Tuesday, February 8, 2011

And they look fabulous....

I am not going to lie to you. This project turned into so much more than I expected on all levels. We have been patterning like crazy for the whole month of January and honestly, we are all pretty sick of patterns. With Valentine's right around the corner and our love of paint, I decided we would make big hearts with a pattern and decorate the school up. I thought this would be an easy activity since we are SOOOOO good at patterning. As Bloom's Taxonomy would say, we were moving to higher level thinking and applying our knowledge. But guess what, it was hard! We had to start with a red heart in the middle, then add pink, then add purple, then back to red, then pink, then purple. Sounds easy, but it was not. I don't know if it was the sheer size that overwhelmed the kids, but some really struggled with this. Of course, others sailed through, but the students who had not firmly grasped patterning were evident. Now I know that some of us need to pattern more! By the end of this enlightening project, Mrs. McMahon had paint on her shoe and pants,her hair on top her head in a sideways ponytail, and a huge sweat on. Yes, it was messy, but they loved it and were so proud of their HUGE Valentines. And I absolutely know who has not grasped the patterning concept.
And by the way, the book called Mr. Hatch, Somebody Loves You is a great read for Valentine's Day. It is available online through Storyline if you have access.

8 comments:

jen said...

Hi Mrs McMahon and Kindergarten,
I looove your giant patterned Valentine hearts - they look fantastic! I had to laugh at your teacher though Kindergarten, because she sounds just like me after a painting session! Paint everywhere (and very messy hair!!). Where will you hang them? It would be nice to put them somewhere where lots of people can see them!

Ms Dowling and K/1D

poulingail said...

What a wonderful project! I love the patterning and the beautiful hearts. I also love that Mrs. McMahon is displaying them on Glogster because I still struggle with that program and haven't finished a project yet. Your learning is Blooming all over!

Mrs. McMahon said...

Ms.Dowling and kids,
Thanks for the nice compliment. What does your class do that is special for Valentine's Day. Can you send us the url for your class blog.

Dear Gail,
Glogster was interesting and it took some time to figure out. I went into the gallery to have a look around and was amazed at the beautiful work, mine is pretty basic. It is a nice way to share pictures on our blogs, but does take time. Happy Valentine's Day to your class from the Alberta K's.

Candace said...

Mrs. McMahon,
What a wonderful idea! I am an Early Childhood teacher, currently taking graduate classes in a Literacy program. I am new to blogging and love to see teacher's creative ways of using technology into their classroom. I especially enjoy your use of pictures and videos to showcase your students' current work. The title of your blog is also something that caught my eye. It is very lively!
Candace Brassard

Candace said...

Thanks, for adding my comment! I bet the great, big Valentine hearts looked great hanging up and made for fun decorations for the holiday. I also became interested in Glogster after I saw your poster. I explored this site and found Glogster EDU, after which I signed right up! Thanks for sharing and opening up a whole new world of creating personal posters to me. I hope to use this tool with students someday.

Candace

jen said...

Hi Mrs McMahon and Kindergarten,

We didn't do anything for Valentine's Day! In Australia we don't celebrate Valentine's Day in a very big way. Some people buy flowers or go out for a nice dinner but at our school we didn't do any activities! The next big day that we will celebrate will be Easter and I think we will make some great things then! Have you heard of the Easter bilby?

From Ms Dowling and K/1D
P.S - You can visit us here
http://apeekinside.edublogs.org/

fromthedirtroad said...

very cool project...i have also experimented with glogster as a presentation format.

Jonelle Bell said...

I loved these! We made smaller hearts using oil pastels. Thanks for the idea!
Jonelle
A Place Called Kindergarten