Family Trees

In my grades 1 - 3 social studies class we've been working on groups we belong to.  Our first group of course is our family.  We delved a bit into our families past by creating family trees which include self, parents, siblings grandparents, aunts and uncles.  Colour-coded leaves were used for each group within the family.  Upon completion, each student scored (self-assessed)  his/her project.  Each scoring rubric is posted above the tree.

 

What I found interesting about Isaiah's tree is that 2 of his paternal aunts married  2 of his maternal uncles and one of his paternal uncles married on of Isaiah's maternal aunt.  I pointed it out to the students and considered having him colour code those couples, but it seemed to go above their heads.

On Monday, October 28, 2013 when my niece Annette Shirley was born, we were working on our family trees.  One of my students was quick to inform me that I need to add her to my family tree.  Here's a picture of our newest "leaflet" as well as my tree.

Notice the purple leaves - my brother's offspring.

More leaf Projects

My grades 4 - 7 art class also created leaf critters.  Well, not all of the weren't actually critters...
As promised, here are some of them!

Swinging Free

Prowling at Night

Vicious Stripes

Glorious and Free

Stained Glass Projects

For the past umpteen years I've attended literacy related SAG/SAGE sessions.  This year Catherine Wurtz and I made a switch  and chose instead to attend  a session offered by Manitoba Association for Art Education (MAAE): Simple Stained Glass Window Hangings.

We actually learned how to plan a project, cut glass and then solder all the components together!  We also assembled original glass pieces using beveled glass, wire and beads. 
Since it was an all-day session, most of us managed to complete at least 3 or 4 projects.

"You have more experience with glass cutting and soldering," Catherine commented as we ate our lunch at noon.  That wasn't actually the case, but throughout the day, as I was working on my projects, two themes kept rolling through my mind: previous glass art projects we've offered at my school and projects my dad was involved.  Although I didn't work on the latter projects, I must have picked up on a few hints and techniques. 

Over the years at Brennan School  via ArtsSmarts grants, our students, have been introduced to glass mosaics where they created Hutterite history murals...

and glass fusing where each student designed a plate or dish. 

 Perhaps stained glass will be next on our art agenda.


My dad enjoyed creating or fixing thing; paschklen, we might say.  years ago, when I created macrame plant hangers, my dad would cut circulars pieces of glass for them on which the plant would sit.  As I made my first attempt at cutting curves, I remembered from watching him that that was much more difficult than cutting a straight line.  
Although I don't recall a specific item that he created or fixed using his soldering iron, I do recall watching him during winter evenings, a spool of lead in his left hand and his soldering iron in his right.  Drops of shiny, silvery lead dropping onto his project, the odd one dropping to his work surface...  
Perhaps with a bit more experience, my ability will equal that of my dad's.




 

 

Thanksgiving Poems with Leafy Borders

In writing class my grades 4 - 7 students wrote poems of things they are thankful for.  They followed a simple format and were instructed to experiment with including descriptive adjectives in their pieces.  They especially enjoyed decorating their poems with colourful,  leafy borders,  We laminated their work to preserve the leaves. 

Fall Foliage - Leaf Critters

Our yard all decked out it its finest fall foliage.  Believe it or, it actually is connected to a school project!

 

On a lovely warm afternoon last week we walked around the colony to search for lots of different leaves.  One of the first places we stopped was our yard as this is the best place on our Huf for red leaves. We pressed them in seldom used encyclopedias :)!  

Today in art art class, my primary class created these leaf critters. We added details with permanent markers and coloured chalk.  What critter can you see in each project?

Who-o-os there?

Floating by...

This is the purr-fect spot.

Penned in.

Looks fishy.

Hopping past the posies.

Wonder what my intermediate class will come up with??? I'll keep you posted.

Self Portraits

As part of my MI lessons we created self portraits in art class.  They took three class to complete, but I'm rather pleased with the results and the artists are very proud too!  There are actually some resemblances!  Since I know who made each portrait, my observations don't count.  However, when different community members commented on this I knew the likenesses were quite apparent.
Grades 1 & 3 students wrote about their MIs and students grade 4 and up also compiled a list of self-describing adjectives.

The self portrait and grades 1 - 3 write up ideas are from Pinterest http://gwhizteacher.blogspot.ca/2012/09/multiple-intelligences-celebration.html

 

My Schuel Blog

I've been thinking about sharing some school projects on Facebook, but after discussing it with a colleague, I decided, with her input, to start a blog instead.    I'd like to post something once a week or perhaps every other week.  Since we're already in the second month of school, I'll have to begin by playing catch-up.  Let's see how it goes...