Shadow puppets - 2nd grade

    We started by watching a few youTube videos of shadow puppet shows. Then I give them scissors, black paper, tape and a strong light source. Naturally, the kids began exploring what types of cuts needed to be made to properly detail their figures. 

Notice, instead of drawing the spots on the moon, the child cut out holes. 

Allowing the students the time to create their own stories is incredibly important for buy-in, behavior management and to increase the meaningfulness of the final work to the child. 

Mr. Tony is a high schooler who comes to assist in the room. 

Naturally, they also begin to understand that there is a relationship between the light and the distance between the puppet and the wall that matters for both size and clarity. Learning these things instinctually is much more powerful than being TOLD these things. Students might not be able to describe yet this intricate relationship, yet, they know a relationship exists. 

Next we made shadow puppet theaters so as to allow students to begin exploring making stories more individually and in small groups. We used a box and cut holes on each side for the arms to go through and a hole in the back for the lamp. 






Although the class was super loud for this period, it was important again to give them time to explore making up stories and build on each others' ideas. I allowed two classes of just this, the students playing with their puppets in the puppet theatre and debating and arguing why their renditions were relevant or important to the story. 







Next, students were asked to draw or write their stories. Some students could not get to agree on one narrative and were allowed to break off and create their own stories 

Finished landscapes -4th grade

         We have come a long way. We began this journey by simply exploring colors and how they change when mixed. To make the color mixing lessons even more powerful and effective, children are always limited to the primaries, white, black and brown. We then looked at photographs, drawings and paintings of various landscapes and made observations about shadows, light, size of objects and level of details we saw. To bring a level of DEPTH to the painting children were to make their foregrounds very detailed, they were to add shadows and place different sized items on different planes to make it look near or far. As the unit came to an end, it became pretty clear who grasped the concepts and who did not. I added an additional class at the end to be able to work with those children who had difficulty.