Art's Night and Good-bye

Danielle and Me(Lisa)

As I reflect on this first semester and all of the hard work EVERYONE has put into making this a success, I think about our student teachers and the help they've added, especially preparing for our Art's Night.  They spent time with our teaching artist, Mrs. Kneeland, pulling small groups of students...helping them rehearse their parts and encouraging them to use all that we've learned so far to be a dynamic speaker.  They helped video tape our tableau groups so that EVERY student  felt like they were an important part of the Art's Night, even if they couldn't be there.  And they put the video together with music and transitions so it was ready to go!  Thank you girls and we wish you the best as you leave us and begin your next chapter!

practicing tableau

more tableau practice

Immigration and American Revolution

Mrs. Brennan and Mrs. Kneeland

Together, Mrs. Brennan and Mrs. Kneeland visited our classrooms as guests from the past telling stories of immigration and Ellis Island from the perspective of children immigrating from Italy.
Mrs. Brennan brought a suitcase filled with items that she would show as she told her story.  The students were so eager to hear her story.

Family was our focus and to go with these lessons, each child brought home a square that they decorated and filled with information about their heritage.  Then they brought it back to school and shared about it.  We tied them all together to make a class family quilt.  We also ready the story "The Name Jar" and made suitcases filled with items we might bring with us on a journey we might make.

We also spent time learning about people who lived during the American Revolution.  Students studied important people and then after choosing a person, they researched information about that person.  As a culmination, they created a living poster of that person.  They put their face in the hole of the poster and talked to the class as if they were that person.  Each student wrote facts about their person using first person voice and then spoke in front of the class.  They were adorable and the audience (all 3rd graders) learned interesting facts about many people!

Arts Night at the Mabel Tainter Theater

     The excitement for Arts Night at the Mabel Tainter Theater was evident by the sound of eager children echoing throughout the lower level. The Oaklawn 3rd graders were ready to perform what they had learned from integrating theatrical arts throughout our social studies curriculum. We also infused theater activities in reading, writing and speaking lessons. It was great to have the opportunity to perform on the Mabel Tainter Theater stage, as most of our 3rd graders have never even been in the theater. AIM has given us so many new ideas to incorporate into our teaching. It enables us to reach students who benefit from using multiple teaching techniques. The students and their families enjoyed a wonderful evening together.

Theater Games

      The Oaklawn 3rd graders used theater games to learn how to work together. It was exciting to watch students evolve into quiet problem solvers. The students really had to pay attention to the details while moving with a partner. Mrs. Kneeland did a great job teaching the 3rd graders these fun theater games.

Tableau

    We taught the 3rd graders about a new word, tableau. Tableau is a still picture or "snapshot" of a scene that is created by a group of people. We had fun using American history to recreate the events that happened on our timeline. The students worked as a team to come up with personal thoughts about what they think the people in the picture from each historic event might be thinking. We encouraged students to use a word bank, created by the 3rd grade team, in order to include key words that would identify the event from history. Students were completely quiet as they moved into position to stand still during the presentation of the tableau. We had the students turn from their pose to recite each line as it fit the event. After reciting their lines, the students assumed their pose again. It was an awesome way to bring history to life!

Tableau

A tableau is a still picture or "snapshot" of a scene created by a group of people. To prepare for our semester showcase, students practiced with historical photos. The photos were displayed on the Smartboard and each group had a brief period of time to study the picture and re-create the image in front of the class.

These class photos reveal the true emotions exhibited by the pictures and students. All three classes enjoyed this warm-up lesson before the final test - using their newly learned tableau skills and writing a script for our historical timeline.

Getting into position

Matching emotions on our faces

Following Mrs. Kneeland's directions

Studying the photo

Immigrants

On the first day of the lesson students enjoyed a visit from the past during this lesson's historical perspective activity. Melissa and Melody visited each classroom and shared their Ellis Island and immigration story. The lesson began with a focus on family. Students shared their ideas about what they know about "family".

Melody then introduced herself as an Italian immigrant. She brought her suitcase filled with artifacts that were pulled out one-by-one. Melody told a story about each item as she captured everyone's attention. We reviewed the six big questions about Melody's immigrant (Who she was, What she travelled in to get to Ellis Island, When she arrived, Where she came from, Why she came to America, and How she chose the items in her suitcase).

Students listened to The Name Jar, on the second day, to understand how some immigrants were forced to change or modify their names. The story is about This is a story about Unhei, a girl who recently moved from Korea to America and is getting used to a new school. Other students are unable to pronounce her name and she considers changing it to be accepted. The Name Jar helps students with empathy and acceptance of others. Students completed  a graphic organizer to keep track of the story's beginning, middle, and end.

Following the story, students participated in a name activity. They were asked how they got their names. Some students were named after a grandmother or grandfather, some were named after a combination of relatives, and some were given names that were popular the year they were born.

On the final and third day of the lesson, students packed their suitcase for travel. They were given a construction paper shaped case that opened and closed similar to a file. Students filled out their names on the attached tags. They then selected magazine images or drew pictures of items they would choose to pack for their travel. They were reminded to choose needs versus wants, but sometimes the decisions were hard to make. It was interesting to walk around the room during this activity as individuals explained the reasons behind their choices.

As a culminating class activity, each student was asked to complete a story quilt square. The square was divided into 9 equal squares that students needed to fill in based on the questions they chose to answer about their family. Each story square required the center to be filled with a picture or a photo. Melody hand tied each square for a class quilt. Students shared their square on the last day of the lesson, explaining  a little about their own heritage.