"All About Me"
For our second Circle Day, we explored our theme for the month, "All About Me" and delved into several content areas, including language arts, world geography, math/logic, and a special visual art lesson.
Our circle time included a storytelling of a Russian folk tale, "The Clever Maiden" (we found Russia in the atlas, of course). This story ended with the idea of choosing what one treasures the most, and the children were so anxious to share their personal treasures in the Treasure Troves they decorated last week and filled at home. We learned a lot about each other as each shared hobbies, favorite colors and foods, special people, sports, toys, significant life events, and more through the objects in each treasure trove. [Sshhh! What the kids don't know is that they each gave an oral presentation and organized their thoughts into narrative form as a pre-writing activity.]
Some students chose to accept the "bean challenge" during an exploratory session, a math/logic puzzle related to the story in which the player had only three moves to get a certain number of beans into each of three piles. Tricky. We also enjoyed some riddles from three different continents (again related to today's story) and located the respective countries on the globe.
During two exploratory sessions, the children worked diligently on their "All About Me" paper quilts. They wrote and drew fabulous pictures on paper panels, revealing diverse aspects about themselves. I was thrilled to see the interest in drawing and writing.
In another exploratory session, one of the older students offered to teach a younger student a lesson on symmetry using pattern blocks. The younger student grasped the concept of symmetry quickly and created an increasingly complex pattern while maintaining perfect symmetry. Soon three kids were each making their own incredibly diverse symmetrical patterns on the table together and giving each other wonderful compliments, too!
During quiet reading time, I read the picture book "Horace and Morris but Mostly Dolores" by James Howe and Amy Walrod to address the tendency of grouping along gender lines. In the story, three best friends become divided when they decide to join a boys' club and a girls' club. The book avoids becoming moralistic but conveys the messsage that boys and girls can share adventure and companionship in an inclusive way.
At the end of the day, Ms. Spramani lead the kids in a special visual art lesson in which the children each drew their own self-portrait. The kids maintained focus and interest on this challenging task for a full hour. Spramani guided them in feeling and seeing the shape of their head, then drawing this. The kids all sat in front of a large mirror and then drew their hair and each facial feature in both sketch pencil and colored pencils. As the kids added more and more detail, their unique personalities and sense of self-expression and style emerged.
We'll continue these projects next week, and I know the parents will be absolutely delighted when they see the results. (The kids were certainly pleased with their work throughout the process).
Our circle time included a storytelling of a Russian folk tale, "The Clever Maiden" (we found Russia in the atlas, of course). This story ended with the idea of choosing what one treasures the most, and the children were so anxious to share their personal treasures in the Treasure Troves they decorated last week and filled at home. We learned a lot about each other as each shared hobbies, favorite colors and foods, special people, sports, toys, significant life events, and more through the objects in each treasure trove. [Sshhh! What the kids don't know is that they each gave an oral presentation and organized their thoughts into narrative form as a pre-writing activity.]
Some students chose to accept the "bean challenge" during an exploratory session, a math/logic puzzle related to the story in which the player had only three moves to get a certain number of beans into each of three piles. Tricky. We also enjoyed some riddles from three different continents (again related to today's story) and located the respective countries on the globe.
During two exploratory sessions, the children worked diligently on their "All About Me" paper quilts. They wrote and drew fabulous pictures on paper panels, revealing diverse aspects about themselves. I was thrilled to see the interest in drawing and writing.
In another exploratory session, one of the older students offered to teach a younger student a lesson on symmetry using pattern blocks. The younger student grasped the concept of symmetry quickly and created an increasingly complex pattern while maintaining perfect symmetry. Soon three kids were each making their own incredibly diverse symmetrical patterns on the table together and giving each other wonderful compliments, too!
During quiet reading time, I read the picture book "Horace and Morris but Mostly Dolores" by James Howe and Amy Walrod to address the tendency of grouping along gender lines. In the story, three best friends become divided when they decide to join a boys' club and a girls' club. The book avoids becoming moralistic but conveys the messsage that boys and girls can share adventure and companionship in an inclusive way.
At the end of the day, Ms. Spramani lead the kids in a special visual art lesson in which the children each drew their own self-portrait. The kids maintained focus and interest on this challenging task for a full hour. Spramani guided them in feeling and seeing the shape of their head, then drawing this. The kids all sat in front of a large mirror and then drew their hair and each facial feature in both sketch pencil and colored pencils. As the kids added more and more detail, their unique personalities and sense of self-expression and style emerged.
We'll continue these projects next week, and I know the parents will be absolutely delighted when they see the results. (The kids were certainly pleased with their work throughout the process).
posted by Enicia Fisher at 3:46 PM
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