Tuesday, November 1st with 4th, 5th,and 3rd

What an exciting day! Ms. McGinley and Ms. Yancey's class had a very hands-on science/art project involving rocks and water and drawing and printmaking- Whew! We're starting to talk more about erosion, and first looked at a picture of the Grand Canyon to brainstorm what could have made it so deep. Interesting answers: (everybody thought my alien laser beam idea was silly) we heard earthquakes, tornadoes, rivers, rain, glaciers, and volcanoes. It was interesting to see the range of natural forces they understand to create change on the earth. Then we looked at how to make a contour map to understand how high or low the ground is. While some students finished stitching their river meanders, the rest took turns coming back to 6 stations. First we arranged rocks in plastic takeout containers, then drew outlines of the rocks on the plastic lid, poured in colored water, traced the new contour, poured in more water, traced, etc. Then we laid a damp paper over the drawing, rubbed the back and revealed the transferred contour map. Then students drew over their lines to make them more bold and colored in the spaces. We've glued them into our books ready to use as a pattern for our mountain sculptures.

I also managed to retake photos of their meander embroideries:

In Ms. Gelfand's 5th grade we did the same stencil/poster lesson as on Monday's class with Ms Albert, which went equally as well. When I arrived the students were sharing their sun/energy/time reflections they had prepared to incorporate into their project. With the smartboard available I was also able to share with them the Allen McCollum unique shapes image to help stress the "SIMPLE" image idea. Here are some results:

 I love all their spiky suns.

In Ms. Didonato's 3rd grade we decided to switch activities based on the process we experienced in Ms O'Donnell's class previously. Instead of starting with the complicated pattern coin stamping image and huge coin tally, we've started with the "war" card deck stamping and easy small change tally. We managed to get everybody through the printing process, but lacked time for tallying values. Ms. Didonato's class is really hurting from the difference in time- we're a whole lesson behind the other class now. I wonder if perhaps we should switch with Ms. O'Donnell's class next week and give her class a morning session on Monday- especially since they'll miss Tuesday for election day. Here's what they did:

Monday with Ms. O'Donnell and Ms. Albert

Happy Halloween everybody! I came in for the morning only this Monday and met with the 3rd and 5th grade classes. In 3rd grade we completed our tally up of what our pictures "cost". These were a lot of coins to tally up, but they did a great job, considering. I brought them home to mark and find out how everybody did.

Here's the breakdown:

• 3 absent students
• 1 student transferred the correct number of tallies for Q, D, N, P, but did not add them up
• 12 students correctly added up their pictures/tallies
• 7 students incorrectly added up their coins, however of the 7 four of them were only off by one coin (a matter of either transposing their count wrong or miscounting over or under one coin), so only 3 students were really off.

After the tally we created 10 coin cards with random stampings to create a "War" deck of cards. They tallied up the coin counts on each card to write small on the back side. Hopefully they'll have some time to play with their decks!

In 5th grade we talked about stencils and templates, and how they have to be very simple shapes. We also talked about posters and why someone would make a poster. The kids offered ideas such as for advertising or for presenting information and that they have words and pictures. I said our sunprints will be like posters that show what they know about the sun after all they've been learning in their science classes. We based our stencil designs on their drawings from last week, but they needed to SIMPLIFY a lot. They all sketched out a new version in their books for approval and then we passed out paper for making the stencil. I went around with a small whiteboard to sketch out examples of how they could alter their images to be more stencil-like. Once drawn and approved again, the kids cut out all their stencil shapes. Those with time were asked to write something that explained "What I know about sun energy" and connected to their image in some way. it would be great if they could plan out the writing portion for next week so that we can transfer the text to our transparencies for our sun prints.

Allan McCollum link for shapes

http://www.allanmccollum.net/allanmcnyc/

I just watched an Art21 video about this artist, Allan McCollum. I've been searching for inspiration for the 5th graders sunprint project, and I want them to get the idea of what a stencil should be. This is from his Shapes project, where he has found a way to create millions of distinct shapes through combinations of a variety of corners or tops and bottoms. I think there's a way to incorporate some math ideas here- like how many multiple combinations from a specific set can be created...
I think perhaps there coul be a comparison between shapes and symbols too

Are states like these shapes or symbols? How is that different from symbols like these:

Week of 10/24 (just Monday)

 Ms. O'Donnell's 3rd graders finally got to print this week! We reviewed directions and patterns, and I showed them how we should print with our stamps to get a good print and keep our stamppads clean. Students started with one color/one stamp, then traded stamppads for the next color, and again till all 4 stamps had been used. They did an excellent job following directions.

 After stamping, we tried to calculate the value of our pictures by adding up all the quarters, dimes, nickels, and pennies. This was a bigger feat than I realized it would be, as the paper size we used meant lots of stamps/coins! Ms. O'Donnell found some counters we could use to cover up letters as they were counted, and the kids transposed their coin amounts into their sketchbooks. We'll finish adding up the entire value another day. It probably would have been better to use smaller paper, or build up to counting that large a number. I keep forgetting that beginning of the year levels and end of the year levels are NOT the same!! I think the students rose to the challenge pretty well, though, and it certainly practised their counting skills!

 In Ms. Albert's 5th grade we began by thinking about sun energy, and then did our brainstorm in groups. This method of group brainstorm with each kid using a different color marker was an idea I got from Ms. Albert last year! I described this activity in a previous post, and both classes proceeded similarly. I think the brainstorm helped to develop ideas, but we need more visuals. So next time I hope to have a new presentation with image inspirations for our sunprint stencils.

 The 2nd grade classes completed their balance unit by assembling their group sculptures. I'm thankful that we had plenty of grown-up help, as it was a somewhat difficult task. They DID remember our vocabulary word- FULCRUM, and as a group had lots of review about how to balance as we tried to balance out our sculpture. I want to go back and hotglue the connection points, though, as I'm not totally confident yet that they are secure. I also need to get a picture of the final product- it looks pretty cool with all the bright colors and different textures. I hope the teachers forgive me for leaving it in the classroom in its slightly raw state. Your flexibility and generosity are SO appreciated!

After school we had our monthly meeting. Hopefully everybody got a little more familiar with the blog. I love seeing your additions and feedback. We started thinking about the next projects to come, and some groups are switching from math to science and vice versa. We have plans to last us into November, but will start planning more concretely over the next month for December. Our next monthly meeting will be Monday,  Nov 28th. It was decided not to have afternoon classes on Halloween.

The third graders are doing well with the math and art concepts! We reviewed horizontal (across) and vertical (up and down) and used a few tricks to remember them- the letter V has up and down lines, and the letter H has an across line. Third graders need lots of memory tips to expand what their brain can remember!

We also reviewed how to carefully follow directions, as directions become more complicated in third grade. We also had to carefully organize our number of coin stamps, as we are not used to having such large amounts of coins! It's excellent practice, organizing our money before we begin counting. Marie and I were also inspired to make a "WAR" type game with index cards the kids have stamped coin amounts on!

The first lesson really validated the Artslink experience for me. I loved the way Marie integrated literacy with a compare and contrast activity. In addition, she reinforced the science vocabulary I had just introduced. It was great........Connections, connections, connections!

4th Grade

The 4th graders in 206 are doing an amazing job connecting art, math, and science vocabulary words! They have also made connections between the flow of the river in their science experiments and the flow of the lines on their embroideries. The students and teachers are having a great time with Marie.