Month of January 2015

This month has been the busiest we've had since starting our Reggio-inspired program at School 33. We are preparing for the art show at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery. We've compiled 28 panels of documentation. The artwork is beautiful on its own, but we wanted to make the students' thinking visible on the panels through stories of our learning and quotes from the students.

This is a quick summary of what the students have been working on, though I haven't had time to get into too many details about the projects on here this month! 

The Kindergarten classes began their investigation of animals in our community. They will be visiting the farm in a few weeks, so to get an idea of what they know about farm animals, and what they want to learn, I had them draw sketches of the animals that might live on a farm. I didn't give background knowledge, as I was genuinely curious about the knowledge they're bringing in. Most students chose farm animals, though a few had farms confused with the zoo. Many color choices were made without thought for realism. We are going to study the animals closely after this. I'll print images of the animals they chose so that they can create observational drawings of them. We will critique the before and after drawings and use critiques to guide their obesrvational drawings. After the farm trip, we will add or change our drawings as needed, then the students are going to work on creating life-sized animals to share with others what the animals really looked like on the trip.

The first grade classes also began a new lesson this week. They will be investigating What's Inside? We're starting with the body. The students have shown interest in how their bodies work since they first used mirrors for self-portraits. We are asking them to think about how the organs in their bodies work. The first group was studying the heart.

We look at a 3D model of a human heart on an iPad app. It actually beats and can even be sped up to beat more quickly. The kids were fascinated. 

Teacher- Why does it do that?
Kiarelys- When you run, it sounds like that.
Sandieliz- It looks like a nose.
Teacher- How big do you think your heart is?
Wilberto, making a fist- Like my punch! 

Kiarelys- The heart go up, it's more bigger. [She's talking about the appearance of the heart as it constricts and releases]
Teacher- What are the parts for?
Wilberto- It can save you. If you stop breathing, you die. These pop up like this. [aorta]
Teacher- Why does it beat?
Wilberto- When you're running so much [it beats.] it stops doing "boom boom" when you sit. 

At this point, all of the kids feel their chests to see if their hearts beat.

Lia- I'm sitting now and it's still beating.
Sandieliz- Mine too!

Wilberto- It's so you can't die! 

We revisit the size of the heart question by looking it up and it said the heart is the size of a fist. 
Wilberto- I saw that on TV and I knew.
Sandeilz- I think it is four or five... [pounds?]

The second grade classes are beginning an investigation on What is Balance? 

Week of December 8-11

Pre-K:

Pre-K has been continuing their observational drawings of nature.

Week of December 15-19

The pre-k students explored how their bodies change with the seasons by creating dolls of themselves using fabric scraps, popsicle sticks and pipe cleaners. The studnets reflected on how we change by wearing layers of clothing in the winter and they experimented with making the wire wrap around the fabric to create winter attire. This exploration was captivating to them!

The kindergarten students continued their study of bridges and ramps in the classroom by heading into the atelier to draw bridges we see in the community.

The first grade students tried paper collage to see how the results differed from the natural material collages. Both materials created beautiful products, but the paper proved to be easier to control at this age.

The second graders continued to explore how fear feels, relating it to scary weather conditions and scary stories.

Week of December 1st- 5th, 2014

This week, the pre-k students have been exceeding my expectations in the observational drawing and watercolor painting game.

Some leaves: 

A pinecone:

Miss Bennett's class has been sculpting pine cones in addition to doing the observational watercolors:

101 and 106 have been creating loose part self-portraits.  The provocation is, "How do we change with the seasons?" to get them thinking about how we are a part of nature. The students will have to create clothes to represent the dolls in summer and in winter. 

 And these watercolor paintings from 106 are pretty amazing!  These are pre-k students, so these beautiful pieces were painted by four-year-old children!

The kindergarten students have been studying community, with a specific focus on their own houses, as they need to understand that they are a part of a larger community than their own home. In the atelier, they are working on painting their homes with watercolors, after creating observational drawings with close attention to detail. The students were expected to count the windows and doors and look closely at colors for realism.

The first grade students wanted to create collages of the photos we took at the Burchfield Nature Center using natural materials as a way to share what we experienced with the rest of our school community.  They have been working meticulously on this endeavor. 

The second graders continued their exploration of What Fear Looks Like by creating drawings about fear (most of them used scary weather conditions, as they are studying weather.) They chose a medium based on their drawing and their skill level with that particular medium.  I thought they would all rush to tempera paint, as we haven't used it yet this year, but they were thoughtful about their choices. They dictated a description of their work to me and wrote it out. Next, they will write their own reflections on their work, in their own words.  I wanted them to communicate an idea through visual language, spoken language and written language.

Week of November 17-21 & November 24-26

Last week was a strange week for us.  We came in on Monday. The students were really excited about the first snow fall of the year, which turned into the infamous Snowvember Storm that dropped up to eight feet of snow on parts of our area. Everyone survived. Yesterday was still a snow day, so the kids are back for today and tomorrow before going on Thanksgiving break. 

Week of November 10-14

Since the field trip to the Burchfield Nature Center, we've spent time looking at the photographs and talking about our experiences there.  I asked the students what they wanted to do to share our experiences with the rest of the school.  One boy, Camron, suggested that we make collages out of the materials we found at the nature center (leaves, rocks, sticks) using the photographs. These are turning out to be really interesting pieces of art. 

I love how she created the portraits out of flower petals and leaves.

A work area for busy students.

As we were looking at the first snowfall of the year, we noticed a tiny beetle on the window.

The second graders have been investigating the idea of fear.  They were fearful of Baba Yaga, the ballet, and the hawk was fearful of them. Since they are studying weather, we talked about weather conditions that people might fear. I asked them what fear feels like. 

You start shaking.

And your heart beats really fast. 

And you jump!

Your heart beats like beep beep.

No, faster than that. 

Your body starts shaking. 

You start breathing really fast. 

Out of breath.

People might fall down when they see something scary. I saw it on TV. 

You can get a heart attack. 

We shared our stories about storms and then I asked the students to draw what fear looks like. They were then encouraged to choose the material they thought would best allow them to give color to their story. I was surprised that they were divided between tempera paint, watercolor paint and colored pencils. I wondered if they would choose the same materials, but they genuinely made choices based on their comfort with the material. 

Week of November 3-7

This was a busy week of professional development and field trips!