4th/5th grade final project

 Our final project for the 4th and 5th grades was to create a game mural on the school recess yard. At first we did a labyrinth walk to spark the conversation of why games are important. The labyrinth was a metaphor for life and growing (which tied in with science content around life cycles)

 To prepare for the mural we decided on a location and measured and calculated the area in order to determine the amount of paint needed for the design.

 We spent a day playing and analyzing different boardgames to help brainstorm a design. Students were asked to come up with a game design of their own and include some form of labyrinth and a four square court. After reviewing and compiling the students' designs, I brought 4 possible versions for the students to vote on. The one above received the most votes. 

 Somehow between rainy days in May and super hot days in June, we managed to get the mural painted. I brought 6-8 students out for about 15 minutes at a time so all the 4th and 5th graders had a chance to do something on the mural. We measured and marked out the blocks of color to be painted around the perimeter.

 The classes all worked on creating flower and leaf stencils inspired by the drawings made by the 2nd and 4th graders' trips to the John Heinz Nature Refuge. The flowers were stenciled in black around the perimeter, and the leaves were stenciled in green to mark out the labyrinth.

 At one side, a hopping game was created in the form of a lily pond, complete with frogs at either end and the life cycle of a frog marked out across it.

 The foursquare court in the center contained symbols for the four seasons. The water and vine labyrinth has a red snake hiding in it. The imagery throughout represents habitats, life cycles, seasons, and change.

 The mural creates a bright spot in the middle of a vast concrete courtyard, and creates new possibilities for play during recess. The games laid out in the mural are open-ended and allow students to create their own rules for playing on it, encouraging fairness and creativity.

 On the last day we tried (between rainstorms) to go out and try playing on the mural. Four square was a big hit!

Back in class, we spent some time writing about favorite projects through the year. Painting the mural was a highlight of the year for many students. Many students requested that next year we do some work in clay.

For the fourth grade, my favorite project was at the beginning of the year as we went from meandering water to eroding landforms to coordinate treasure maps. Fourth grade was wonderful this year- students were well-behaved and eager to participate. They fared well with both individual and collaborative projects, and they did some wonderful reflective writing throughout the year. They do better with concrete/realistic type artwork rather than abstraction. I feel like we could do similar things next year.

For the fifth grade my favorite project was our drawing machine process. I loved seeing the kids work through the design process and collaborate. However, most of our projects in 5th grade were too drawn out, and the classes were so large, they were a little hard to manage efficiently. We also had scheduling troubles do to Mondays and end-of-the year events. I think we should start earlier in September to move through our 30 sessions effectively. I'd like to do more short projects with 5th grade. Their attention is so easily distracted by the social side of being 10-11 years old, that they might work more effectively with something more fast-paced and energetic.

3rd grade final project

 Bees! BzzzBzzzBzzzz! Students had been learning about how bees are important pollinators, so we expanded on a part of the curriculum for students to make a bee model. After introducing the kids to bees in art (including listening to "Flight of the Bumblebee", and viewing both historic and contemporary art inspired by bees), we started with a detailed diagram drawing in our sketchbooks. This allowed us to learn insect anatomy vocabulary and prepare for sculpting a bee model.

 On the next day I brought model magic, toothpicks, and pipe cleaners in for the students to create their 3D bee model.

 While there were specific directions for how to sculpt the bee, there was great variety in the finished sculptures. We left them out to dry over the week, but if I were to do this again I would keep the sculptures entirely out of reach (model magic clay is just too tempting to curious fingers!!)

 The next session we designed wings by drawing on duralar with sharpie, and painted the bees. students came back to have their wings and compound eyes (sequins!) hot glued onto their sculptures. When complete students were asked to write out a step-by step "How to make a bee sculpture".

 On our final day, we talked more about what bees do and where they live. We learned that bees are amazing mathematicians- they use hexagons to build their hives which means no space is wasted. We also learned that part of the comb is used for laying eggs, some for storing pollen, and some for making honey.

 Students used the hexagons in their shape-drawing templates, and colored them in to include the 3 types of comb. The bees look amazing next to the colored honeycombs!!

 This project was highly successful, and many students named the bee project as their favorite one all year. The students absolutely loved working with the model magic clay. Teachers reported that the students did very well on their unit test, and really remembered the related vocabulary.

 I think this was also my favorite project all year. Connecting with the science curriculum allows for more creative projects, and I feel more engaged in the process.

Overall, 3rd grade completed some interesting work over the year. Many of the projects made very concrete connections and useful tools for math and science learning. One project suffered because of schedule interruptions and was too drawn out. Next year I do not recommend meeting on Mondays, as there were so many Monday holidays and events.

2nd grade final project

 To review fractions, the second graders worked on a shibori project. Shibori is a Japanese technique of dyeing fabric, resisting color in patterns through compression. Students worked with a sheet of tissue paper, and we all folded it up in half, in half, in half, in half, in half, and in half again doing mental math as we went along to figure out how many rectangles we'd end up with on our paper (64!). After folding their paper, students placed a paper clip on it to keep it squeezed tight. Then, they each had a turn to dip their paper into 2 primary colors. Some students dipped a little, some a lot, so different proportions of color and color mixing occurred across their papers for very different effects.

 After allowing their papers to dry out over the week, in our final class we opened them up to reveal the beautiful patterns created. We also tried to figure out what fraction of our papers were which colors. With our fancy paper, we designed a puffy fish. Papers were folded in half, cut into a fish shape, and glued together around the edge with the scrap paper crumpled and stuffed inside.

Finally, we reviewed the projects done over our year together, and the students wrote about their favorite one. The most popular projects were the Life Cycles painting and the money collage.

For next year I'd recommend doing more "short and sweet" kinds of projects. The 2nd graders have shorter memory spans and have a harder time sustaining ideas week to week. This year's 2nd grade had lower fine motor skills than I expected. Our most successful projects involved drawing and painting. They really love to paint!! While collaborative projects are fun, this age group seems to do be more engaged with individual work they can claim as their own. They are really great at looking and discussing art, and talking together on topic is good- they're better at sharing ideas than sharing materials or artwork.