This week we began our projects in each grade. Overall, each class received their new Artslink journals (a marble composition book), looked at art, and worked on a journal question and/or drawing to help introduce the topics we'll be doing.
In 2nd grade with Mr Pitt and Ms. Drossner, we're learning about Balance in Science. We looked at Alexander Calder's Circus, wire acrobat figures, and abstract paintings. We experimented with our bodies to see which position of our bodies was easiest to balance- feet apart, feet together, or one foot. We then talked about balance and unbalance in pictures and decided which pictures I drew on the board looked balanced or unbalanced. We noticed that symmetrical pictures definitely were balanced, pictures with similar sized shapes on either side of a picture looked balanced. Pictures with different size shapes on either side felt unbalanced and pictures with lots f shapes on one side and no shapes on the other looked unbalanced.
To practice balance and unbalance in drawings we made 2 pictures in our journals to demonstrate.
Some challenges in 2nd grade are lack of smartboard/digital projector so I can't use powerpoint for my presentations. At least one child speaks no English at all, and so I'll need to think about how I'm giving directions.
3rd grade is learning about money in Math. Mrs. O'Donnell and Ms. DiDonato's students considered why we put pictures on money. We examined coins and sketched the fronts and backs to see what information is minted on coins. We looked at some artists like Andy Warhol who used images of money in their art and discussed the value of the art (there's $200 printed in this picture, but it was sold for $43 million!) Finally, we planned the symbols we would need for our coin stamps to be made next week.
The biggest challenge in 3rd grade is the class sizes! So many children to keep organized, check in with, and manage supplies. I definitely need to keep things simple and organized with 3rd grade.
4th grade with Ms. Yancey and Ms. McGinley are learning about rivers and water in Science and concentric shapes in math. We compared and contrasted a Zen garden and a rocky stream image using a Venn diagram to note how water moves around objects. We looked at Art by Edna Andrade and Victor Vasarely, who both used repeating lines in their op art.
We talked about thin, thick, straight and curved lines, and then created a drawing in our journals. Starting with a selection of simple shapes, we drew concentric lines around them, and then added some meandering lines to fill up the empty spaces.
The classrooms seem bigger in the 4th grade for some reason. Both 4th grades felt very comfortable to me- partially because there are many students who I know very well and it was easy to remember their names. I know many of them like to hop up and come to me for questions- so I need to be strict about raising hands and staying in seats.
In Ms. Gelfand and Ms Albert's5th grade classes we did much longer journal activities to begin our unit of science study about the sun. We thought about many reasons why the sun and sunlight is important for art- being able to see, having color, enjoying the beauty of the world that grows because of the sun, and working with the sun for art processes like photography. Students were especially amazed by the pinhole photograph below by Tarja Trygg that shows 6 months of the sun crossing the sky.
We then looked at 4 paintings (a Monet Haystack, a Diebenkorn landscape, a Hopper house, and Rivera's Cactii below) to try to figure out what the time of day was and observe the shadows in each of the pictures. With Ms Albert's class I had everybody do all 4, but in Ms Gelfand's class I had each group do one because of shortened time. They did a great job looking and talking about art.
Some challenges are the large class sizes with wide levels and a few students who have already told me "I can't draw". Well we're going to change that! I'll need to think of some extra ways to differentiate for the various learners in these classes.
Some thoughts I have:
Journals could suck up all our time, so I need to keep it short and sweet.
Journals could help me in sharing directions- have them copy down directions so it's on the board, but also in front of them. 4th and 5th are more facile writers, 2nd and 3rd graders take much longer to write answers, but seem better at drawing answers.
I invite any of the teachers to share their thoughts in comments or in separate posts. I feel very happy right now about how we've begun. The students were very well behaved this week. I feel very comfortable having worked with all the teachers before and knowing so many of the students from before as well. Some of the now-5th graders I know from when they were in 3rd grade, and I know the 4th graders Very well from my extended residency last year.
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