Thursday, December 12, 2013

116- I let the students choose again- they could continue their mural drawings, paint more mobile pieces or create mobiles.  Some chose to make mobiles, but the majority decided to paint.  They were really into painting and applying glitter.  This group is usually the one group I try to challenge more, as there are a lot of strong artists in this group, but they appreciated the simplicity of the mobile pieces, so I'm glad I gave them a choice.

118- I had two small groups working on the playground and church sculptures and I had the Peace Project kids again.  These Peace Project pieces are really coming out nicely.  I love that they are able to come down every day for 40 minutes to really put some time and effort into their artwork.  It's teaching them perseverance.  The church and playground are starting to really come to life.  I can't wait to see the church after it's been fired.

108- I brought a small group in to do masks.  It's true what they say about giving kids time and you'll get better results.  At first, they only wanted to use paper and markers. I finally talked one kid into hitting up the fun supplies and he added a button nose.  His friend just copied whatever he did.  Finally, at the end, the friend went back and added feathers, making his mask his own creation. :)

112- This class came in and we made mobiles again.

101 and 104- The pre-K and K students made their 3D ornaments.  We talked about the difference between 2D and 3D (a math standard) and they saw for themselves how to alter paper so that it becomes three dimensional.  The circle ornaments are folded in half and glued back to back on one side.  "They look like tacos!" they exclaimed.

Wednesday, December 11, 2013

120- I brought another small group to the studio to work on their masks.

118- I brought my peace project students in to continue their projects and I brought four students in to paint the freshly fired playground and church.  Within a minute, the church facade was cracked in half! I warned them that it was delicate, but the temptation to test it was too much for some. It turned into a learning experience, like most things with this group. The other students weren't nasty or mean about it- just sad. The student responsible felt terrible and actually began to cry.  The other kids told him it wasn't a big deal.  We agreed that instead of our plan of using tempera paint, we'd use glaze and hopefully the glaze will seal the pieces today.  I've had that happen before. It won't be as strong as it was before the break, but it might hold up enough to display it.

108- There was a situation that required clean-up in room 108 just before their period with me started, so the entire group came to the studio.  We discussed the concept of peace again and I gave them pointers to help when creating posters.  Tips like, "Use big lettering, spell things correctly and focus on your message, not your name." (Some students write their name bigger than the words or drawing!) They created posters for peace that they will use in the Holiday Show.

116- I took group three to the studio and gave them the option of building mobiles or painting more pieces for the mobiles.  They all chose to paint.

103- The students painted more pieces for the mobiles.

102- I brought the other half of the class down to brainstorm adjectives for their portraits.  They did that very quickly, so we were able to make the ornaments for the hallway holiday tree project, too!  They were very productive today!

Tuesday, December 10, 2013

118- I took a group to create birthday wreaths.  This is something they do when their birthdays roll around- they get to go through the "beautiful stuff" and create a piece that is unique to celebrate their birthdays. They can choose an item for each year they've been alive, so most have seven or eight items.  The chatter of the students doing something they love is a really great sound.  This group is one of the best in terms of supporting each other's work.

116 wanted to paint the foyer mobile cardboard pieces again.  While they were painting, I asked them questions and guided a discussion on repurposing "garbage" to make art.

Teacher- What are we making?

Alondra- Stuff

Adam- We are using these things that look like street signs.

Jeylianie- We are putting glitter on them.

Teacher- Why are we making these?

Adam- We are going to hang them by the door and when the wind blows, they will move back and forth.

Listaniel puts the sample string on, like a Hawaiian lei.

Adam- Look- he has it like a necklace!

The students laugh.

Teachers- What are these pieces of art called?

Adam- Mobiles!

The other students repeat the word, still a new word in their vocabulary.

Teacher- Why would we take this packing material- something other people throw away as garbage- and make it art?

Alondra- Because we can hang it all of the time?

Teacher- Can I hang any garbage as art? Can I take my lunch garbage and hang it?

Laughing erupts.

Alondra- No!

Adam- It's food- you can't have food as art!

Alondra- It will start to stink.

Adam- You can't hang it all day because it will stink like garbage!

I ask the kids if you could take the lunch tray, wash it off and then make art. They are divided by this question.

Adam says you can wash the tray and use it because it will be clean, then, and not stink.

Alondra says that you cannot use the tray because it had food on it, so it will never be really clean.

Teacher- What other garbage could we make into art?

Adam- Cans!

Jeylianie- Plastics- things you would recycle. And paper. And milk jugs!

Adam- And napkins and straws and juice containers!

I am hoping this will lead to interest in creating more with found objects and the concept of "one man's trash is another's treasure" will become more of a way of life to them.

120- I worked with small groups in rotation on drawing the seasons. The purpose of this lesson was to have the students put the seasons in order and familiarize them with the four seasons.  I thought recording dialogue while they colored would give us some insight into what they know about the seasons.

Teacher- What's your favorite season?

Angel- I like winter. I like the snow.

Teacher- We are supposed to have a big snowstorm today. Eliani,  what season are you drawing?

Eliani- Spring.

Teacher- What happens in the spring?

Eliani- It gets warm outside.

Teacher- What is your favorite season?

They all like winter.

Deyaneira- I like winter because I like to be cold! I eat the snow.

The other kids say, "ewwwww!" And laugh.

Teacher- What is your favorite?

Nayelis- I love winter because I like to throw snow at my brother!

Angel- I have two brothers.

Teacher- Do you play in the snow with your brothers?

Angel- yes!

Teacher-What is your favorite season?

Jose- Verano- the summer- because I like to swim and go to the beach.

Teacher-That is my favorite, too. What season comes first?

Angel- snow,

Eliani- fall? No, spring!

Angel- then, when you go to the beach

Eliani- that's summer!

Angel- then it's fall!

New group:

What is your favorite seasons?

Gabriella- my favorite season is winter because my mom always takes me shopping to buy clothes for Christmas.

Keyra- I like hot. Summer.

Jhulimey- In winter it is cold. And my birthday is in the winter.

Keyra- and Santa comes in winter.

Yarielys likes summer.

These conversations today were a breakthrough for me because my Spanish and their English seems to be improving (more so their English, I think, but it's still a win.)  I took four years of Spanish in high school before getting a minor in German in college.  My Spanish is rusty and sometimes the German vocabulary words want to come out in place of the correct Spanish term, so today was exciting because I was following along and realized, "Wait!  I know what they're saying!" The kids seemed excited to have this communication breakthrough with me, too. :)

During my prep, I took two students to work on the Peace Project.  I'm entering Christian and Justin's work in an art show at Impact Artists' Gallery in January. They had really creative ideas and I know both of these boys are nice, hardworking kids. Christian is doing a piece called, Peace is a Pattern of Love, which features a pattern of peace signs and hearts. Justin's scene showed a waterfall with his parents.  We looked at photographs of waterfalls on the iPad and I gave Justin paint to use, instead of the crayon on his rough draft.  It's only in the underpainting stage now, but I think his Peace is a Waterfall of Love is going to be pretty amazing! 

Peace is a Pattern of Love Rough Draft

Peace is a Pattern of Love (in progress)

Rough draft of Peace is a Waterfall of Love

Peace is a Waterfall of Love (in progress)

102 came in and finished writing adjectives on their self-portraits. They then created 3D ornaments for the hallway group project- a tree created by the pre-K and K classes.

104 also made their ornaments for the hallway tree. 

Monday, December 9, 2013

I wasn't here on Friday (as my daughter was being honored for her artwork at a press conference) but I left sub plans for the students to submit an artwork to be considered for the Peace Project.  Two lucky students will work in the studio to turn their draft into show-worthy pieces and they will be entered in the Peace Project Show at Impact Artists Gallery in January!

Here are some Peace Project designs:

120- I took a group to paint their papier mache masks.  I think these are turning out so well!  I love how everyone did something drastically different from each other.

116- I took a group to draw entries for the Peace Project.  I am going to hang all of the rough drafts in the hall, as they are all interesting and the message is such a good one.

108- I am going to take small groups all week to make masks out of paper and the beautiful stuff in the studio.  They will be performing with 120, but we do not have time for the papier mache process, so we're going to make these a little bit differently.  The kids took some time to warm up- I don't think they quite understood when I said, "ANYTHING FROM THE CUBBIES IS FAIR GAME!" like it was too good to be true. :)

112- I had the students make Calder-style mobiles to go with our foyer mobile project.

103 & 104- The students in the Pre-K and K classes will be making ornaments this week for a holiday tree decoration. Each student will get to choose the material they like best to create their ornament.

Thursday, December 5, 2013

120- We've made more progress on our masks.  Mrs. Wagner picked a story that is perfect to act out with the masks, which will tie in the ELA component and be perfect for the Holiday Production.

A scary witch mask

116- I brought a small group to the studio to work on the mobiles, but instead of just showing them what the other kids did, I put wire on the table and showed them images of Alexander Calder's mobiles.  Then I let them do whatever they wanted with the mobiles. Some of them are Calder-inspired, while other students chose to follow the style of the previous students.  (I know the pictures are crooked... I still haven't figured out how to rotate the photos in less time-consuming way.)

108- I had a small group paint more of the triangles, as we were running low on some colors.

118- Half of the class came in and created the Calder-inspired mobiles.  One student made his like the original mobiles, but on wire instead of fishing line.

102- I had a small group work on painting more triangles for us.

101- I went over patterns with the class and they created the simple style mobile with AB patterns.


More Calder-style mobiles:

Wednesday, December 4, 2013

I had 116, 118 and 108 this morning and their job was to paint more of the cardboard triangles for the foyer mobile.  In 116, we penned an email to the company who uses the cardboard pieces, asking them where they get the pieces (based on a student question that arose) and we told them we'd love to show them our reuse of the packing materials.

118 was pretending they were Santa's elves, busily working on toys for Christmas.  It was awesome for productivity, because they cranked out a ton of little triangles, and it was nice to hear them choosing characters (I was Mrs. Claus and "you'd better work or Mrs. Claus would be upset with you") and role-playing while they painted.

108 thought the pieces look like little houses and they were interested in making them patriotic, so we now have white pieces with blue and red glitter. "They're like Christmas art, these things," one student said.

112- I brought out their ceramic shells.  They'd been fired a few weeks ago, but we were working on the mural, so I wanted to let them finish that. Then I'd had them work on the mobile project so they wouldn't miss out, so today was finally the day.  We studied the colors on the shells first, then I explained the necessary information about glaze. Explaining the concept of "coats" of paint to ESL (English as a second language) speakers is complicated. ("Coats" are jackets to them.)  I showed them how to apply the glaze and how to mix and layer colors.  Two of the students, who are spectacular at observational anything, were very precise with their application of colors.

101 and 104 painted our triangles. I let 101 choose between painting triangles and stringing triangles today and they chose to paint. 104 hasn't had a chance to work on the foyer mobile yet, so it was exciting for them to hear about the project.

Tuesday, December 3, 2013

120- We continued our adventures in paper mache.  The masks are turning out so well.  Some of the students went back to the construction stage to add more, after using the paper mache last time.  This is a really great sign because I've always had students rush through things to get to the finished project, but these students are getting used to the Reggio Approach and know they will be given the time they need to finish, so they are taking the construction to the next level, whatever their vision might be, and I'm really excited about that. For example, a long-nosed mask was given ears today and now it clearly looks like an elephant.  That wouldn't have happened if the student just rushed to get to the painting stage.

118- I took the "church group" for their last day of clay construction.  They seemed disinterested at this point and we decided to just fire the church facade and move onto the next group, which is the group that will build School #33. I look forward to building the school with them.  Hopefully, the "church group" will want to add to their church once it's been fired.

108- One student, Roshelys, brought in a huge spool of fishing line for our foyer mobile project!  Her dad donated it to our cause.  THANK YOU, Roshely's Dad! We decided to string up some of the cardboard "cheese" pieces to see how they would look.  We discussed patterns and the students picked their colors.  They started to string them and I showed them how to tie knots to space them apart.  One student didn't make knots- he just kept piling them on the string- and it actually looked more interesting than the neat, tied pieces.  The students decided to redo theirs and make them all his way.  I think the result is pretty fascinating, but I'd like to see a variety.  I'm thinking about buying some beads to use as spacers.  There were students in second grade and kindergarten who were very interested in a ceramic beaded necklace I wore a week or so ago, so another thought I'm having involves making ceramic beads.  I hesitate with that, however, because I think the students would want to take their beads and create jewelry... I will have to ask them what they think of these ideas.

Our fascinating mobile pieces

I will trim the excess fishing line, obviously, but this gives you an idea of the
way the entrance will look with these hanging from above!

I'm thinking about attaching these to fishing line that runs across the entrance, perhaps hanging from pieces of bamboo on either side.  I want them to be one large piece so hanging and takedown, if necessary, is easier.

116- The students were only interested in one thing- painting more cardboard pieces.  So that's what we did. Good thing, because the students in the next two classes went through almost ALL of the pieces!

103 & 102- We discussed AB patterns with the preschool class and they made patterns using two colors.  The kindergarten class made ABC patterns using three colors.  These kids were mobile making machines.  I can't believe how fast they went through the pieces.


I'm trying really hard to show how cool these look in real life, but the photos just aren't capturing how interesting the shapes are and how glittery they look when they move in the wind.  Here's a lot of pics from different angles in my attempt to show you the coolness that is the School #33 Foyer Mobile.