We
got a lot done this week, despite having Friday off for Veteran's Day.
We're busy with our November units, Scarecrow,
Scarecrow and The Leaves Are Falling Down.
And we're also reading Thanksgiving stories and doing related activities,
including our Family Turkey Art Project -- take a look at the great pictures
below.
This
week we also started a TLC Make-A-Book project, called "The Thanksgiving
Story." I'm including pictures of the pages we've completed so far.
It's hard to believe that Thanksgiving is less than two weeks away!
That means it's almost time to get started on my favorite holiday unit,
G
is For Gingerbread, especially since there are only eleven instructional
days in December. Time goes so fast at this time of year, and the
KinderKids are growing by leaps and bounds.
I'm
sharing a lot of student art this week, as I believe art is an incredibly
useful diagnostic tool in the classroom. I can tell so many things
about my students by looking at their art projects, as you'll see from
the discussions of individual activities below.
During
this week's Parent Conferences, I spent time with each family looking at
student work and explaining how art helps in the development of fine motor
skills, perceptual and spatial relationships, listening and following directions
skills, and more.
Having
lots of student work on the walls makes our room look cheerful, fosters
self-esteem in all students, and shows visitors the wide range of abilities
and talents in our room. Our art projects are also very important
in the development of oral and written language, and support and reinforce
what we are learning in all areas of the curriculum.
~
Victoria
It's finally Fall in Bakersfield!
Liquid
Amber leaves in my front yard
What's New In The Pumpkin Patch
Last weekend, I sent home
the blackline master for my Family Turkey Project, which I believe is from
Teacher Created Materials. Here's what the blackline master looks
like, printed on cardstock:
Less than half my class
returned their turkeys this week, but I'm sure we'll get more in the next
few days, since those that were returned were on display during Parent
Conferences. All of the children are excited about making "their"
turkey extra special, and can't wait to see their project up on the wall.
Here are a few close-up
pics so you can see some of the wonderful work and creativity this project
inspires:
Crayon and marker feathers, dyed elbow macaroni body, paper wings.
The Pumpkin Patch is now VERY full of terrific student work!
Colored rice ... lots of great texture.
Dried beans, silk leaves, and lots of REAL chicken feathers.
Crayon and paint, with pictures cut out of the Sunday paper ads.
Crayon body, with cut up ribbons scattered like confetti on the wings.
Scarecrow, Scarecrow
We're
having lots of fun with our Scarecrow, Scarecrow
unit, reading one or two scarecrow stories each day and working on scarecrow
projects.
Cut and Paste Scarecrow Big Book
Each month, I have the
KinderKids do a thematic cut-and-paste picture that I laminate and turn
into a Big Book. The kids enjoy seeing each other's work (and reading
each other's names!), and I use the book to track each child's progress
with coloring, cutting, and using glue. Flipping through the book
also shows me who is good at following directions, who knows where-and-what
to cut, who is having trouble with spatial relationships, etc. The
picture on the far right (above) was pieced back together, after the student
cut the hat into several pieces, some of which didn't make it onto the
page.
For this month's Scarecrow
cut-and-paste book, I demonstrated using unwrapped crayons to make a rubbing
type background, and asked the children to make a background with colors
and/or with Fall things included in their picture. I also discussed
placement of the scarecrow on the page, since the head and body were separate
pieces, stressing that it was important to place both pieces on the paper
before gluing anything down, so that nothing would hang over the edges
(this continues to be a difficult skill for this year's class to self-monitor).
Here are a few sample
pages, so you can see the range of abilities:
Both of these pictures show an improvement in coloring skills
for the students involved. The child on the right is still having
trouble following the cutting lines, as shown by the cut off arm.
This type of mistake is frequently seen in kindergarten and first grade
children, who don't always see "the whole picture" when they are using
scissors.
The picture on the left -- which uses mainly one color -- is typical
of children who are in a hurry to finish and move on to other activities.
Many young children dislike coloring because their fine motor skills are
still developing, and they find it difficult to do things like stay inside
the lines, fill areas in completely, etc. I try to offer a variety
of fine motor skill activities that will help my students become better
artists and writers, as coloring is a skill that transfers directly to
handwriting.
These pictures were both done by girls, and have more detail
and a wider variety of colors than the pictures above. The picture
on the left has a "floating" head, glued just above the point where it
should be attached. The student didn't pay attention to where her
name was on the paper, and subsequently placed her picture upside down
... I rewrote the name at the "new" bottom of the page.
The picture on the right has some great background drawings, including
flowers, a happy face, and several "suns" -- one yellow sun and four red
ones. The scarecrow looks a little "scrunched," because the
head was placed a bit low on the body.
This Week's TLC Art Project
The Thanksgiving Story Make-A-Book
These are the three pages
we completed this week for our big November TLC project called The
Thanksgiving Story.
There are seven pages
in all, including the cover. We'll be making a page a day next week,
which will give me plenty of time to laminate all the pages and assemble
them into completed books that the children can take home to share for
Thanksgiving. After the holiday, they'll bring their books back to
keep in their individual book boxes for the remainder of the year.
The
Thanksgiving Story Cover
This was a step-by-step
directed art project, using paper cutting techniques we've been practicing
for the past two and a half months. As you can see from the cover
samples above, there is a wide range of abilities in our classroom, and
each child's picture is unique.
Though each child was
given six colored rectangles -- paper clipped together -- to make feathers,
only one of the turkeys above ended up with six tail feathers. One
of the turkeys somehow got seven feathers, and the other two have five
feathers each. Quite a few children had trouble keeping everything
ON the page (i.e., nothing is supposed to hang over the edges), and most
of my students are mildly challenged when gluing on titles or text, perhaps
because they're feeling finished and ready to do something else.
It's important to note
that I don't believe in giving any special assistance to the students when
doing these projects: I want to see THEIR work, not work that was
partially done by an adult or another student. Crooked titles and
funny feathers are part of the uniqueness and charm, and reflect each child's
current abilities. I'm much more interested in an authentic activity
process than in picture-perfect results.
This picture shows that
the student is not perceiving the spatial relationships in the picture,
and is having difficulty following the step-by-step directions -- which
include watching me building the picture along with them, demonstrating
each step prior to them doing it themselves.
I explain to parents that
children develop and mature at different rates, and that every child is
doing their personal best on each activity or project. Those who
are having difficulty are NOT goofing around or not listening. My
belief is that their perception of spatial relationships has not yet matured
as much as some of the other children, which means that they either don't
SEE the picture correctly, or that they can't yet COPY accurately.
Both of these skills will develop over time, especially in a classroom
where some children are not yet five years old and other children have
already turned six.
As I compare student work
from week-to-week, it becomes obvious that the same handful of children
are having these difficulties on many or most of their projects.
This information tells me that they need extra instruction and practice
on spatial relationships tasks like simple puzzles, pattern blocks, and
pegboard activities. Until their visual and spatial perception skills
develop to a greater degree, they will most likely have difficulty reading
and writing. Early detection of who needs additional help allows
me to be sure each child is getting the instruction they need to help them
develop in all areas.
This student is also having
perceptual difficulty, though it's not clear from this picture only.
This child rotated the background paper to a vertical position from a horizontal
one, which could simply indicate not listening or not watching me closely.
However, looking at the child's work over the past few weeks reveals a
trend of difficulty in duplicating the demonstrated projects, especially
in terms of how pieces fit together.
This is the Maple Leaf
pattern block from our November quilt, which was shown in last
week's pictures. In the photo below, the Maple Leaf blocks were
made by the two students discussed above, which helped me to identify thier
need for additional practice with spatial relationships skills. If
we weren't consistently doing projects of this type, I might not have identified
these students' additional needs until much later in the year, leaving
less time to give them the assistance and individualized instruction that
they need.
The
Thanksgiving Story
Page
1
Indian,
Indian,
What
do you see?
The
Thanksgiving Story Page
2
I see the Mayflower sailing
toward me. Mayflower, Mayflower, What do you see?
All of my students find
tearing paper to be a challenging task, because it requires using fine
motor skills with a LOT of control. The water and white cap waves
have torn edges, and they took quite a bit of time and concentration.
I adapted the instructions for making the boat, to make it simpler for
my KinderKids.
As seen below, several
students had minor to moderate difficulty making the three sails and two
clouds in this picture, but all of their pictures look wonderful and unique.
For more information on
TLC -- Teaching Little Children -- projects and artwork, visit
the TLC website.
November Vocabulary
My
monthly vocabulary is on sentence strips in the Pocket Chart, with matching
text words the kids can take to their seats for copying and writing.
Only the copy that stays in the Pocket Chart has a picture. I write
the words in several seasonal colors, to help with matching and developing
visual discrimination skills.
November
Homework Calendar
For information on Victoria's
blackline homework calendar masters -- for kindergarten and first grade
-- write to Victoria at kndrcorner@aol.com
Clifford the Small Red
Puppy leaps into autumn when he experiences the changing of the seasons
for the first time, and he joyfully sniffs the falling leaves and enjoys
the wonderful colors. Under $3 Also available in a hardcover
edition.
This is one of my students'
very favorite Clifford books each and every year! Clifford goes to
visit his mother on Thanksgiving, and on the way he gets caught up in the
Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade ... the kids love the balloons! Under
$3 Also available in a hardcover
edition.
In this warm holiday story,
a young Puerto Rican boy saves the life of his pet turkey with help from
his close-knit New York City family and neighborhood. Beginning Spanish
vocabulary is woven into the text. From popular Wright Group author
Joy
Cowley, creator of Mrs.
Wishy Washy, Huggles, and many other must-have stories for emergent
readers. Under $6. Also available in hardcover
and in Spanish as Gracias,
El Pavo de Thanksgiving (paperback
and hardcover
editions).
Eve
Bunting is one of my favorite children's authors, and she has a book
for every occasion. This one is a charming story about a turkey invited
to a Thanksgiving feast who's worried he'll end up ON the table instead
of AT the table. Under $6. Also available in hardcover
and on audio
cassette.
I first heard about this
story when my oldest son was in kindergarten, 9 years ago, and he came
home with a charming turkey platter placemat he'd illustrated that contained
the simple blessing/grace in this fun story filled with everything that
could possibly go wrong with Thanksgiving dinner. We still enjoy
reading the book every year, despite my children's advanced ages, and my
kinderkids at school like it equally well. Under $6. Also available
in durable
hardcover for your personal library. Be sure to check out the
other titles by Eileen
Spinelli, she's a prolific author ... another favorite of mine is Coming
Through the Blizzard: A Christmas Story.
~ Don't Miss ~
My Favorite Holiday Unit For December
