I must confess, the majority of the lessons I teach have either been prescribed by my district and come straight out of a teacher guide (e.g., Treasures, EnVision Math), or have been borrowed or, as I like to put it, "legally stolen" from other teachers. I can honestly say that this particular lesson, however, is 100% my own. (Other teachers out there who are reading this, if you fancy this project, are welcome to go ahead and steal this from me!) I think foldables are one of the most engaging instructional strategies in a teacher's arsenal. Connect it with art, and I believe one has a winning combination. Students didn't even complain about the extensive note taking that was involved while creating this foldable. Before we made them, I showed my students a PowerPoint about the elements of art I found online. It's an excellent, child-friendly presentation that uses masterworks by famous artists as examples to introduce these elements. It also covers the principles of art, too, but I save these for another time. I give each student a sheet of manila cardstock on which the elements of art are preprinted on one side and the sections for writing notes have been appear on the other: I guided the students through plenty of paperfolding, as you can tell by the creases on the sheet above. Once these creases were made, we began copying notes that I write on the Smartboard. Although this step can be laborious for the kids, they worked meticulously at writing things down. Below is a video that shows how the finished foldable works. Each panel on the front corresponds to a section of notes underneath.
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I am always on the lookout for poems that relate thematically to the literacy units in Treasures that we study. This week we concluded Unit 1, "Friends and Families." I pulled out one of my favorite poems for students to read and memorize, "Could We Be Friends," by Bobbi Katz. We use poems such as this one to practice reading fluency, explore rhyme and rhythm, and we sometimes (depending on the poem) use them as springboards for writing. I even use it as a classroom management strategy; I'll prompt students to recite a poem as they transition into another activity, maintain some order and keep down the chatter. A fun way to get children to read is to have them make a recording of their own reading. Try it at home! I'd previously written a blog entry about it (1.3.13, "Using an iPod to Improve Reading," just look it up under the blog category, "Reading Strategies."). Here's an audioclip of Room 17 reading "Could We Be Friends" with me. After this initial practice, we made subsequent recordings on my iPhone of children leading the whole class in reading and reciting this poem. As students become more familiar with the poem, I will be asking each of them to recite it from memory. (Seems like such an old-school practice, I know! But in this day and age when we so often rely on technology to help us remember things, I feel it's important to be able to memorize, particularly when it comes to literature).
Every so often when I notice the children need to get the "wiggles" out, we take a brain break. Ideal for transitions in between lessons, getting in a bit of physical activity during the day, building community, and just plain mental refreshment, brain breaks are something the class looks forward to. My students will even ask on me on occasion, "Can we have a brain break?" Each week, I try to introduce a new brain break for the class to try. So far we have enjoyed "Hot and Cold," "Coseeki," and "Hi, My Name is Joe," a rhythmic chant with some hilarious movement. The version we use goes like this: Hi, my name is Joe. I've got a wife and three kids, I work in a button factory. One day, my boss came to me and said, "Joe, are you busy?" I said, "No." He said, "Turn the button with your right hand." The chant repeats from the beginning, and subsequently adds the left hand, then the right foot, left foot, elbows, and finally the head. It really gets the heart pumping! Here is another wonderful, funny version of "Hi, My Name is Joe": Room 17 is also benefitting from our new school-wide exercise program, "Fairburn in Motion." We do this for the first fifteen minutes of our instructional day. The program originated at a nearby school and has gotten national recognition. Here's a clip of one of our favorite exercise routines, "Peanut Butter Jelly Time," done by students at another school: At the beginning of the year I don't do much in the way of structured art lessons and I don't stress technique or skill. As one way of getting to know the children, to learn about their natural abilities as artists, I gave them hardly any guidance with this self portrait project aside from some quick modeling with a self portrait of my own. I did, however, want these self portraits to be bold and big, so I gave each student a piece of large brown construction paper (12" x 18") and a set of oil pastels. Giving them pastels, rather than crayons or colored pencils, is a way of keeping students away from the tendency to draw tiny. They were also each given a tagboard stencil of a head-and-shoulders shape to help with sizing and proportions. The results were pleasantly surprising, and to me resembled the style of Expressionist or Cubist artists. A few had a wonderfully luminous quality that only pastels can bring. This art project was also a means of getting the children to write an introductory paragraph about themselves. In fact, students had to write about themselves first before they were given their art materials, so their motivation to write was very strong! Students were given the following group of sentence frames to help them write:
My name is ______________________ and I am ______________ years old. My favorite things to do are _______________________________________. My goal in second grade is to __________________________. I was particularly fascinated by what students wrote down as their personal goals for 2nd grade. Many students wrote down subjects they enjoyed, such as math or reading (or art!). A few expressed goals such as "to not get distracted," or "to listen good." To see more self portraits, visit the Art Gallery page. |
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