Within the past two weeks, I have started some pretty involved science and art projects with my students. I'm not sure if I'm crazy or overly ambitious. Perhaps I'm just trying to engage my students, or have a little fun myself. Or maybe I'm finally comfortable with the grade 1 curriculum, and ready to take on new challenges. Whatever the case, here are some pictures of the science and art projects I recently started with my grade 1 boys:
When studying plants, we made models of a flower and labeled the different parts. The flower was made of a red cupcake liner, the leaf was a green cupcake liner folded in half, the stem is a green straw, and the roots were drawn in pencil by the students. They really enjoyed the project, but I am so thankful I had the TA in my classroom at the time so she could help them with the glue. It was only the second time I allowed them to use elmer's white glue instead of glue sticks. Thankfully, I only had one student who took the entire cap off and accidentally dumped half of the bottle onto his construction paper. Fortunately, many of the glue bottles had a protective piece of black plastic seal to prevent this from happening. Unfortunately, the seal was on some of the bottles so tight that even the two adults couldn't open it. Kid proof and adult proof.
Our major art/science project is to build a frog (since that is our class theme) out of recycled materials. The students helped choose and tape on the materials. Hopefully this will inspire them to reuse recyclable materials at home, since Saudi Arabia really doesn't recycle things.
Step two of this art project is to papier mache it. We are currently still in the process of that, and a project that I thought would only take a week will probably turn into a month long project. I am taking only half my class at a time to papier mache the frog, which means I have to wait until the other half is occupied with swimming or computers. This means we will probably be working on it only a couple of times a week at most. Once it is finished and dry, I am going to have them paint it. I have a feeling that I might have to speed the process along by doing some of the papier mache myself before or after school.
My final big science/social studies project is our new class pet. We went on our first field trip to the pet store (with 24 boys, and one nanny and driver to help chaperone). The were so excited, before we even left the school. As soon as everyone was seated on the bus, one student pipes up, "Miss, we want to sing the Canada song." So, as we are pulling out of the school parking lot, all my boys start singing, "Nova Scotia, and Manitobia, Ontario, Prince Edward Island...". They were too cute! We had just sung the song in an assembly the day before, and when they get to some of the provinces and territories, they start mumbling because they can't pronounce the words. But they always sing the final "Canada!" with gusto. I got a video of them singing it on the bus. I wish I could put it up here, but I don't think that would be such a good idea due to security reasons. Needless to say, the pet store field trip was a little chaotic, but I was surprisingly laid back about it. I guess I knew they would be a little rambunctious, so I went in expecting it.
We voted on a name for the bunny and they unanimously chose "Shadow". Apparently it is the name of a character from a Sonic the Hedgehog video game, but I think it is fitting since the bunny is dark gray in color. He (at least I think it's a "he") has the cutest little white paws and belly, and is tiny enough to fit in one hand. I'm not sure how old it is or what kind of rabbit it is, but I'm hoping it will stay fairly small. Maybe it's a dwarf rabbit? It's about the size of a large hamster right now.
I'm not letting any of the boys hold Shadow, since it is so small and fragile. Instead, I had them form a circle "criss cross apple sauce" on the carpet, knee-to-knee to create a fence. I told them they had to keep their hands behind their back or they would have to go sit at their desk. I then put Shadow in the middle of the circle so he could explore and meet the students. He loved sniffing their shoes, and even climbed into one boy's lap. Surprisingly, these very physical 1st grade boys who are always getting caught hitting or pushing each other, were afraid of the rabbit. Some of them started to back away as Shadow came close to them, so I had to get behind them to keep them from breaking our "fence" and letting Shadow escape.
I take Shadow home on the weekends, and let him hop around the classroom in the mornings before the kids get there. He is so adorable, and I think it has been a therapeutic experience for me to have a furry pet to take care of. I just home I can teach these boys a little responsibility in the process. My plan is to have one of them take him in the Summer, but I'm not sure yet which one I trust to take good care of him.
"Shadow"
No comments:
Post a Comment