November 17, 2014

 What is Community?

Students are continuing to work on the House project we are working on to study our community. We have 62 kindergarten students broken up into 3 groups. Group1 is working on drawing their house on acetate and painting them. Group 2 is creating drafts which will turn into a final piece that will use the media watercolor. Group 3 is creating a 3-Dimensional map using their houses to create the community in which we live around our school. Students are using photographs of their own homes and looking at other maps to help them compare and create their own Kindergarten community.

Below are drafts of group 1 working on drawing their home without a photograph. Then the second draft is students using their own picture of their house to create an observational drawing that will then be transferred onto acetate and painted with acrylic. The students are focusing on the details of their home, they are counting windows and noticing color and nature around their surroundings.

 

 

 Students S said: "I live in a tall building with my family."

 

 Student Z said: "This my home!"

 

 

 

 

One child's comment transforms the group's perspective

 

Burchfield Nature Trail Fall 2014

 



Kindergarten students went on the Nature trail for the first time in October. They experienced the different trails and observed the environment, and they were looking for changes in nature in autumn.

 

The students began to walk the trail at first all walking in a line (without me asking them to). They began to take it all in. We got down to the creek side path and

student S said "It is so beautiful!"

 

 

This comment opened the student's eyes and ears they were looking at everything and trying to understand nature and what they saw. Student J said " there are some big rocks. That's hard because it is a big rock. Student J:" I think its mud, I think its mud and sticky!" Student S: "The rock is falling apart, the water is breaking it. Student M said: "Look, I found a waterfall!"  Student T walks over with what we know as a rock and says "I found a dinosaur egg."

Student M says, "I found an acorn."

 

One comment by their peer had helped the students begin to observe and take the time to not only observe nature, but to be part of it. They listened to their friend and they began to hear nature and the world that surrounds them. They understand that they are just a part of something much bigger, but they can affect the world when we listen. A four year old says "It's so beautiful!"  She changed the trip and opened the world to possibilities.