4th Grade Buddies

 The 1-2 kids have fourth grade buddies from 4Q who they get to meet with every other Friday. Today was one of those days! Sometimes we do art with our buddies, sometimes we work together to take care of the outdoor classroom and the 4th grade garden (raking, weeding, arranging rocks along the path between the gardens), sometimes we share books with our buddies. 

Today our 4th grade buddies shared books they had written themselves and "published" on an app called Book Creator. This was a wonderful opportunity for our kids to be learn craft moves from older writers. It was also a nice preview on how Book Creator works so we can explore making our own ebook with this app. 

Enjoy the pictures below of our buddies!

Ball in the House

This week we had a special Cultural Arts Assembly - a visit from Ball in the House.  This musical group performs in A Capella style so the only "instruments" they use are their voices. We got to hear A Capella performances of songs by Harry Styles, Chaka Kahn, Bruno Mars and some originals written by the band members themselves. 

We learned that one member of the group does all the percussive sounds with his mouth to beatbox the rhythm. He is able to produce all the sounds of a drum set. The singers of the group have specialized parts as well - there is a lead singer who performs the melody, one singer who harmonizes with a high (tenor) voice and one singer who harmonizes with a low (bass) voice. All the voices blend together to make the sound full and rich. This is further enhanced by the use of sound systems. 

In the second part of the presentation, students were asked to try making some beatbox sounds, encouraged to try their hands at songwriting by tapping into a strong emotion, and invited to sing along with the songs, clap along or dance in their seats. 

Enjoy the pictures below! 

Dragon Study

We have officially launched our Dragon Study in these past few weeks! Kids have been organized into several dragon classification groups (Fire, Mountain, Thunder, Lake, Earth, Wind) and travel with their groups to different dragon stations based on different types of learning. At our Language station, groups act out a play in front of the whole group. So far, we have seen student adaptations of Dragon, Dragons Love Tacos 2, Custard the Dragon and A Cold Winter's Good Night. They have been enjoying trying out different roles while learning to project their voices and remember their lines.

The Musical station tasks the students with building an instrument that will bring to our ears the voice of a dragon. There are many different types of dragon that they could make a voice for. Some are loud, others are gentle, some are happy, others are serious. Each child plays his/her instrument for the group to see if they can guess which dragon it is the voice of. We have seen a variety of drums, shakers and stringed instruments so far. The kids at this station then use their dragon instruments to make different voice sounds - an angry voice, a sad voice, a partying voice, or a sleepy voice.

At the Intrapersonal station kids choose a picture of a dragon that they think most embodies their own inner "dragon spirit". This dragon becomes the cover of their folder and the student then reflects on their choice, writing about how they share qualities or traits with the dragon of their choosing. Kids have been doing a great job of back up their opinions with reasons and examples!

The Kinesthetic station challenges students to press modeling clay onto a card - stretching it out to make it create the shape of a dragon almost the way paint would. Details are added using toothpicks to make scales, eyes and other features. It is painstaking work to model the clay into a shape that resembles a western or eastern dragon. These dragons are shared with the group and then displayed out in the hall.

The Visual/Spatial group works collaboratively to create a habitat for dragons. The group uses oil pastels to show the environment and its features. Each group must consider and plan what resources will be provided in their habitat to help the dragons sustain life - sources of food and water, space, and shelter. These large scale murals are shared with the rest of the kids and displayed in the hallway.

The Logical/Mathematical station sends our students on an "archaeological dig" to unearth the bones of dragons hidden under the sand. After very carefully brushing away layers of sand, our scientists retrieve bones and must consider the size and shape of the dragon it may have belonged to. Using clues from a dragon skeleton diagram, they create a visual representation of the complete dragon with the found bone drawn in place. The kids have really enjoyed this investigation!

Our station work will continue next week as we rotate all the groups through each station. Some pictures of artifacts and students creations are below. Behold the dragons!