Ark: Week 8

The 3rd graders have been busy while they paint patterns for their Camouflage Animal project. The students selected a shade or a tint of color as the base color for their entire project.  The selected color was used to paint their animal, background paper and poster board paper. Ms. Molly and I cut the poster board paper into eighths for a specific reason.  With those eight pieces of paper the students would then be able to experiment with funky PATTERNS! The students have been painting away patterns on their trial sheets with tempera paint. After the students finish painting their patterns they then select their favorite which they will repeat on their animals and background paper.  This unit teaches students the scientific topic of camouflage (amazing way to incorporate the common core)! The project so far has been......very demanding, energetic, fun and extremely messy.  There have been several spills but the students really love to paint! Though the classroom is a little bit louder than usual it seems as if the students are occupied with painting.I really like this project and I think the students are doing a great job.  Below are examples of some of the students' patterns.

Ark: Week 7

This past week I was in charge of a new project for the 5th graders! Due to the amount of time and classes we had prior to break Ms. Molly and I believed it would be best to have a quick lesson for the students to work on.  I came up with the idea of the students creating their own Art Book.  The Art Book would consist of guided free-drawing projects for the kids to express themselves and their personalities with using mixed media.  The students can also take their Art Books with them to their field trip to NYC when they get to visit The Met. Also, the students are allowed to take their Art Books home with them during Spring Break. That way, the students can seek their Art Books and have activities to do which encourages them to do art work! I also took the time to come up with other directions for the students to follow while they are out of school (I typed this up and slipped it into their Art Books).

The students absolutely LOVED this project and have really focused on their artwork.  Some of the projects the students did were; create your own title that depicts yourself, select a word and create a quote from it, draw the characteristics of your horoscope, draw your role model, etc.  A lot of the projects incorporated a lot of literacy that the students seem to be oblivious about! The students don't really realize how much reading and writing they are doing because they are focusing on the art work aspect of this project. Above all, the project allowed me to learn more about the 5th grade students which I really enjoyed.  I could tell the students felt special because they shared a lot about themselves to me and it created a deeper level of trust between the students and me. Overall, this project is a lot of fun and I'm glad I had the opportunity to do this with them.

Ark: Week 6

Oh my, the little 3rd  graders have been busy constructing away with their building blocks. Ms. Molly really emphasized how she is looking for students who are creative and who don't create animals that reflect the ones that are on the display shelf.  (I thought this was a great move on her part!)  Students seemed to really respond well to this and there was only two giraffes that were assembled (compared to the 10 that were previously assembled last week).

One student I worked with was an absolute sweetheart.  This student was determined to make an elephant and he was such as sweetheart about it.  The student perfectly imagined how he wanted to assemble the animal and would always say comments to me like, "Ms. Samantha, you have a good point", or "Ms. Samantha, I believe we should assemble it this way not that way". He was so delightful to work with and after we glued most of his animal together he gave me the biggest hug.

I also worked with a lot of other students and we were all having a lot of fun.  Gluing the blocks together kept the students focused and under control. The school had a meeting in regards of the 3rd grade's attitude and highly needed discipline acts due to poor behavior. It seems as if the students finally understand that bad behavior and attitude will no longer be accepted or tolerated in the school.

Last class session I helped some of the students assembled their animals.  While helping the students I instructed them that in addition of writing their name on their pieces that they should also write on the block descriptive words such as body, head, tail, leg, body 2, leg 3, etc. I noticed that the students who wrote down the descriptive words didn't need my assistance with reassembling the animal back together this week. Reflecting back on this project and if I was teaching it I would have instructed all students to do this just so the students had a better mental recollection of their animals.

The animals are really coming alive and anyone can tell that the students are having a lot of fun! I even gave into my temptation and started building with the blocks. It's really funny to see how the students visually depict the animals and how out-of-whack some of the proportions are! I can't wait to see how the students paint their animals in camouflage patterns.

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!

 

Ark: Week 4

This week was a lot of fun! The 3rd graders for the most part finished their animal drawings and poems.  At first we noticed that the kids were having a difficult time with the requirements of their poems.  Ms. Molly informed the students to be as creative as they'd like and that poems do not have specific structures like paragraphs do.  After she informed the students about this the students were really creative and made me laugh a lot with their poems.

I could tell the students were enjoying the rhyming aspect of poetry.  But still, there were a few students who were stubborn and refused to do any work.  I sat down with these students individually and together we worked past their frustrations.  There was one student who is very challenging and often refuses to do any of his work.  So I made a deal with him, I'd write the poem if he verbally told me what to say and promised not to distract his classmates for the rest of class.  He instantly took up the offer and within 5 minutes we were done with the poem and he "quietly" focused on his free-drawing artwork.  (This student typically distracts other students with his body movements or by shouting across the room.  I feel as if this situation was the first time were I really established trust with a student who has been very stand off-ish towards me.)

Another group of 3rd graders had Art the following day and were working on the same project.  I assumed that the students were allowed to be just as creative with their poems as the other 3rd graders...I was wrong.  After working with the students for a good 20 minutes and helping them make fun and creative poems I overheard Ms. Molly informing the students that they couldn't be doing what I told the students to do.  I was very confused and didn't really understand why this group of 3rd graders didn't have the same instructions as the other group.  Looking back, I wish Ms. Molly had informed me about the change up prior to the group entering the classroom because I would have properly instructed the students to do the work as she had wished for. I felt uneasy about the situation because the students who I worked with really enjoyed their poems and when they had to re-do it they were frustrated and butted heads with Ms. Molly.  I felt as if I was the catalyst for their disagreements. I wasn't informed of the new instructions (nor were there class instructions in the beginning of the class of what was expected of the 3rd graders that day).  I guess I need to constantly ask questions about what the students should exactly be doing prior to giving out instructions. Also, I believe she should had informed me about the change up so it wouldn't have set us and the students back....I felt a little embarrassed about the situation but for the most part all of the students completely finished their projects and were able to enjoy free time!

Below is my favorite poem...it made me laugh so hard and the student who made it was very proud of both her drawing and poem! I'm sure you will also enjoy it...