Drawing On Their Talents

Snakes and Mice by Taye

Q: "You used a lot of orange in this drawing."
A: "Those are the snakes. That big one is Bongo and those are the smaller ones and those are the mice for them to eat. There's five there and two there and the snakes are 1, 2, 3...4!"
Look at all that information triggered by describing one element - the color orange. There is visual description, narrative and math.

We've had an explosion in drawing recently. The beauty of this work is that it originates wholly from the students, with no direction from us. We teach by asking them questions about their work to refine their perception and descriptive vocabulary. Here are a few interesting samples from today's flood of wonderful work:

Dragon by Lilya Rose

Q: "This is a very different kind of shape. I've never seen this before. Can you tell me about it?"
A: "I made a dragon. It has pink and red and there's the mouth where I cut it and it goes around there and then there's the tail."
Once again, the focus is on asking a question that encourages the student to look carefully and describe what she sees, rather than what I think of it.

Dog That I'm Coloring Green by Christopher

Q: "Hey, I notice that the right side and the left side of the body have the same shape. How did you do that?"
A: "I cut it out when I folded it and I drew the face and cut out the legs and can I have some tape?"
Q: "Did you draw it first or did you cut it out first?"
A: "First I cut it out and then after that I drew the face and the legs and I like the kind of tape that is see-through."
Q: "So if you didn't draw it first, how did you know it would be a dog?"
A: "Because I looked at it and knew it was a dog. That's when I cut out the legs to put on it. I need four pieces for four legs."

This one is all the more fascinating after having done the "butterfly" paintings to illustrate symmetry. Notice how much more you get when you ask them to look at what they've done. I've never received so much in exchange of a compliment of "That's so pretty" or "You did a really nice job."

TODAY'S ACTIVITIES
Today's activities were basically an inverse of yesterday's schedule, with the squirrels doing the sensory/science activity with Usha while the raccoons did music, movement and parachute activities with Andy.


TODAY'S STORY
If You Take A Mouse To A Movie, by Laura Numeroff, illustrated by Felicia Bond. laura Numeroff has made a career out of this simple theme that children love. A child endures the endless stream of demands from unsuspecting animals. The continuous thread of associated indulgences lends itself to practicing recall and sequence in developing readers. Recall, sequencing, and prediction are valuable skills for reading comprehension.