Art: Week 6 - Compare/Contrast

Amaya, Calvin, Henry, Jesse B., Matea, Myles, Neva, Zion

 As you may have heard, I recently took over art atelier for Griffin, and I am extremely excited to learn with the children on this topic! Compare and Contrast is the main topic for Atelier’s for the next 9 weeks (less than that now), and we’ve been focusing on black and white photos taken by Annie Leibovitz.

This week was an extremely short week, with only two days! During the two days of this atelier we tried scrunching in a lot of information. With the previous ateliers, I had been gradually showing each group pictures taken by Annie Leibovitz, but since we only had two days to process the photos we took a dive in head first. Looking at half of the photos I had to show the first day and the second half the next, was a bit over whelming but the children seem to be in great spirits throughout the course. We discussed each photo and compared and contrasted the dark and light in each image taken by Annie Leibovitz. The children have been discussing whether the photo has more light or dark areas and are quick to answer when I ask if the photo is a darker or lighter. They also enjoyed pointing out each light and dark area on each photo. On the first day we used black drawing materials such as; charcoal, black colored pencils, and black oil paste, on white paper.  The second day we went straight into painting with mixing black and white to make shades in between. This seemed to be the high light of the short atelier and the children seem to really enjoy making light and darker shades of gray.

Even with a short week the children seemed to be very engaged and excited to develop knowledge about black and white photos. They were also able to compose their own black and white photos using an assortment of materials. Needless to say, we appreciated the photos Annie Leibovitz took and enjoyed constructing our own!

Math: Week 8 - Compare/Contrast

The eighth week of Math Atelier was a pleasure.  Geometry was the focus, therefore we spent the entire week discussing shapes and movement.  Early in the week, we focused on 2D shapes. These shapes included a circle, rectangle, square, diamond, oval, triangle, semicircle, pentagon, hexagon, star, and heart.  To assist our atelier time, I've been turning a bag that I use to carry the shapes into a puppet named Mr. Bag.  Each day Mr. Bag played different games with the children such as needing shapes removed from his "stomach", needing to "eat"shapes, and having the children lay all the shapes out on the floor.  Once the shapes were spread out on the carpet, I played some music and encouraged the children to dance.  The music would stop and Mr. Bag would call out a shape.  The children would then find that shape and put their foot on it.  Another fun game we played included finding shapes around the room.  Each child would get a chance to pull out a shape from Mr. Bag.  Then, we would take turns seeing if we could find that shape inside of the classroom.  As the game progressed, the children were recognizing shapes in an increasing number of places, both small and large.  Other resources we used to help support our study of shapes included  referencing these books:  Comparing Shapes, Shapes in Nature, Shapes in Art, Shapes in Buildings.  As the week wore on, we moved from 2D shapes to 3D shapes.  I first drew a 2D shape, and slowly introduced 3D shapes that shared similar qualities.  The children took note of how position and movement changed the appearance of some of the 3D shapes.  Initially 3D plastic shapes were used with one removable 2D side.  Each child first received the 2D side, and tried to find the accompanying 3D shape to it.  Also, I provided a variety of everyday 3D shapes and took some time pointing out similarities and differences.  Finally, at the end of some of our ateliers, I made Bubber available to the children.  I encouraged them not only to make 2D shapes by flattening out the Bubber and using the plastic 3D shapes as cookie cutters, but also modeled creating 3D shapes with the Bubber.  It was another informative and fun week of Math Atelier!

Sensory Atelier Week 8: Compare/Contrast

With: Clyde, Eli, Elkie, Kate, Logan, and Rohin

In sensory we are using mystery boxes to explore items and compare how they look, feel, smell and sound. Mystery boxes are plastic cups inside of socks. These boxes enable us to explore each item using one sense at a time. For example we can reach in and feel an object without looking at it. As we make observations and collect information we will record our findings on a large chart so that we can later compare our data.

We began the first day discussing our five senses by reading a book about five senses. Then we created our chart. We decided to start with our sense of touch so I labeled the first row with a hand and the word touch. We took turns passing the boxes around and reaching inside. Before we started we went over agreements on how to use the mystery boxes.  At we explored we wrote down what we felt. Was it hard, soft, smooth or bumpy? Each day we explored the materials using a different sense and recorded our findings. We did not explore with our sense of taste. We often used the beginning or end of the lesson to review our senses by reading a book or singing songs about the five senses. On the first day Kate had asked to do some yoga. I was able to find some breathing exercises for children practicing yoga that related to the five senses. We used some of those at the beginning of our sessions to get focused on a particular sense. For example before exploring sight we used a candle (LED) to focus on while breathing deeply. When we were exploring sense of smell we focused on the smell of calming herbs.

For the last day of atelier we used some of the objects we had explored to make some sensory collages. On our papers we glues things like; crinkly paper, smooth plastic, and soft yarn.

Groups: Week 9 - Compare/Contrast

This is our last week of our Compare/Contrast theme ateliers. We will be taking a week long break next week, and begin the next term on March 24th.

Compare/Contrast Atelier Group – Week 9

Art Janae	Sensory Bridget	Drama	Literacy Lisa	Math Nick	Science Kerry	Music Teresa	Language Milena	Mechanics Cody
Art Studio	Science Lab	Room 8 Carpet	Room 8 Tables	Room 6 Carpet	Room 6 Tables	Room 6 Entry Side	Room 7 Tables	Room 7 Carpet
Clyde	An	Avalaine	Carson	Burke	Axel	Amaya	Benjamin	Aurelia
Eli	Anya	Ben	Cora	Camille	Hanix	Calvin	Donovan	Desmond
Elkie	Aven	Dori	Dylan	Isaac L.	Isaac R.	Henry	Hudson	Gabe
Kate	Boden	Elijah D.	Jude	Isaac S.	Jackson	Jesse B.	Ilia	Inez
Logan	Elly	Elijah T.	Max	Lulu	Jesse Q.	Matea	Katharine	Maya
Rohin	Koda	Mazzy	Peter	Niko	Simone	Myles	Matthew	Zoe
	Luca	Sam	Zara	Thomas	Zooey	Neva	Samara
	Sebastian			Walker		Zion	Wilco

Music: Week 6 - Compare/Contrast

With: Carson, Cora, Dylan, Jude, Max, Peter, and Zara.

Due to teacher sickness we had a shorter week of ateliers, but really loved all we did! We began the week exploring what songs we knew, and many of the songs mentioned were March Drum March songs. When Cora started to sing "Doe a Deer" Peter and Carson mentioned they new the song as well and sang along. Yellow Submarine and Little Bunny Foo Foo were also popular songs from March Drum March, many friends excited when they knew the song each friend was sharing.
When we reconvened the next day many friends were excited to explore the song Do-Re-Mi. We sang it slowly and wrote down all of the words on chart paper, then sang it through while "reading it" just to make sure we got it right. Max really wanted to add motions to the song, and Zara liked that idea so we created a motion for each verse, like deer anters or doe's ears for Doe a deer a female deer.  We decided the song performance would not be complete without instruments, so we took some time to explore each instrument and sing a few times changing instruments many times. Finally, we decided we were ready to "put on a performance." It was decided that a chair would be used by the performer and pillows were for the audience. Friends took turns choosing an instrument to feature and singing Do-Re-Mi, the audience always sure to applaud when they were finished, Max and Jude were fond of the concept of standing ovations. We were so proud of our new found abilities and fame!

Math: Week 7 - Compare/Contrast

Avalaine, Ben, Dori, Elijah D., Elijah T., Mazzy, Sam
Teacher Nick


The 7th week of Math Atelier saw more exploration into the realms of Geometry with a primary focus on Shapes.  Over the weeks I've been teaching this atelier, I've gradually increased the use of the character Mr. Bag due to popularity among the children.  Mr. Bag is simply a bag I use to hold 2D and 3D shapes.  When Mr. Bag is full I encourage the children to remove a shape from him.  Once a shape is removed, the children  take notice of how many sides and corners the shape has, if it has straight or curvy lines, and also the size and position of the shape.  Once Mr. Bag is completely empty, the children stand up and prepare to dance.  When the music begins, the children dance around the carpet.  However, when the music stops, the children freeze, and Mr. Bag calls out a shape for the children to stand on.  Generally we call out each shape and include an opportunity for the children to stand on their favorite shape.  At the end of the song, I encourage each child to pick up a few shapes.  Mr. Bag becomes hungry at this point, and begins naming shapes that he would like to eat.  The children feed Mr. Bag accordingly, and at this point in the atelier Mr. Bag usually retires due to being excessively full.  Other than focusing on Mr. Bag and his many shapes (including a diamond, square, rectangle, oval, circle, semicircle, heart, and star), we also read a few books including Shapes in Art and Shapes in Nature.  Toward the end of the week, we moved away from 2D shapes and began our exploration of 3D shapes.  With the aid of a variety of plastic 3D shapes we identified cubes, cones, pyramids, cylinders, and rectangular prisms.  During this point in the atelier schedule, Bubber was used to give the children an opportunity to build, shape, and form their own 2D and 3D shapes.  It was another wonderful week with a group of very interested friends.

-Nick

Literacy: Week 7- Compare/contrast

Featuring: An, Anya, Aven, Boden, Elly, Koda, Luca, Sebastian

This week, friends were extremely focused on writing practice. This group already knew how to write each of the letters in their names, so we ended up focusing on the differences in lower and upper-case letters. We discussed letters which are easier to write and practice making letters we found more difficult to write. Some children were able to write the entire alphabet on their paper and gave their peers tips on writing tricky letters.

Friends expressed their interest in learning to spell and write specific words like their parents names, names of  favorite story characters and favorite animals, so we worked on sounding the words and names out and practiced writing letters of each word. Each child got a chance to show and talk about their work  to the whole group at the end of each atelier:)

Elly even began writing a story which she shared with the group! Koda and Luca practiced writing their names and then drew a race car track together. We also explored rhyming words with dry erase markers on our erasable wall and we played a fun game we created in which friends were able to erase a letter in a word or one of our names and pick a letter to substitute, creating new and sometimes hilarious words. In this fun activity, friends learned the effect one or two letters can make. Sebastian showed us his reading skills by reading a "Bob Book!"