I work really hard to listen and observe the kids to see what they are interested in. I like to use their interests to guide the curriculum. I have found that when the curriculum stems from their interests, they naturally use the literacy, math, and 21st century skills needed as they explore and investigate. From the beginning of this year, the kids had been showing an interest in bird nests. Every time we went out on the playground, they were making nests. They also started gathering every stick we could find in order to build a more sturdy nest in our classroom since the one on the playground disappeared every day. Since we were still building a learning community in our room, I observed and put this on the back burner to revisit later, hoping the interest would hold. It did!! I put out an invitation to look closer and see what they noticed about the nests before we started building one. I also put out an invitation to create nests in our clay area. I predicted that maybe our nest inquiry would lead into an interest in birds so I also set out an invitation to learn more about birds to see what would happen. A few kids were interested and enjoyed it and learned from it, but not a majority of the kids. Birds would not be a large scale inquiry. I decided to stick with nests and see where it would take us. As we started a See/Think/Wonder Chart about nests, a picture of a bald eagle on its nest was noticed on our promethium board. All of a sudden, all of their questions and wonders were centered around these Bald Eagles. You could feel their excitement as we discussed and wondered about these amazing birds of prey! I asked if they wanted to explore these eagles further and they were very excited about the prospect! We watched many videos and live cams showing us eagles. The kids never tired of watching these! Based on their wonders, we created four expert teams. The Nest Experts (for those who were originally into the nest making), The Eagle Experts, The Eagle Family Experts, and The Eagle Prey Experts. I put out paints and clay in our Art Studio Area that would inspire them to use art to show what they notice about eagles. I loved how many tried to show that they noticed the curved beak of the eagle! The Eagle Experts learned that an eagle can get up to 43 inches high and have a 7 1/2 foot wing span! They measured out the width and height of the eagle and I drew it out for them. These birds can be massive! They were amazed at how big they were! They enjoyed seeing how much bigger the eagles wing spans were compared to them! They then looked closer at the feather colors and used ripped paper to create the long feathers of the wings and short feathers on its belly. They learned that they have curved beaks and sharp talons to hunt their prey with and learned the terms predator/prey and what they mean. The nest experts used the sticks we had been collecting and started out by throwing the sticks everywhere on a little branch I provided for them. They soon realized this wasn't going to work as all the sticks started falling off. I loved listening to them talk about it and problem solve. I heard terms and phrased such as "team" and "We won't give up!" They asked to look up a picture on my iPad. I had them look closely at an eagle nest to see what they noticed. They noticed the sticks went around the outside in a circle-like way and there was grass in the middle to make it soft. They then watched a video on the computer of an eagle making a nest. They noticed that she tried many places to put that one stick before she decided on where it would stay. When they went back to the nest, they were very careful on their placement of sticks! It was very hard and I still had to wire some pieces together to keep it from falling apart. This team learned how amazing it is that birds can make such strong nests with just two feet and a beak! They came to the conclusion that humans are not as good as birds when it comes to making a good sturdy nest, but we did our best and it turned out great, though fragile! They created a "Stop! Do not touch" sign. The Eagle Family Experts wanted to show what a typical eagle family looked like. They learned that the mom eagle is bigger than the dad eagle and that the mom have one to three eggs at a time. Both help keep the eggs warm and take care of/feed the babies. Two friends chose white clay to make an egg. One put a crack in it as though it were getting ready to hatch. After studying the colors on the birds, they used paper tubes to create the eagle family. They made sure the mother was bigger and that her and the father were brown with white heads and yellow beaks. The babies were fluffy gray with black beaks. They prey team used the computer and researched the type of animals that Eagles hunted and decided to use clay to show some examples. We created a web map in our room to organize our wonders and what we learned. Here are the finished displays to show what we had learned during our inquiry! The kids labeled and added the facts that we learned around our large eagle. It was amazing to see where the students took this! It was entirely based on their interests and changed with them! It took a little while to develop into a large scale inquiry. Not all of their interests go that far, and that is okay. This easily could have been a small scale nest inquiry done by a small group! I just had to listen to them, pay attention, and be willing to set out opportunities for them to explore further based on what I observed! So far, I have noticed two other very heavy interests shared by the class as a majority. Superheroes, and creating sounds and rhythm in different ways. I have noticed these interests since the beginning of the year and those interests continue to be strong, so while many other small scale inquiries may be going on, after the holidays, we may start one of these! I can't wait to see where the kids will take those interests! Here are some other things going on in our room! In math we are learning about making numbers up to ten in different ways to develop their number sense. They are also working hard to be able to write their numbers to 20. Some are even trying to get to 100! It took this friend 3 white boards to get to 80! Her goal is 100! A lot is going on literacy as kids are getting very excited about how much they have learned to read and write! In writing all of the kids are working on different writing skills from drawing a story to letter/sound correspondence to spaces and punctuation! In reading we are focusing on learning as many sight words as we can and noticing blends in words. In our science area, the kids have expressed a new interest in potions. I set up their first potion experiment for them. This station will continue through the holidays. In engineering, the blocks have been largely ignored in favor of K'nex! After reading the book "The Most Magnificent Thing," the kids have enjoyed creating their own magnificent things and showing the class what they do and how they work! Lots of creative and critical thinking are going on here! Stay tuned to see what will happen next in our classroom! You can never tell what it will be!
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How To Create A More Interesting Life For Yourself
Varying the lines you use creates a more interesting drawing. This drawing uses straight lines, curved lines, thick lines, thin lines, hatching, cross-hatching, spirals, scribbles and zig-zags. Before reading this post click here for a list of art supplies and resources (and where you can buy them) to create your own wonderful line drawings. Below is the sphere pattern I used in the above video: Printable worksheets by the helpful art teacher. Understanding line, shape and form Here is the pencil sketch of my picture before I added the rhythmic lines. While this pencil sketch is 'good', it is not nearly as engaging as the finished picture. Look at the artwork of these famous illustrators to gain a better understanding of how you can use line in your own artwork: Looking at a picture and noticing the lines the artist used will enable you to copy any drawing accurately. Follow the directions in the worksheet below. This really works! Try this trick with any linear drawing, no matter how complex. You will surprise yourself. Artists use line to express volume Using the worksheet below, try adding different types of lines to transform flat shapes into three-dimensional forms Click on the link below to learn about the work of Carl Krull, an artist who uses line to express volume: http://hifructose.com/2014/10/01/on-view-carl-krulls-seismic-at-v1-gallery/ Drawings by Carl Krull Artists use line to express movement Some examples of illustrations that use lines to express movement by Arthur Rackham This illustration depicts a windy day. How do we know it is windy? Who Has Seen the Wind? Who has seen the wind? Neither I nor you. But when the leaves hang trembling, The wind is passing through. Who has seen the wind? Neither you nor I. But when the trees bow down their heads, The wind is passing by. -Christina Georgina Rossetti If wind is invisible, as the poem says, how can we draw it? Can you use your knowledge of different types of lines to create a picture that shows a windy day? Here are some stock photographs I found on the Internet of windswept trees to get you started. ALBUM OF SKY REFERENCE PHOTOGRAPHS BY RACHEL WINTEMBERG The album above uses a Flash player. If you are on a mobile device and do not have a Flash player, you can see my album of sky reference photographs by clicking on the link below: http://smg.photobucket.com/user/Aliciasmom/slideshow/sky%20reference%20photos Whenever I look at clouds, I am fascinated by the beauty of the sinuous, curving biomorphic lines Here is how some of my 5th and 6th grade students illustrated the wind and made the invisible visible: How would you use clouds to show the wind blowing in your own picture? What type of lines would you use? How did Vincent Van Gogh Depict Movement in his famous painting, Starry Night? What type of lines did he use? How did Katsushika Hokusai use line to express movement?http://www.katsushikahokusai.org/ Free Printable Worksheet From Line And Form by Walter Crane Click on the link below to download this free ebook: https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=ToJAAAAAYAAJ Practice using line to show movement by looking at this waterfall in slow motion: How would you draw the lines that show the falling water? What sort of lines would you draw to show the water splashing up? How many different types of lines do you see? How can repeating a line many times in a rhythmic pattern increase the feeling of movement in a picture? How can varying the thickness of a line and the distance between rhythmic lines help to express movement? Artists use line to show texture With just a few lines, Arthur Rackham creates the softness of Alice's hair, the bushy disheveled fur of the field mouse and even the folds of fabric on Alice's dress. In the Van Gogh drawings below, you can almost feel the textures of the landscape. Artists use line to depict space. Artists use thicker lines in the foreground and thinner, more delicate lines in the background, to create the illusion of distance in their pictures. Here are some more of Van Gogh's drawings The print below is the work of Jean Millet, Vincent Van Gogh's favorite artist. Notice how the lines in the background are lighter in value, thinner and more delicate, creating the illusion of three dimensional space. Here is a video of my cousin, Hiroko, teaching me about Japanese sumi brush painting. See how she uses line, shape, form,movement, texture and space to create a snake, dragon and octopus, with simple brush strokes. From The Helpful Art Teacher's Sketchbook Using Line To Show Movement Graphic pen on paper by Rachel Wintemberg Watercolor on paper by Rachel Wintemberg Artists use line to create rhythmic designs and patterns. This is particularly useful for designing fabrics or wallpaper. http://www.comunidademoda.com.br/editorial-optical-art-w-magazine-anos-60 If you repeat a line, or create a repeating pattern using a series of lines, your artwork will have a sense of rhythmic movement. STUDENT ART GALLERY Why is it important to vary the line width and add shadows? Look at the last student's artwork (above) and then click on the thumbnail to compare it to a picture of his unfinished work: Varying the line width and adding shadows will make your picture more interesting to look at. To lean more about how artist use line, please click on the link below to read my post rhythmic line designs and patterns. That article contains many photographs, project ideas and printable worksheets to inspire your creativity. http://thehelpfulartteacher.blogspot.com/2012/07/rhythmic-line-designs-and-patterns.html
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Are you looking for early finisher activities to keep your students engaged and productive when they complete their work early? Look no further! Here are 20 early finisher activities that your students will love. From creative projects to physical activities, there’s something here for everyone! These early finisher activities will help keep your students motivated and on task while also having a little fun. So grab the supplies, turn up the music, and let's get started with these awesome early finisher activities today! (Some links below are Amazon affiliate links. . .no extra charge for you, but it helps support
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My photo trips don't normally include time spent in shops but when in Paris the interior of the Galeries Lafayette is well worth a visit. From Wikipedia : "In 1893 Théophile Bader and his cousin Alphonse Kahn opened a fashion store in a small haberdasher's shop at the corner of rue La Fayette and the Chaussée d'Antin, Paris. In 1896, the company purchased the entire building at n°1 rue La Fayette and in 1905 the buildings at n°38, 40 et 42, boulevard Haussmann and n°15 rue de la Chaussée d'Antin. Bader commissioned Georges Chedanne and then his pupil Ferdinand Chanut to design the layout of the Haussmann location. A glass and steel dome, and Art Nouveau staircases were built in 1912."
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I had envisioned a wall full of photos.Then, I started out by creating the arrangement as I saw it in my mind, on the floor of the living room. It was huge!
