Ark: Week 5

3rd Grade: NEW PROJECT! The 3rd graders are building away with wooden blocks of all different shapes and sizes.  The first class Ms. Molly and I encouraged the students to have a "free day" with playing with the blocks.  It was really fun to see the students release their imagination by building with the blocks.  (Boy, was it loud too!) Students were building abstract pieces, buildings, houses, cages, caves and the list goes on...

The second class session Ms. Molly informed the students that they were going to use to wooden blocks to build an animal! Ms. Molly also informed the students that the students needed to figure out how they wanted to assemble their animal in this class and next class we will actually glue the blocks together. At first the students were really excited about the project and then Ms. Molly and I started to notice a major issue.  Whatever animal one student wanted to make the rest of the students also wanted to make it. Not to mention, the majority of the students assembled the animals that were on display on the shelf. There was a variety of animals on display such as crabs, horses, and (the most popular animal) a giraffe. It seemed as if ALL the students wanted to make a giraffe just because it was the biggest animal they could see.

Reflecting upon this week I learned a few things about introducing a new project.  Though it is significant to have a teacher's example present for students to visually comprehend the new assignment I believe it would have been best if the examples were taken off the shelf and tucked away. I believe that there would have been a larger variety of animals thought of by the students if the examples were tucked away. I also think I would have really excited the students by telling them that they should create their favorite animal and to keep it a SECRET from the rest of the students. I believe this little game would have influenced a larger variety of animals and the students would have felt more ownership with the animal they were making.

Overall, it was a great week.  The 3rd graders are the toughest group in the school (when they were in kindergarten they actually made their student-teacher cry. Hey, they aren't capable of doing that to THIS student-teacher).  I worked individually with a lot of the students and they LOVED it. I was thanked with lots of hug that left me with the wonderful flu (but the hugs were very sweet and meant a lot). Some students came up with ideas for animals such as an elephant, flamingo, fox, bobcat, rabbit and lion! I'm looking forward to how the the project turns out next week!