look really cool.