Well, thus far, I have not been as on-top-of-it with this blog as I was planning on being. Now that we're through the first few wild weeks and we're really settling into our routines, I'm hoping to be more consistent with this.
However, despite the lack of blog representation, I can assure you that we have been having quite a lot of fun amidst all of our hard work! Mr. Ploof and I have seen some huge growth over a very short period of time when it comes to writing numbers. The kids have spent a lot of time writing the numbers 0-5 over the past week or so, and if you ask them to tell you our rhymes for writing them down, I bet they could tell you! We've also been reading a lot of Junie B., as we love her and can't wait to see her at the Flynn in a couple weeks. The kids have also been working very hard on reading with "picture walks" and learning how to "retell" their books to a partner.
But my favorite thing that we've done so far this year happened just yesterday! September 15th happens to be International Dot Day, a day celebrating one of my favorite books, The Dot, by Peter H. Reynolds. The book follows Vashti, a little girl who does not believe she is at all creative or artistic. But thanks to a loving art teacher, she is made to not only see, but believe, that she is capable of many things, if she only just starts by making a single mark and seeing where it takes her! This is a wonderful story about believing in yourself, making your mark on the word, and seeing that you can be and are innately artistic. What a wonderful story to celebrate, amiright?!
So yesterday, after reading the story, our whole day revolved around dots, making our mark, and art! It was completely magical. Take a look...
During math, we did centers like we do in every math period, but yesterday's centers were very different! At one center, the kids put their number writing (and super secret detective) skills to good use. They were each given white crayons and white paper, and were asked to choose a number from 0-5 to fill the page with. Then, they traded papers with a partner who used water color paints (just like Vashti in the story) to paint dots and uncover the secret numbers all over the page.
However, despite the lack of blog representation, I can assure you that we have been having quite a lot of fun amidst all of our hard work! Mr. Ploof and I have seen some huge growth over a very short period of time when it comes to writing numbers. The kids have spent a lot of time writing the numbers 0-5 over the past week or so, and if you ask them to tell you our rhymes for writing them down, I bet they could tell you! We've also been reading a lot of Junie B., as we love her and can't wait to see her at the Flynn in a couple weeks. The kids have also been working very hard on reading with "picture walks" and learning how to "retell" their books to a partner.
But my favorite thing that we've done so far this year happened just yesterday! September 15th happens to be International Dot Day, a day celebrating one of my favorite books, The Dot, by Peter H. Reynolds. The book follows Vashti, a little girl who does not believe she is at all creative or artistic. But thanks to a loving art teacher, she is made to not only see, but believe, that she is capable of many things, if she only just starts by making a single mark and seeing where it takes her! This is a wonderful story about believing in yourself, making your mark on the word, and seeing that you can be and are innately artistic. What a wonderful story to celebrate, amiright?!
So yesterday, after reading the story, our whole day revolved around dots, making our mark, and art! It was completely magical. Take a look...
During math, we did centers like we do in every math period, but yesterday's centers were very different! At one center, the kids put their number writing (and super secret detective) skills to good use. They were each given white crayons and white paper, and were asked to choose a number from 0-5 to fill the page with. Then, they traded papers with a partner who used water color paints (just like Vashti in the story) to paint dots and uncover the secret numbers all over the page.
At center two, they got to color just like Vashti. In the book, Vashti discovers that dots can make some spectacular and interesting pieces of art. So, our class used their choice of markers, colored pencils, or crayons to make their own pictures made entirely of dots. Some kiddos made simple pictures with one solitary dot, while others made entire images using only dots. The variation was so interesting!
At the final center, the kids worked on their cutting skills to cut dots out of construction paper and glue them into more dot creations. They were given the option to free-cut their dots, or to draw their dots first to use as a template to cut around. In the end, we had more really cool dots of varying sizes, colors, shapes, and arrangements. Plus, they didn't even realize they were working on those fine motor skills! ;)
Yesterday also began our journey with inventive spelling. Up until now, our writing period has been a lot of discussing and practicing the routines. But on Dot Day, I decided to throw a little extra rigor into the mix. The kids were each given their own paper with a space for a drawing at the top with lines for writing on the bottom. In the drawing box, I had marked a small dot. It was up to them to use that dot to create a whole picture or scene. The only rule was that the dot needed to remain a dot, but otherwise, their imaginations could run wild. After drawing and coloring their picture, the kids had to do their best to "write the story" of the picture by writing down the sounds they hear in the words. The writing was great and the creativity in the drawings was absolutely amazing. Mr. Ploof and I were truly feeling a little mind-blown by the whole thing, actually! Fantastic stuff!
To tie our day up in a nice little bow, each of the kids joined me at the back table to put our discussion from the morning into beautiful artwork. After reading The Dot, we had talked about what mark we all hoped to leave on the world. The kids lovingly committed to helping the poor, encouraging people during math and art, being kind even when it's hard, being good to animals, planting gardens, making beautiful music, and helping their parents more (so, yeah, keep an eye out for that!) This is our next generation of world leaders, business people, teachers, philanthropists, environmentalists, advocates, parents, and doctors...I'm liking the way our future is looking so far! The giant dot they they drew on is the centerpiece for our new bulletin board, and will be surrounded by the beautiful artwork the kids made yesterday.
Dot Day was a great success. We had meaningful conversations, tons of fun, and lots of quality time spent using our imaginations. Only 364 more days until Dot Day 2016...