Week of January 23rd

It was Spirit week at Comly! Everybody's trying hard to keep kids engaged as PSSA's approach. We had a lot of fun in Artslink this week too:
2nd grade:

To round up our weather project we created radial design compasses to show the cardinal directions. We'll use these when I bring our windsock back. The windsock is about halfway constructed and will be completed soon. We'll need to find a spot outside for it!

 Everyone started with the same foundation in various colors, but then they did their own radial symmetry design. It was great timing for this project as the kids just started doing lines of symmetry in math class.

 3rd Grade:
Ms O'Donnell and Ms DiDonato's classes began the money/shapes collage project. We started off trying to find the shapes to match a specific value, with each person at the table coming up with a different solution. The kids did a great job with this- many naturally started arranging the shapes in patterns and designs while they waited for everyone in the class to catch up.

 Then they had an opportunity to begin their own design, first planning it out, then gluing down the pieces. They had o use at least one of each color paper, use repetition or pattern, and try to use all the space on the paper. They were encouraged to show some symmetry as a starting point, but then add an asymmetrical element to make the composition more exciting.
Ms. Lex's class had an opportunity to complete their designs and then began tallying up the "value" of their pictures. Next time we'll do a "making change" activity.

 4th grade:
Ms Yancey and Ms. McGinley's classes began the lego/fractions project. They had plenty of time to build and play in response to my challenges- I realized I didn't give Mr Willis's class enough time for that the week before. So we began making something with 12 pieces and then tallying up the total of each color to show how to make a fraction- with the "color part" as the numerator and the "Lego total" as the denominator. Then they made a sculpture of 2 colors to show a 1/2 and 1/2 relationship. As we looked at the sculptures I wrote up the equivalent fractions on the board so we could see that 1/2 all the way up to 10/20 meant the same thing. Next, the kids tried a 3 color sculpture to show 1/3,1/3,1/3 relationships and again listed their equivalent fractions on the board. Finally we did the big lego sort-out to see which color had the largest fraction.

 Mr. Willis's class began with some extra time for building exploration and equivalent fractions which they missed out on before. I thought we were going to have a longer class period, so I did a demonstration on how to do our print project as well- but the kids didn't have time to try it out themselves this week. At least now all the 4th grade classes will be on the same schedule.


1/3 blue, 1/3 yellow, 1/3 white sculpture

 5th grade: Both 5th grade classes are continuing their geometric soft sculptures.

 Check out the great craftsmanship in careful stitching!

 Ms Gelfand's class is nearly finished since they've had more time (poor Ms. Albert's class has had 2 Monday holidays this month!). Several children have gotten to the assemble and embellish stage of their sculptures. In the 5th grade classes this week I handed the camera over to a select student or 2 for documentation. When downloading the photos I was surprised to find one student had set up a little backdrop to take some closeups- not realizing the fixed focal depth of the camera doesn't support closeups.... so here are a few inventive, yet fuzzy photos:

 That's a duck wearing a fez, complete with tassel. It was made with a cube, a cylinder, and a hexagonal prism.

 This is a rather adorable kitty with very expressive whiskers. It was made from a cube, a square pyramid, and a triangular pyramid.

 This will soon be  a turtle with a green cylindrical head and pink cube and blue square pyramid shell.

My photographer with her duck sculpture and awesome "crazy hat" for spirit week. I told the kids who were finished they could try to make a movie with their sculptures next week!