Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Fourth Grade Poetry Labs

Our fourth grade introduced their poetry curriculum through Poetry Labs. Children were divided into five mixed groups and each of the teachers developed a different sensory experience. They planned a morning of exploratory activities for the children to connect taste, touch, smell, vision and sounds to memories and emotions.  Children moved from class to class for a brief presentation and lab focusing on each of the five senses.  The poetry labs were a source of inspiration and "seed ideas" for future poems.

Lemon
by Delilah Shapiro

Scrunch
my lips
blink
madly
soften
phew

In Josh’s lab, the children listened to Miles Davis’ It Never Enters My Mind and recorded how the music affected them – images, feelings, memories, etc. Joshua wrote the sound “makes me feel sad like when I left one of my toys when I was little” and Luna’s response was also sad, “like the day I had to give away my cat.” In Dolores’s sight lab, Cully wrote the boa constrictor photo, “scares me to the bones.”  Meanwhile, Talya was in Elissa’s class writing about how the scent of vanilla reminded her of “Pancakes on a January day.”  In Chris’s room, each child had the chance to experience objects, including a piece of deerskin, a pointed chunk of log, nutshells and forest floor objects, and an animal horn. Tallulah thought the animal horn would make a good back scratcher, while Rebecca thought the log looked like the tip of a giant pencil.  In Cora’s workshop, the children participated in a tasting lab, tasting ginger, honey, salt, chocolate, and lemon juice.  This inspired Anna’s description, “the spicy pain of ginger.”

Children learned about poetic devices, including using comparison, onomatopoeia, simile and metaphor.  

    Honey (excerpt)
       By Sophia Kyriacou

taste
sweet like a
lullaby waiting to
be heard
feels smooth and slippery
down my
t
h
r
o
a
t


Consider how much more the students got from being divided into smaller groups and from the careful collaboration of the grade level team.  Know too, that high expectations were set with children being told to “push themselves” to use adjectives to describe the experiences and then connect them to memories.

At The Park
 
(excerpt)
by Dexter Pakula

...at the park
I climb
the smooth
cold columns
I smell
the sticky tint of metal
I hear children running
the soft drumming
I swing to the beat
of the stomping feet

From pre-K through Grade 5, reading and writing poetry is part of the curriculum at BNS. Over the years we find that many children fall in love with poetry, enjoying the rhythms and images of poems, especially when they find poetry allows them a special way to express feelings and memories.

We can hardly wait to hear the poem that will come from this line: I see a thunderstorm silently ker-splashing on the wet ground. 

-From Weekly Letter, Oct 31, 2013 by Anna Allanbrook and poems supplied by 5th Grade team

Saturday, November 16, 2013

First Grade ALL DAY ART DAY! by Jenny

Inspired by the BNS 3rd grade Art Mix-Up Day, I planned a day of art for our class. We suspended our regular schedule and had four hour-long art sessions all day. Students rotated through the four activities taught by guest teachers, Rose (Cy’s mom) Stan (Jenny’s neighbor and local musician) and Annette (Jenny’s BF from college).

Stan’s clay workshop was the messiest, but also the most hands on and the most written about afterwards.




Annette’s leaf rubbings were also multi-step, turned out beautifully and are so seasonal! These are hanging in Arbo’s hallway now.



Rose’s printing activity was the most kid-friendly and her red, white and black prints are outside of our classroom.




My mosaic activity was the most colorful, but was also the most challenging.



Some children were frustrated by the difficulty in controlling the tiny paper squares, but the results are striking. These are also hanging outside of the classroom.



The most intriguing aspect of the day, was how engaged all of the students were, even at the end of the day. Students rose to each challenge and worked with focus and enthusiasm.

What did I learn? I learned that it is crucial that we have art in our school day, often, if not daily. I learned that my students are very talented artistically. I learned that they can focus and attend to tasks when motivated, when the challenge is just right-not overwhelming. And, I am reminded that working in small groups is something teachers ought to be able to do more often. Thanks to all of the parent volunteers who helped out and many, many thanks to our guest teachers Rose, Stan and Annette, for coming up, coming in, bringing supplies and teaching all day long, to and make this great day possible!

-Jenny

Wednesday, November 13, 2013

Third Grade: Art Mix-Up Day

This year, third grade started something new: Art Mix-Up Day. The purpose of art mix-up day is to teach children some of the art techniques and tools that they will be using in 3rd grade. We wanted to give students a foundation that we can build on later in the year and that will enable them to become more independent.

During the first art mix-up day, Steve and Nancy taught techniques for using colored pencils; Diane and Ilana taught six different watercolor techniques;



 and Malika and Katherine introduced torn-paper collage.



This week, Steve and Nancy introduced clay - specifically, how to make a slab and a coil, and how to use scoring to join the pieces together. 


Malika and Katherine led a second session on collage, this time introducing colored tissue paper (on a white background) and scissors.  With new materials to expand their repertoire, students continued experimenting with composition, layering, 2D and 3D, and color contrast, while also discovering ways to take advantage of the tissue paper "bleeding."  




Diane, supported by Rachel and BNS/BCS alum Elsa, taught brush painting.  


Students learned the word "precision" as they learned techniques for making thick and thin lines and how to vary the hue (or "value") of the black ink.  This should prepare them well for their apprenticeship next month with Mr. Choey, the Chinese brush painting teacher from the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens who will be coming to work with the 3rd grade.

Thank you, Anna and Katherine for providing this text. Thank you, Third Grade team for providing this awesome experience and for documenting it so we can share it!