Eric Carle and Rocket Ships

This week my first graders finished working on their spring trees, and I got to start a new project. The new project is really fun because it is on outer space and rocket ships! My students are very thrilled and have a great amount of previous knowledge on this topic. Today we learned about the different planets and the parts to the rocket ships. These parts were of the stages, wings, space craft, satellite, and rocket boosters. To understand if the student knew the information I had them draw a picture of what we discussed. The students also drew the picture because it is their sketch of what they will be building out of clay next class. How exciting! The students asked me if we could really fly these rocket ships. I told them, we are only making rocket ships that our sculptures.

 

 

 

 

 

In my Kindergarten class we read an Eric Carle book, Head to Toe. This was a great read because the students were engaged by doing the movements and we also learned many words that were verbs. The students also enjoyed the illustrations. For our project we started making sheets of papers into paintings like Eric Carle. We made different lines, textures, and used many colors so our art work will be bright and beautiful. Next class we are going to cut up the pieces of paper into shapes so we can build an animal like Eric Carle. The students liked this project as well because there is no way to screw it up and no one has to be self-conscious about their work.

Primitive Art Day

   Today was a fun day for the first graders because we finished our primitive art lessons. We also got our cave man wall up, and one of our totem poles up. Putting up a totem pole is a lot of work. The celebration of putting up a totem pole is called a Potlatch. The students (today also know as the Haida clan) enjoyed this celebration because we had to review everything that took place in a Potlatch. We first decided we would have storytelling and everyone would be able to talk about their mask and how it relates to themselves. Many students really liked to speak while other students were very shy.

    Next in our Potlatch we did some dancing and eating some treats! The students were thrilled they got to have snacks in art class. What was special about our snacks was that they came in totem pole cups. The Haida clan would always get out special dishes when they had Potlatch to impress other tribes. As a class we then had to decide how we were going to arrange out totem masks and carry our pole out to display. This is very serious because no tribe could drop their pole, that would be considered bad luck. So carefully we marched with our large pole through the school and set the pole so it was safely standing. Our tribe has now forever left its mark in the Ark Charter School.

Totem Masks and Koi Fish

    This week was very refreshing because we have returned back to our regular routines. In my first grade classes we have almost finished our totem pole masks. The students really enjoyed the process and this week we painted them and added interesting textures. Some of the masks are very silly, and some are a little more realistic. The best part about the masks is that they really show off the student's personalities. The student cant wait to wear them. We plan on having a potlatch, which is a celebration when putting up a totem pole. We will be dancing, story telling, and putting up our totem pole as a class. How Funnn!!!!!!

 

In my Kindergarten classes we learned about the Japanese culture. We first got to write our names in Japanese, and then we studied the Koi fish. The students most loved the myth about how the Koi fish turns into a dragon once he has reached to the top of a river. This shows that he is determined and strong. When we began making the fish in class, the students of course insisted we had to paint dragons too. So we learned how to do a step by step drawing lesson on how to draw these animals. It was great to see the transformation of how they drew fish before, to how they draw fish now. Some students said "Miss Samantha, I can draw a fish perfectly without your help anymore, look how good my fish is!" It is so great to teach them something they are proud of.  Hopefully every class they wont be drawing fish thought because they wont stop their fish doodles. It is seriously their favorite thing to draw now.

Long busy week!!

   This week has been long, difficult, and different then most weeks. This week the students have state tests and the school is relying on these tests to keep the school open. This leaves the students and teachers in a panic and overly stressed. It is very noticeable because the students are not as willing to cooperate than they normally would. It is also difficult that all our schedules are changed around and many students are taken out of class for extra testing. This means I am working with classes that have only half their students present, and I have to teach classes of students I don't even know. It is very odd and I am still trying to adjust to the changes for the next week.

Kindergarten-In my K class's, the students and the schedules were the same for the most part. This week we did some science experiments and learned how to conduct some research. We had three containers of powder and we had to find out what they were. This was done with our 5 senses. We had to record what we saw, and smelt. When we mixed the powders with water we also got to taste them. The powders ended up being salt, sugar, and lemonade mix. The students really loved doing this because it is not often we get to taste things in art class. They learned how to create an experiment with a control while connecting the material to the ocean because the water in the ocean is mixed with salt. Therefor we kept adding salt to our cups to see how salty the ocean water is. Many of the students didn't mind tasting the ocean water while Ms.Helen and I were completely grossed out.

1st Grade- In our 1st grade classes it was slightly difficult to begin a new project. Some days have been make up days, some classes were not mine, and some of the classes just didn't show up! Right now I am introducing a totem pole lesson to the students and the schedule seems to be all over the place. I hope after next week things get back to normal again because it is hard to teach students you don't know, or classes with only 4 students there.
I just wish the teaching was being done the right way.


2nd Grade-Lastly, I have been helping teach the 2nd grade classes because their time slot is now at the end of the day. I do not know any of these students, while they all seem to think they know me. Everyone shouts "Oh, that's the Ms. Samantha!" It is comical that they are excited to work with me and make me feel as if I'm famous. I do really enjoy helping them though. They are in the process of making business in their classrooms, so in art they have to make a logo. Many of the students have had great ideas while others can not focus and get to work. Of course I like to help the students that are out of control because I like to see how proud they are of themselves when they actually accomplish something! Overall, it has been a good experience working with the 2nd graders.

Putting it all together!

   The ocean lessons have taken over a month now and finally the work has came together. Ms. Helen and I have harassed everyone in the school building to put a bar up so I could display the children's work. It took me two hours to complete the display and "oh my" isn't is soooo beautiful. Everyone in the building stops by and gazes at the swimming fish....even the older students! It is nice to see that kindergartens can make something so beautiful that everyone wants to spend their time looking at! I hear "wow", "that's so pretty", "isn't that beautiful", "did you make this yourself," or "can I touch the fish?" Even though I have to scold people from touching the art work, I am most happy with the engagement and how much others appreciate the work. I can really tell that the kindergarten students are really proud of their display as well.
   So this week we learned about larger animals in the ocean. The students favorite part was learning how each of these animals moves. We watched videos and made a dance to a song. We danced all around the class room and really got into the fishy spirit. It was so fun to move around. It really brightens my day seeing how fun these little guys are. After all the dancing we did a class critique in front of the big display. It was very hard to keep the students from being so excited and chatty, but they really wanted to tell me about their work! Many of the students told me that they loved how the fish camouflaged into the background, and how the back lit up. It was great getting the students to talk about their work. I don't think I would have done this lesson any other way. If was soooo fun!! 

 

Ocean Predators and Prey

   This week we are learning about the bigger animals that live in the ocean. We are learning about these animals because they prey on fish we have just learned about. We not only got to look at great pictures of these animals, but videos to see how some of these animals behave. We learned the importance of defense that the animals must have to defend themselves from whales or sharks. We also learned that some of these animals are mammals and others are cold blooded. Some animals like the turtle are born on land but live in the ocean. There really is a lot of predators in the ocean, and us humans can be one of them!
    This class we learned so much that we were able to choose which animal was our favorite and got to draw them. Next class we will be working in teams to paint these larger animals so we can display them with our fish.

Finished Collage!

   This week our classes put the final touches onto our art work. Just like all the other steps before hand, we did a practice sheet before putting the printing onto our work. We did this because the students tend to get carried away with painting the bubbles. Before practicing we talked about the two colors we were using (blue, and light blue.) We talked about how the color light blue is made and is called a tint. The students really liked mixing the two colors and experimenting while printing the bubbles.

      At the end of class we also had a class discussion about all the things we learned while making this collage. We mentioned seaweed, coral reefs, sand dollars, starfish, sea shells, and bubbles! The students discovered that a lot of different techniques and information went into this particular project.

Learning about Sea Shells

Today we talked about what we achieved over the last few classes. We made the connection that we have created fish and an aquarium for the fish to live in. Next we reviewed the different plants in the sea. We then discussed that we were going to add sea shells to our aquarium back drops. We then looked at slides of various shells and talked about the different shapes and lines we saw in them. We pointed out horizontal and vertical lines and geometrical shapes. Doing this, the students really understood how to go about drawing the shells. Once we finished talking about the slides, I passed out trays of diverse shells to so the students could feel the textures!! We talked about the rough and smooth shells. All the students were really excited to fully engage and touch the shells.

The students made beautiful shells on their practice sheets and next class we will be putting them onto their aquarium floor collage.

Colorful Fish!!

    Today was a great day because we began to paint our fish! This step of directions seemed to be the easiest for the students and they all did a beautiful job. We wanted to paint in big shapes that our textures created or make designs of our own. Because our fish are sculptures we have to paint all sides and including the edges.

WE CREATED

DIVERSE FISH

BECAUSE

THERE IS ALOT OF DIFFERENT FISH IN THE SEA. 

A Fish's Home

    Because the students made fish last class, we discussed that we need to create a habitat for our fish to live in! In order to create a habitat that will be livable for our fish, we needed to know what was in their habitat. Therefor we looked at ocean life pictures and pointed out all the different plants and organisms. We noticed things like sea weed, kelp, anemones, coral reefs, polyps, plankton, starfish, sponges, and many different colors. It was important to understand that ocean life is very bright, colorful, and beautiful.

      For the assignment we used tracing paper to do the work on because the work is going to be back lit like an aquarium. We also used modge podge and torn tissue paper to place the images together. This was done by overlapping colors and making shapes out of torn paper. The students really made some beautiful work that they were really proud of. This project also gets pretty messy.

 

Clay Fish!

   Who wouldn't love to make a clay fish!?? So far the kindergarten classes really loved making these beautiful fish. While giving the demonstration we first learned how to roll the clay. Most of the students knew how to do this because they have previously rolled clay this school year. Next was a very difficult task for the students because they had to hold down the cardboard shaped fish while cutting around it. Doing two tasks at once became slight difficult for some of the students, and a breeze for others. From here you can really see who has more advanced motor skills then some other of the students.

   Once the fish were completely cut out, the students had to show me they were ready to move to the next step. The next part of making the fish was to add the texture!!! Texture? What is texture? Well kindergarten students didn't really understand what the word texture means so we found objects in the room that had smooth texture and rough bumpy texture. The students learned that texture is how a surface looks and feels! They really enjoyed feeling different objects and describing their textures!  When the students understood what texture meant, we then added texture to our fish. We had a big box of different materials that worked very well. The students really liked getting creative and mixing up textures to make their fish.

 

The Class's Fish!!!

Doing my own lesson!!

   Today I started my very own lessons with the kindergarten students. The lesson is focused on ocean life because the students are learning about this topic in their original classrooms. The Ark Charter School does this with all their art projects and is a great idea to do because it makes a deeper connection for the students. Todays lesson began with reading a book called Hooray for Fish. This was a fun and cute book to start the lesson because the students got to see all the different types of fish they can create.

    Throughout the book we pointed out different shapes, colors, and designs we saw. One part in the book their were three fish and each were yellow, blue, and red. We talked about the fish being primary colors, and how other fish in the book were secondary colors. We even used math during the lesson as well because we counted fish on certain pages. This book was fun to read because the students laughed really hard at certain parts. One part they loved was when there was a fat fish, or an upside down fish. And of course all the students had to say ewwwwwwwww when the little fish kissed the mom fish. I just found the students so comical with the reactions they had.

   Next in class I had a small conversation with the students about the different fish they saw and which fish they would like to make. I told the students that fish are really simple to make as long as you break them up into simple shapes. From here I gave the students a demonstration on how to draw some fish and their surroundings. While the students began to work, I then put on the video version of Hooray for Fish so all the students could see the image and gather some ideas. The movie was a hit as well. The class and I did a great job so far!!

 

Finishing up work for the art show!

    Today the kindergarteners finished their Keith Harring graffiti trains. Their focus was to trace and cut out wheels for their train cars. I noticed that this was a very difficult task for some of the students. I had to constantly remind the students to go very slow and take their time. I would also have to tell them to stay on the line they drew and turn the paper as they cut. Another task the students had to do was to connect the trains and put designs on the wheels. I thought it was funny that one of the circles I had in front of me I put a smiley face on. I did not notice that this would start a trend because when I looked around the room, all of the students had smiley faces on their wheels! Ms. Helen and I had a little laugh together and I realized why teacher examples can be difficult to have. I see that the students really want to copy what they see and sometimes giving them simple directions with a little bit of freedom will let them be much more creative.

     In the first grade classes the students finished their paintings and had to do some writing. The students had to create a title for the paintings and explain why they named it that. One of my students that I have been closely working with had a really great story. Because his painting was of a home of him, his sister, and mother, I assumed this was a happy picture. He then told me that it was sad and he painted this because his dad was unable to be in the picture. I asked him why and he told me that his dad was in jail and he missed him. So he decided to name his picture  Lonely Without My Dad. I just thought it was so sad and very touching. I also was impressed how many of the students came up with such interesting tittles. I expected the obvious tittles, but the students came up with some really great and meaningful tittles and reasons.


    Once the first graders were done writing they began to learn about caves. This was funny because the students chose very interesting words to describes the caves shown in class. Many of the students called the stalagmites hanging from the celling either drooling or icicles.  It made me laugh because it is obvious the stalagmites are neither of them but the students didn't know the vocabulary words to describe them. Most of the students really got into their watercolor paintings quickly and had some great ideas for making them scary.