Feb. 17th- 23rd 2013 Core E Week 18

Feb. 17th- 23rd 2013

 Core E

Week 18--Half way through this core! 

I skipped doing another LOW week and decided to keep moving forward another week.  Part of me wants to take this core really slowly, and the other part of me doesn't want to take too long to get through the core.  So, I am trying to take breaks when we NEED them rather than scheduling them and taking longer than we need to.  Since we were feeling rather run down this week, we thought it would be a little easier on us to try to just catch up on our SL (Sonlight) things than to try to do too many things for our abilities this week.  Plus, we had Giz and Grampy visit on Sat. the 16th and we didn't get our chores done.  Then on Sunday the 17th our church had the last sermon from our minister before he moved onto a new job.  That was a first for all of us; seeing a minister off to a new job!  Most of the congregation went to Stookey's Resturant for lunch; it was a lovely event.

LHE Co-op:  We are on our third of six classes with our small hs group.  I'm teaching the Nature in Art class on "Micro-Life" this week.    Dd is enjoying her 3 classes--Gym, Health, and French classes.
 
Basketball:  We had warm enough weather to play basketball in our drive way ONE day this week; then the horrid weather hit.  We had ice storms and frigid temps.  This is the last week of Dd's Upward Basketball.  Practice on Thursday, and our last game on 2-23-13 (game tied).

Our Lessons:

Bible:
 

What the Bible Is All About Handbook for Kids: Bible Handbook for Kids by Frances Blankenbaker and Henrietta C. Mears

What the Bible Is All About
2 Samuel 15,16,17,18, & 19
1 Chronicles
Ruth - the whole book, chapters 1-4

History:
We were a little behind from the week before, so we read extra in all our history books:
Landmark History of the American People, Vol. 2
The Story of the USA, Book 3
Sounding Forth the Trumpet

Read Alouds:

 

Little Britches: Father and I Were Ranchers by Ralph Moody

Little Britches - Chapters 2-13 (we were behind on our chapters in this book too, so we happily had to read it a lot this week!)
Oxford Ill. Bk of Amrcn Children's Poems

Reader 1:

Helen Keller (Scholastic Biography) by Margaret Davidson and Wendy Watson

Helen Keller--finished

Reader 2:

Annie Oakley: Young Markswoman (Childhood of Famous Americans) by Ellen Wilson

*Dd has chosen Annie Oakley to be her person of interest!!  She really, really likes Annie Oakley!
  Childhood of Famous Americans- Annie Oakley--finished



Reader 3:
 

F is For Freedom by Roni Schotter

F is For Freedom--in process
I gave Dd a lot of different choices; but this is the book she chose as her next Reader.  We have so many books on the Underground Railroad and about the Civil War that I think most of her extra Readers will still be on those topics for weeks to come!  There is just so many great books on those historic periods.

Reader 4:
Dd wanted me to note that she read High School Musical Bonjour Wildcats this week.  She honestly reads LOTS of books each week that I don't post; like these High School Music books/"twaddle"; but she specifically asked for me to put this one in....so, there you go!  Twaddle does get read here.  

Math:
I've decided to PAUSE for a little while and let the info we've taken in to gel a little bit before we go forward.  Dd has really done great moving from thing to thing in her Epsilon book; but I just thought she could use a little break from learning new material and just have a little time to solidify what she knows already before we go forward.  For this week, she did TT (Teaching Textbooks 5) and I had Dh sit with her 3-5 times and do 2-4 fraction questions with her just as a refresher/review.
TT 5: Lessons 21-26
Quiz (? forgot what number quiz it was!)
TimesAttack-computer game--she hadn't played this in a long time and was so happy with how much better she could play it now!

Language Arts:

Rosetta Stone: two lessons

First Language Lessons:
Lesson 42, 43
She memorized the first paragraph from The Hobbit instead of their poem suggestion.

WWE 2:
we finished the book!  So glad we went back to finish the weeks we were going to skip!  We just had week 36 to do this week, and we did!  Now we can go back to WWE 3


AAS: 
Step 10 completed and passed
  Audio:
By the Great Horn Spoon by Sid Fleishman--Disc 2
Last week we finished The Fellowship of the Rings, and so we had to order The Two Towers for next.

Art:

Big, Big Piano week!!!  Yay!

Art--clay this week; just fun stuff.

Feb. 11th 16th 2013 Core E Week 17

 Feb. 11th 16th 2013 Core E Week 17

Who needs a better camera?!

We were suppose to take a LOW this week ("Left-Over Week"); but I didn't feel like it--we weren't really that behind.  So, we went ahead with doing Week 17.

We had nice weather Mon. thru Thur. so we played a lot of basketball in our driveway each day at lunch; for about an hour each time.  We went over a lot of basketball skills.  So, we didn't get as much done this week on our lessons.  It was really nice to be outside and having a little sunshine.  

The Sandhill Cranes were migrating like CRAZY this week!!!  I lost count how many clusters past by our house this week.  Dh says that is a good sign that spring will be early; but I haven't seen any robins yet....so I am undecided!!!

Thursday we had our co-op classes; which were a lot of fun. Dd has Gym, then Health, then French class.  Dd had basketball practice--so Dh and I celebrated Valentines evening sitting in a gym at a church watching her play!!!  How romantic!!  She played on Sat. Feb. 16th and her team won!  Her grandparents drove up to see the game.  It was nice of them to come and see her play.  It is sad none of our relatives have come to see her though---of all the games Dh and I have gone to and driven out to see of our nephews over the years; they have NEVER come to any of her games ever.  Pity party over. 


Friday we went to a book sale.  I felt so sick afterwards that I called it a sick afternoon and we only did prayers, audio, reading, and math on Friday.   All in all that made for a light week--but small progress was made.


Bible:
We had already read all of the Parent Reading of 2 Chronicles from the Bible portion, so we could focus all our attention on the Student Portion--which was on Job.  We were suppose to only read Job 2, 4, 18, 32, and 42.  But, there was no way I could skip that much of Job and really feel like we were covering the book of Job.  

 

What the Bible Is All About Handbook for Kids: Bible Handbook for Kids by Frances Blankenbaker and Henrietta C. Mears

So, we read the chapter on Job from this book I have that gives us a good 'gist' on each book of the bible as well as the following chapters from Job: 1-9, 18- 19, 23-27, 29-30, 32-34-36, 38, 40-42.  Some of the chapters I didn't read the whole chapter, I just read the important part and didn't count that as reading the chapter.  I am liking focusing on one book per week instead of switching around like we were doing before; and adding in more chapters.

History:
Landmark history of the American People

Read Alouds:
We started: Little Britches by Ralph Moody

Reader 1: finished

 

The Terrible Wave by Marden Dahlstedt

Dd finished: Terrible Wave 
Amazon says: During the disastrous flood of 1889 in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, a spoiled teen-age girl learns to accept responsibility as she and her companions search for their families and friends.

Reader 2: finished 

 
 Helen Keller (Scholastic Biography) by Margaret Davidson and Wendy Watson
 Amazon says: The bestselling biography of Helen Keller and how, with the commitment and lifelong friendship of Anne Sullivan, she learned to talk, read, and eventually graduate from college with honors.

Language Arts:
WWE 2: Week 35: Day 1,2,3,4
*we had moved onto WWE 3; but I decided to go back and finish the last 3-4 weeks that I had thought it was okay to skip; but have since reconsidered that decision.

FLL 4: Lesson 39, 40, 41

AAS: Step 9 --completed and passed
reviewed many of the previous test words/concepts from this book; and reviewed the Find Gold rule from Book 2.

Adverbial Clause Chant: 3 x (Dd has informed me "she KNOWS this, and no longer needs to be drilled on this!! it's true!!!

Grammar Flashcards: 2x


Math:
Math U See: 12 A, B, C, D, E, F
Skip Counting Family: 7 family 3 x (m,t,w)

Life of Fred: Farming
Chapters 15-19--finished the book


Typing Instructor:
20-30 minutes 2x (T-Th)

Rosetta Stone--French
Lesson 2 Vocabulary
Yay!  We got the headset all fixed up and everything loaded and going again!  And it is still winter!  Hopefully we can get this back into our normal rotation again!


Activities & Art:
Knitting--she found some gizmo that makes small tube knitting; like fingers for knitted gloves??  She loves making the long tube of knit though--I think she is going to turn it into a "scarf" for Aunt Marilyn's "Sister Bear".  Sister Bear goes to chemo with her and helps her with her cancer.  Everyone gives things to dress up Sister Bear and Dd wants to contribute.

Valentines cards--she made some really incredible value scale, abstract contour line drawings for Dh and me each, on our cards! very cool! 

She made 4 hemp bracelets weaving for her friends for V-day gifts
Cooking: no real cooking this week- 2 puddings, though!

BIG PIANO WEEK!!!! BIG TIME!!!  Plus, Giz got her a new piano book and she played the whole book already.  She had 2 major long lessons with Giz (one on phone, one in person)

One clay/play dough stuff kit that Giz got her project--flowers and a vase thing she made on Valentines.

Lots of craft-stuff this week...very busy with making things this week; but not in the kitchen.

Sewing--Made a pillow.  She is a whiz on the sewing machine and wants to teach me!


Audio:
 
We have listened to By The Great Horn Spoon, Disc 1, twice in the van now---as we can't find disc 2 !!!!!!  


Fellowship of the Ring:
Disc 3 completed--ordered the next audio in the series The Two Towers!!!





Music: 3x (M, T, W)

The Living Clarinet by Barrie Carson Turner

*This is wonderful!!!  I love this series of books with CD's, we have 3.

DVD:
Magic School Bus:
Taking Flight

ParaNorman
We liked the Special Effects better than the movie actually.  We are big Wallace and Gromit fans here and love "STOP ACTION" films, and ParaNorman is a stop-action; plus they added in lots of high tech effects as well.  Artistically it was a cool movie to see.  But, the quality of the story was very sub-par.  The story was.....eh.

                 

Homeschooling Methodology

Homeschooling Methodology

In one of my friendly Sonlighting chats my friends were discussing which 'homeschooling method' do we use....Hmmm.  Such a good question!  The answer to that question has changed and remained under the same umbrella "eclectic"; all these years.  Although, I guess I kind of declare it a "Sonlighting Umbrella" now. 

Here is my small portion of the dialog - not well thought out or rewritten; just some basic thoughts off the top of my head.  I thought it might be interesting for me to look back on and read in a few years time to see where I am today.

"When Dd was born I was all into sign language and we did that until she began to talk; then see moved on and didn't want to sign with me anymore (huge bummer for me b/c I am fluent)...the it was the Montessori method and we did LOTS of that. Dd had her own brooms and dust pans, and helped with all our chores---we did it all, bought the books--the whole 9 yards.  Then it was Charlotte Mason through and through!  Then we went towards Raymond Moore, and the Better Late Than Early phase--now that we are older and Larkin is finally ready and old enough for some of the Classical Education we are definitely incorporating that into our lives.

I think all of those methods are STILL apart of who we are and what we believe; and are important.  They each had a significant part in helping us where we were and where we are going.  I don't think we could be whole without the combination of "all of the above"!!!!

I would feel like a HUGE failure if I was a die hard 'classical educator'!!!  Boy, oh boy!  I've checked out TWTM (The Well Trained Mind by Susan Wise Bauer) at least 3-4 times and I do pull out some gems each time I read it; but I absolutely get the feeling that if I were to be a "success" with that program I would have to change how I parent.  At my core, I am an "attachment parent" that has had to draw lines and be firm and resolute as I encouraged growth with my daughter.  But, to incorporate THAT level of dedication to achieving that high level of academics with MY child, I would have to buy a whip!  It may work for some children.  I do hear that some children get up early and get on their homework by themselves, and are self motivated....but this is not (at all!) the type of kid I have.  I have a very artistic, creative, 'outside the box' type of thinker.

I like to incorporate the best things I see from the classic education format and put in as many as I can; while still keeping our lessons not SO intense.  I really do think that Dd needs hours each week to play.  We have spells of doing a lot and spells of playing a lot.  She thrives much better when she gets to play--which for her is when she will go build things, and paint things, and play piano...it isn't on a screen or out of a box...she creates stuff.

In the warmer months we move towards being outside and nature/growing things and Charlotte Mason.  Right now, in winter, we are doing a lot of TWTM type of things, but I still wouldn't say I am more one method over the other.  I think "Sonlight" homeschooler seems like a one-word description that can fit in all the different types of styles, plus being a CHRISTIAN, plus loving BOOKS, and music, and science --all at the same time!"

Nature in Art Spring 2013

As much as it may seem pointless to reinvent the wheel; there is always someone who has to go and try to do just that!  That's me!  I've been working and smoke has been coming out my ears for weeks now trying to improve the class I taught last semester...but, I'm not sure any of the thinking and reading has actually accumulated to any new improvements!  So what do I have to show for the hours of self-torment???  nothing really...but, I guess it must be part of my process.  I just really want the class to be great; for the students to learn a lot and to have fun while doing it---is that possible?  I will try.

So, what did we do, then I will say what worked and what didn't work.
Class 1: Seashells
1.Intro. "Welcome to Nature In Art.....I like to make art....sometimes messy, creative art, and sometimes neat, detail-oriented art..."
*that I bring in lots of books each class, and  place them on a table for them to go pick up and bring back to their seat to look at during the class--when they need a break from drawing.
2.Make Sketch books.  Each student had a place setting with 10 pieces of 12X18 paper, 3-5 drawing pencils: HB, 3B, 4B, 5B, 6B, one extra large/thick needle to make holes in paper with, one regular needle with brown threaded-arms length, kneaded & vinyl eraser.
(Making the sketch books took a while--longer than I thought it would.  This is just a project that you can't teach quickly.  Once a student has done it once, it would be so quick to re-do; but the first time takes time.)
3. Drawing Pencil explanation.  I gave a quick description of drawing pencils.  I did not go into great detail. But, I broke down the basics.
4. Make a 6 Rectangle Value Scale drawing--easy-peasy.  Make a long rectangle the length of your page.  Break the rectangle into 6 relatively same-sized boxes.  Then the first box on the left is all white.  The last box on the far left is all black.  The boxes gradually grow darker from the white, to a little bit of gray, to a little bit more gray, to gray, to darker gray, to dark gray, to all black. 
**here I taught "cross-hatching"--a method of shading.
**or they could scribble or use a soft shading method.
**I gave them the option - If they WANTED they could have a homework assignment and make another value scale at home.  The could make another rectangle like they did in class or they could shake things up and do an abstract/contour line wacky drawing and use the shapes to make 6 different scales of gray, black, white in that abstract way/creative way.
5.Draw Seashells.  Each table had one or two trays full of seashells.  They could pick one of pick an arrangement to work from.  They only had 5-10 minutes to work on this, so it wasn't long enough to really get far.

What did NOT work: well, I think I *should* have offered warm up exercises/drawings to break them out of the 'afraid' to make a bad drawing syndrome.  A few students really seemed not sure what to do and it always helps to give them an out--like doing a "Blind Drawing" (having them draw that seashell while NOT looking at the page).  Then if the drawing looks all crazy, it is expected b/c 'hey, you weren't even looking!!'  So, I need to give them some FUN, ice-breaker type of warm-up drawing exercises to get them going; plus they are fun.  Even the "fill a whole page with horizontal lines" assignment can be fun and challenging.  It all depends upon where the students are starting from; and this class really has all levels.   
What I didn't do well:
1. Transition into the "drawing stage" of the class for the beginning students specifically.  The more experienced students jumped in and just started drawing the seashells; but a lot of the other students wanted more instruction.  
2. I talked too much.
3. Started clean up too late, and the next class had to wait on me to get our stuff out of the room.  I need to get the students to help me more by me being more specific about who does what in my clean up/pack up needs.
 
What I did well: With the exceptions of scissors (which I thought would be provided by the classroom supplies bin), I had more than enough of everything.  It was all organized, set up, and ready to go before class started.

The books I brought this week: 4-5 books on John James Audubon, 5-6 books on Seashells and Sea Life, and the artist of the week was Georgia O'Keefe.  No one had a chance to go to the table and look at any of the books b/c we were so rushed for time.

Class 2: Flowers

What we did:
Went over what a "Diagrammatic Drawing" is and showed one of mine, and some from the Nature Journal book I have.

Showed a "View Finder" -white frame with clear vellum in the middle for finding your picture from a still life.

Showed/discussed a "Grid" and the details of what and why and how.

*all three of these topics seemed to fall flat.  I still do not have a very good feel for these students.  They really didn't seem at all interested.  I don't know if it is just ME or what.  The 5th graders were VERY interested in the grid---especially a few, specific students.

Then we did some pencil exercises--how to use your pencil and what you can do with the different pencils.
-while making straight lines push hard then light then hard as you go across the page.
-make a wave, up and down with your 6B then go behind that wave with a new wave on a different wave with a HB pencil.  The students had a hard time understanding what I wanted with that and next time I should have examples done to show them--and maybe some paper taped up for me to do while they watch.

Composition Exercise: I had them guess where the flowers would go on a blank page of paper, from a zerox of a print out drawing of a grouping of flowers.  The print out had 5 flowers arranged on the page in various areas on the page...I had them try to guess where to put the 5 circles representing the 5 flower blooms on a blank page; then put the print out behind their blank page and hold it up to the light to see how close they were to being right, or how off they were.  

Drawing exercises--"Upside down drawing" of the vases of dried flowers on their tables.  "Blind Contour" of the vases--we did 5-6 of these short 1-2 minute drawings.  Then "Half-Blind Contour Drawings"-were they could look once or twice at the vases during the 1-2 drawing exercise.  Then on the last drawing exercise they HAD to try to draw as messy and dark as they could....which really needs more practice.  I was looking for black pages and they didn't get it.  I need to make an example of this for them too.

Then they had 25 minutes to either work on their still life at their table or a zerox drawing I had for them at the table of a drawn flower.      

What I did right: I didn't talk nearly as much.  I "felt" much better about doing the second class; even days before the class.  I can tell the kids are not really expecting much and I can relax.

What I could improve upon: I need more examples of what I want them to do.  I did have examples of the drawing exercises; but not of the pencil exercises.   I will work on that this week.   

This time clean up was about 3 minutes TOO EARLY!  I need to do a better job at getting the timing right. 

 What I want to make sure I do:
Go over what a NATURE JOURNAL is!!!!

Points:*Observe- *Explore- *Define

Do drawing exercises that loosen up the class, warm them up and encourage them to be daring!

a fun link for this class would be:
http://vihart.com/blog/doodling-fibonacci-2/  


Here is what I did with the last Nature in Art class in 2012--I will be going over these concepts again with the new students:
 The concept we discussed/taught was on "Composition"/Design.  This is an area that most of the students really haven't gotten yet.  To help understand this concept I took one zerox of a drawing of a group of flowers and printed it with a clear grid on top of it.  The zerox had a light grid printed on top of the page.  Almost every student had their own copy of this page; a few had to share.  I had the students take a new sheet of paper and try to estimate where the 5 large blooms would go on their new sheet if they were trying to replicate this flower drawing.  I just wanted them to see how to visually section off their page into quadrants and figure out where on the page the blooms went.  All they had to do was draw the 5 ovals/circles.  This was an exercise in HOW WE PLAN A DRAWING--composition.  I am trying to stress the importance of building the whole page as a drawing, not just dropping a drawing of an item in the middle of a white page and leaving it there floating.  This was discussed - again like last week- and urged the students to think of making their drawing 'interesting'.  "What makes a drawing interesting?", "What can I do to make my drawing more interesting?"  Then I gave ideas and let the students supply answers and acknowledged that each answer was correct.  I especially liked it when one student said to add lots of different color values and shades.  Then, that was enough discussion - time to draw!

Then I showed them the drawing I had done the night before of a diagrammatic drawing of a flower from a book.  My point in this exercise was to show them a)composition b)background from my imagination to liven up the drawing.  I've been seeing a lot of floating bugs from the last class.

Then, I told them the sections of books I brought in and placed in the back of the room-- if they wanted to look at the books as one of their stations.  Since our class was on FLOWERS, I brought in artists who also focused on flowers-like Vincent Van Gogh, Georgia O'Keefe, Monet, and an artist-slash-naturalist John James Audubon. I also brought in illustrated books on plants and flowers.  I had chosen to do my drawing from one of the books on flowers.

 Class 3: Micro Life

Set up--each place has pencil sets (HB, 3B, 5B, 6B), erasers (kneaded & vinyl), 3 pieces of loose paper, 2-4 seashells (for blind contour drawing exercises), 2-3 Drawing/Zerox to copy--- I got the drawings from this book:

 

The Microcosmos Coloring Book by Lynn Margulis, Christie Lyons and Dorion Sagan

 The students bring their sketch books back to each class.  I encouraged the students to draw more in their sketch books today and document their drawings.  After a short discussion about how cool things microscopic are, we headed into doing our drawing warm-up exercises.  I showed a few photographs of microscopic images that were/are amazing to show how awesome microscopic images can be.

 

Drawing exercises:

1)Stand Up!  Stand up and draw vertical lines across the whole page.  Then draw diagonal lines across the page (on top of the vertical lines).  Then draw vertical rows of circles/spheres up and down the page, use your whole body and whole arm to draw.

2)Dual-Handed, whole-brain- Mirror drawings.  Start by putting a pencil in each hand, and then you will have each hand mirror what the other hand is doing,  start in the middle of the page and the right pencil will stay on the right side of the page and the left pencil will stay on the left side of the page.  Both pencils will stay down and flow through the drawing in sync with the other hand.

3) repeated drawing 2

4)2 Handed Flow--seperate directions for each hand.  A pencil in each hand; but each pencil / each hand will do it's own thing and 'dance' together in it's own thing/pattern.  This is hard to do!!!!  They want to keep copying each other!  The page (for me) really turned into a big MESS!

5)"Turkey" drawing/Value Scale drawings --I had the students draw a small oval with 6B, then go 3/4th of the way around the oval with a HB pencil--like tail feathers on a turkey, then another row of feathers with a 3B, then another row of feathers on top of that row with a 5B.  We just did some single and double and triple cross hatching lines to see how light & dark we can make it with each pencil.

6)Blind Contour Drawings with the Seashells on their tables.  Without looking at their paper - at ALL! they were to draw the seashell of their choosing (from the selection on their table).  This seemed to be difficult; b/c I did see some students looking!!

7)repeat the Blind Contour drawings, for a total of 3 of these.

8)Negative Space Drawing with a seashell. I had the students draw a rectangle on their page--about a 6 inch by 4 inch rectangle; to keep it small.  Pick a seashell and draw the contour of that shell inside the rectangle.  Then draw the background in with dark crosshatching strokes; so the back ground is dark and the seashell is light.

Then the students had 20-25 minutes for their extended drawing.  They had 3 choices: 1) draw from the Zerox images I had placed on each table of microscopic life. 2) Draw from the Stereo Microscope I brought in. 3) Draw from one of the two microscopes that Ms. P. brought in.  I think 2 students used the microscopes to draw from.

What I noticed---the students really did some great extended drawings from the Zerox pages I had provided!!! WoW! They looked really great.  The composition looked great on every page I saw.  It was really nice for me to see the students really do a nice drawing and have a little bit of time to actually get into the drawing a little bit.

What I did right--I took Ms. P's advise and spent longer on the drawing warm up exercises.  I might have gone a little over in my talking before the drawing started; but I hadn't gone over some basic art ideas that I wanted to share with them yet and I took this week as an opportunity to do so.

  What didn't work--the microscopes were not a big hit.  The books-- I brought a bunch of very cool books on micro life; were not picked up at all.  They really don't care about looking at the books.  The good news; they just want to draw!!

  Class 4: Bugs

I really, really like bugs--- I just had to say that first and foremost.  Now I can talk about our class! 

 Prep for the class:

1. Collage of well drawn bugs from books I own:  I had cut & pasted small drawings of bugs to make a sheet of paper with a good assortment of bugs on it.  Then I made 3 more of these assortment pages.  Each table got about 3 different options of these collage pages.

 2. I have a book called something like 'Draw Bugs'.  I Zeroxed out about 6-8 different bugs pages from this book.  This book is great in showing the student HOW to draw bugs.  I really like how easy they make it.

 3. I made numerous copies of all of the above 2 items so that each table would have 5-6 sheets of possible images to draw from.  

4. I filled up two big canvas bags with bug books for the students to look through and have as an option for drawing.

5. I brought in Sharpie markers for the students to have to draw bugs with too (besides just the pencils).

6. I have 4-5 table set up with apples and banana still-life for our Contour drawing exercises.  I had 4-5 tables set up with blue glass and seashell still-life's too.

 7. Each table had 1-2 small trays with 1-4 bugs on available for the students to draw from.

Each students 'spot' had a set of pencils in a rubber band, erasers, 2 sheets of scratch paper for warm up exercises, the still life (apples/banana's or blue glass-seashells), the tray with a bug, a magnifying glass to look at the bugs with, 1-3 different types of black markers/pens.

 

The class begins:

warm-up exercises: 

Stand Up and do the vertical lines across page, then diagonals across / on top of that, then the circles on top of that. 

Dual handed- two handed 'mirror' drawing--1-2 minutes, repeat. 

Dual handed, but each hand working individually drawing.

Blind Contour with still-life from their table - NO looking at their drawing page, repeat.

Blind Contour again, but can glimpse 2 times, then on next drawing they can glimpse 3 times.  This ends warm ups.

BUG drawing time!!!  30 minutes for this.  The choices are: 1) They can draw the real bugs at their table.  2)They can draw from the many images I printed off and put on their table.  3)They can come over to the book table and pick out a book that they want to draw from.

   

  Class 5: Spirals in Nature: Fibonacci

This was a fun class, but I don't think I really planned it as well as it could have been planned.  Two things could have happened-either/or.... I could have really ampted up the excitement about the students getting to bring in their own still-life more.  Only some of the kids brought in something.  I asked for them to bring in 2-4 items and most brought in 1-2 little, tiny things, or one semi-small thing-like one shell.  I asked them to bring in one spiral shell AND a still-life set.  Maybe if I had set it up like: "Hey, guys...this is YOUR class to bring in something really fun and neat to draw and YOU get to choose it!!!!!" maybe, just maybe they would have been more inclined to bring in something more than they did????  I don't know???  One student's mom told her to bring in a pineapple b/c she knew we were doing Fibonacci and how relevant that would be....and I gave her a prize!!

Or maybe I should have bought glitter glue and let the kids do the spirals on a pine cone and used the whole class on that???  I don't know, you could spend some time on doing the activities from the Vi Hart dvd/clip we watched today.  I was surprised to see 2 students doing 2 of the pine cone drawings from the clip during our extended drawing time.

What did I NOT do well?  I must not be a good motivator to encourage the students to bring in things or I am not use to teenagers.  But, what I did well--is that I KNEW they wouldn't be bringing in stuff and I brought in things for them as my back-ups (so glad I do that).  I still don't have a great sense of how the class is going, to be honest.  The students are doing well with drawing during the class.  The drawings from the still life's today weren't as good as the drawings from the Xeroxes of Bugs & Micro-life.  It seems they do well with transferring data from page to page.  **One thing I did notice today, that would be a good teaching point, was that some of the students weren't fully using the page.  They were drawing a small tiny seashell  that was eaten up by all the vast white space on the page.  The student could have really used a hint or two about using the WHOLE page and filling up the space.  Their little shell seemed so lost and lonely on the page.  That would be a good thing to mention to the group; although some students do know how to use their whole space. Drawing exercises-we did our Stand UP  drawing; but we did it a little differently today than usual.  I had the students make a big circle in the middle of their page, with it being so big that it touches the top and bottom of the page, and,  then on top of that they did diagonals across the page one way, then the other way, then horizontal horizontaltal lines all across to finish the drawing.  Then a few more of our normal drawing exercises--see previous days.  I went over who Leonardo Fibonacci was by partly reading this book:

 

Blockhead: The Life of Fibonacci by Joseph D'Agnese and John O'Brien

 Then we watched the Vi Hart clip on Fibonacci.

 http://vihart.com/

Then we did our  extended drawings - either from things they brought in or from the pine cones, sunflowers, seashells, snail shells that I brought in as back-up.

  Class 6: Animals in Nature: the last class!

I had the tables set up with vases of dried flowers--each table had one or two vases.  Each table had a tray of my own interesting nature specimens--some tiny pine cones, some peony bloom cores, some seeds, acorns....etc etc.  We always do blind contour drawings or draw the objects I bring in upside down as part of our warm-up exercises so I like to have different options for the students to choose from.  I had to make 12 arrangements--which was particularly time consuming to me- but fun too...but messy!  dried flowers sure do make a big mess!  I'm glad I don't have a mom around telling me what a mess I'm making!

I Zeroxed images of rabbits, squirrels, and birds all week.  The images I had in books didn't work as well as the images I found in "Google- Images".  That is the first time I've used Google-Images; and it was really fun to look through the options available.  I think I had almost 60 Zeroxes!!!!  Geesh!!  Last class I asked the students if they wanted to have the last class on tree and tree things like I had planned or if they wanted to offer suggestions instead.  They came up with Landscapes, 3D, or animals.  We voted and animals won.  Then they picked rabbits, squirrels, and birds for us to focus on.  I needed them to narrow down the topic of animals into something more specific for me.  

 I brought in a LOT of books on animals too.  Some of the males in the class mentioned "wolves", so I brought in some books I have on wolves--plus lots of other books on animals.

I asked the students some questions regarding the class and what they liked/didn't like/learned/didn't learn/would like to learn in the future.  It really didn't reveal too much.  But, it was interesting to hear what the students said they learned.

We did our warm up exercises and then did our extended drawing time working on either the objects I brought in, or objects they brought in, or drawing from the books, or drawing from the Zeroxes I made.

That ended that class!