Express Yourself: Reflecting On Our Learning

For the past several weeks the children have been exploring The Joy Of Picking Flowers and have expressed this in a variety of ways.  I made a web and recorded our past experiences  . . . 

• they listened to the song English Country Garden and reflected on the idea this song evoked
• they listened to Rossini's William Tell Overture and recalled how they moved liked wildflowers
• they recalled the feelings that arose in them as they acted the story of The Gunnywolf

Today they expressed their thoughts and ideas about the joy of picking flowers through painting. 

At first I heard some children criticize another's painting so we stopped and had a look at the many painting styles they can think about and Googled flower images. Some of the children's painting was similar to abstract and some similar to pointillism.

 

Express Yourself: Move Like Wildflowers

Last week the children had a thrilling time listening to the story of the Gunnywolf and today they had as many thrills acting the story out! The children pretended to be the little girl and I was the Gunnywolf and every time the Gunnywolf woke up the children were not supposed to run away, it it took immense self control to stay put and wait till the story told them to move but with practice they did it!  We've made plans to practice this story again and then act it out for the other children.

We've been thinking about garden flowers and wild flowers and I asked the children . . . 

If you were a wild flower and you could lift your roots out of the ground and move, 

what would you move like?

The children used colorful scarves and listened to three pieces of music 

and let their bodies respond to the sounds.

William Tell Overture - Rossini  

Sabre Dance - Aram Khachaturian  Four Seasons - Vivaldi

Ryleigh in mid air!

Express Yourself: The Gunnywolf

Today we explored the idea of wild flowers versus garden flowers and we looked at images of grape hyacinth and bluebells. After some discussion it became clear that these two flowers are sometimes found growing in the wild and sometimes they're found growing in gardens.

I introduced the children to a story about a little girl who loves picking flowers to decorate her house but has been warned not to go too far into the forest where the Gunniwolf lives.  The children listened  intently expressing the feelings this story evoked in them - "Super scary!" 

I've included the link to the story of the Gunnywolf  

http://www.mikelockett.com/stories.php?action=view&id=127

At the end of the story the little girl escapes from the Gunnywolf while he lay sleeping. 

What do you think he'd say when he woke up and saw the little girl gone?

"Where's my lunch!" - Billy

"Where's the little girl?" - Raleigh

"You cannot sing that song!" Elaine

The children drew scene pictures of the story, you can see how some have included details 

from the story and some gave a try at drawing grape hyacinths!

describing his picture to a friend

I drew the flowers and wanted help drawing the little girl and the gunny wolf 

Express Yourself: Drawing Flowers

The Summative Project for this unit has each child choosing a topic/idea that they are interested in and being guided by the teacher to reflect on what they know about it, how they feel and what they want to share and how they want to express it; a story, song, poem, a dance, movement, a play, a painting, drawing,or a sculpture. I want to give the children opportunity to practice this process during the inquiry weeks by choosing a topic/idea for them. 

There's not a day goes by during the spring and summer months that I don't watch children joyfully pick flowers and gather bouquets and carefully set them in a glass of water for display or make plan about who they will give them to.  I knew that selecting the topic of flowers would be meaningful to the children and they could connect to it. 

I introduced this idea with a song https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUyxCP5Rvco  The writer of the song knows many names of flowers, insects and birds found in gardens and chose a song to express it. The children listened for the names and commented on the ones they recognized. They also reflected on how the emotions the song evoked in them and I helped them connect it to how they feel when they pick flowers. 

They're responses  . . . 

"It made me really happy" - Sofia

"Think about morning" - Elaine

"Made me think of night" - Billy

"Made me sad-happy, it was nice" - Bela

"Tired" - Ryleigh

"Think about animals" - Michael

"Night time" - Tyreese

 

Before expressing their delight in flowers the children took turns demonstrating 

how they draw flowers so we can learn from each other. 

 

Bela stated an idea "Boys don't like flowers." I checked with the group and some of the boys said they do like flowers. I added "I wonder if there are any girls that don't like flowers" This prompted a spontaneous survey and the children approached the other groups and asked each child if they like flowers or not. When it was Ryleigh's turn she said she doesn't like flowers. Bela was surprised "What! How can you nolike flowers?" 

Ryleigh responded "Well, some girls don't like flowers" 

I suspect from what I've observed that Ryleigh does like flowers but perhaps wanted to make a point to Bela! 

Express Yourself: I'm Speaking To You!

Speaking in front of others is a learned skill. The children were very clear in their understanding of what they should remember when speaking to others . . . 

** look at the person (or people) you're talking to
** use a calm loud (but not too loud voice)

Today's activity provided the children an opportunity to practice listening with their whole bodies and being a good speaker. They spent time with building toys to work on an idea and then everyone took a turn speaking about their idea while the others listened. 

Sofia and Ryleigh decided to work on an idea together. At one point in the beginning I noticed that one person was giving the ideas while the other was watching and I asked them if they remembered that both people's ideas should be used. From then on they both contributed ideas. When needed we used the charts to remind what is expect. After Bela's turn I asked the children if they knew he loved animals, they reflected and said that they didn't know that - it was a great example of how sharing ideas helps us connect with one another. 

Elaine - I love animals and animals in the a water

Bela - I made an animal museum because I love animals

Michael - I built a dinosaur house because I love dinosaurs

Tyreese - oh dear Tyreese! He had build a big 4 story structure and moments before we stopped building and he didn't want to tell us what his idea had been.

Chloe - I built this because I love triangles.

Ryleigh - I love farms and animals and that's why I wanted to build about it.

Sofia  - I love animals and to feed and pet animals and so does Ryleigh and that's why I wanted to build with her.

 

 

Express Yourself: Do You Hear Me?

Expressing your ideas to others requires
speaking effectively and listening attentively. 

Today the children thought about what it means to listen with their whole body. I listed the various parts of the body and they identified what that body part "looks like" when someone is listening very well.  This chart will be very helpful as we refer to it whenever someone needs a reminder to listen with their whole bodies while a speaker is expressing an idea. 

They practiced listening skills with a List Game; I recited a list of words and when I said a specific word they stood up. They had great fun playing this and everyone was really listening with their whole bodies!  The children took turns reciting a list too. This is definitely a game we will play again!

Max's Words by Kate Banks is a story about a boy who collects words from magazines and newspapers. He collects them in piles until he realizes he can make sentences with them and eventually whole stories. The children used word cards took turns choosing some and arranging them in the structure of a sentence. Lots of fun was had as I read the nonsensical sentences. I noticed that the children were able to put most of the words right side up showing they had letter recognition. 

New Unit! Express Yourself

 Central Idea:

We express ourselves in many ways and this helps us connect with one another

Lines of Inquiry:

How language, music, and visual arts help us express ourselves and build connections with others
Sharing ideas and being good listeners helps build understanding
Taking time to reflect helps us practice slowing downs that we can make 

connections with what we hear and see

The children are full of ideas and they're all to happy to tell us about them, but is talking the only way to share an idea? The children identified some other ways ideas can be expressed . . . 

paint it

draw it in the sand

do a performance

build it

Today we practiced this by choosing an idea and using building materials to express it. Michael and Tyreese chose railroad tracks "because you build them" but in the end didn't have an idea in mind, they just enjoyed building. Chloe chose Lego but couldn't decide on an idea she wanted to work on. 

Here are pictures of the other children's ideas . . . 

I went on a ferry to the Sunshine Coast and saw many animals

I made a beaver house

I'm building an animal castle

A house for all the people and dinosaur