Seeds are growing!

We were really excited to get back to school after winter break; new projects await, and a chance to check our seeds we planted before we went on vacation.

As we expected, they sprouted over the break - students were very impressed with the results! Spinach and corn seemed to grow the most in the 'mini greenhouses' we made out of plastic bags in the windows, but nearly all of the seeds showed signs of growth. Next step is to move the seedlings into small cups to live in the windowsills for the next month or so before we plant them outside in the ground.

I also had students fill out an 'evaluation', basically a series of simple questions about our classes to give us feedback: what they like, don't like, do they look forward to the class, what other kinds of things do they want to learn, so on and so on. I was pleased to see how many of them wrote about the seed project and gardens, they really seem pumped on doing the gardens this spring.


3rd graders Marco and Kristina check out how much their seeds grew over winter break!

We also started our 'ecosystems' project. Students are learning about ecosystems - what they are, different types of ecosystems, etc. They will then connect this knowledge to their own gardens they will created this spring - investigating their ecosystem, trouble shooting problems, learning about how interrelated things in nature are - as well as what they have already learned about 'communities', and the similarities between ecosystems and communities, a connection they have already picked up on.

For our first 'ecosystem art project' they are making mobiles of an ecosystem they will choose and research - we are also learning about the work of Alexander Calder and other mobile artists. They seem pretty excited about it - more updates on it as we progress!

Picasso portraits

Students have been completing their Picasso portraits this week - loving how these are turning out! I’m always fascinated by how they go about creating an image of themselves.

For this project, students are building on what they have learned about how symbols, shape and colors can be used to express feelings or ideas. They then connect that to abstract art,looking at examples of Picasso’s work. They are then given a few copies of a printed image of their face, and asked to ‘reconstruct it’ to express some sort of feeling. Our older students have been doing writing to accompany their pieces; too small to photograph well, but they are really interesting and a great exercise in helping them to conceptualize what it is they are creating.

Here are some examples from 4th, 5th and 6th graders at Longfellow:

An afternoon in the park...

This week was a bit of a catch up one for us; students had a chance to finish up projects from their first three weeks of school (portfolios, identity collages and animal symbol masks), and we threw in a fun fall and Native American inspired activity for some diversity as well.

Today was Back to School Night at many of PUSD’s campuses, which means the after school program has to relocate for the afternoon so teachers and custodians can get the rooms looking nice and neat and clean. At Longfellow, we ended up at a local park, and decided to hold “Living Histories classes’ there. Bringing paints to the park on a day I had Kindergartners is either evidence of my ‘hardcore art teacherness’ or a lack of sanity. Maybe a bit of both.

But the project was wonderful. We had the students first do leaf rubbings, then paint the leaves, which they loved. I got the idea from Geninne’s Art Blog - I thought leaves she painted and such a great idea, and figured it was a project our students would enjoy. So far they are loving it - can’t wait to get these hung up in our room and let the older students have a shot at it.

Photos from our day in the park below:

Week one...

It’s always kinda amazing how fast summer seems to fly by, but I was excited and ready to be getting back to school this year.

Our first week back is usually about introductions and group projects; really focusing on orienting students around the idea of our class being a community and going about work collaboratively.

This year at Longfellow, we have a LOT of students - five teams in all: Kinders, 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th graders. It’s a lot of fun to get to interact with so many different students, and as this is my fourth year at this particular site, it’s also fun to have worked with so many of the kids for four consecutive years - I appreciate being able to develop and maintain those relationships.

We got started with introducing the idea and nuts and bolts of journaling: the philosophy behind it, the emphasis on creativity, generating ideas and working through blocks, and the how to’s. Many students had already had us in previous years and were familiar with the journal aspect of our classes, and were able to excitedly plug right in. As I told the students, this is something we want them to come to enjoy: it’s rare that they get a chance to do anything that they want, no strings attached, and it helps them relax, vent, generate ideas and get much needed creative time.

The first project we jumped into this week were group murals. We do this by having students work collaboratively, in big groups, on large sheets of paper - rolling paper that is used for packaging is typically what we will use. Thematically, we asked students to first think about all the types of things they knew how to do, asking them to make a list even, for fun. Then, collaboratively, we asked them to depict those things on their mural, ideally showing how they could put their talents together. Overall, it went over pretty well - especially for their first activity since coming back!

Next up was the flower pot project - symbolically us ‘growing things together’ - it’s always popular. The kids like drawing on the pots, it’s a fun collaborative effort. We asked them to depict images of ecosystems, one of two words we learned, or ways that they could help their community. Younger students focused on doing a drawing of any type together.

Overall, a great start to our year - we are very excited about the weeks ahead. The first quarter is going to be about rooting students into the idea of voice, creativity, and community, and we have lots of cool projects to help them in that process!

Welcome to our blog....

The school year is soon to be underway, and this blog will quickly become full of updates from both teachers and students from Living Histories after school program at Longfellow Elementary in Pasadena, CA. Add us to your RSS feed, and check back again in early September...

In the meantime, visit http://www.living-histories.us for more information.