Well I encountered a few more interesting challenges last week, and for once they didn't come from kindergarten.
My lovely 2nd graders have been in the process of creating snowflake mobiles since just before we left for Christmas break. Last week I had intended to finish the project off by having them tie all their snowflakes to a straw with fishing line. It was, shall we say, terribly optimistic of me to assume this could be done quickly and cleanly in the span of 40 minutes. Not. So. Murphy and I? We're bossom buddies. In either case, I'm going to need another day to wrap things up.
In one of my 1st grade classes, I had a particularly frustrating (and kind of sad) situation crop up. The kiddos are using basic shapes to make robots right now. One of my students wasn't drawing anything, pulling the old "I can't" card. So I do my usual spiel about trying anyway, but still I get vehement (read: sullen) protestations. The kid was adamant that all she could make were letters, which is totally bogus. I suppose there's something about this particular project that is causing major brain blockage, because usually she will jump right in and start drawing stuff.
I tried everything I could think of (with twenty other children vying for my attention, at any rate). I drew an example shape (we focused on a circle). I made a dot-to-dot. I even stooped so low as to guiding her hand for her, hoping she would get a feel for it. I could barely get her to hold the crayon--all she would do is make a "c" and claim that was all she could do--even on the dot to dot. With the guided drawing, she completely relaxed her hand to drop the crayon when we hit the c point. She just STOPPED at near completion, and that was it. Some of her peers tried too, but they weren't any more successful. Maybe I should have tried an "o". Sadly, I didn't think of that until it was too late. Also, I'm hesitant to label it beligerence or a desire to get out of drawing; she's always very enthusiastic.
At the moment, I'm stymied. This week I'll be ready to try again, but...it's frustrating!
The O solution would have been perfectly crafted... if only. I'll remember that for future reference. And it all sounds as if she was just having a no good terriable day. Maybe all will be better next week? Let's hope so. I did have a first grader refuse, absolutly refuse to draw a landscape 2 weeks ago. Today she happliy worked on a drawing of outerspace with no complaints. With bodies so small, many times it is lack of sleep that affects them.
ReplyDeleteAnd just between you and me... I feel as if I slighted you for not warning you. Children + stirng + knoting = need for a Sonic $1 sundae for Ms. Underwood. You either have to tie each knot or teach them how to tie knots and then still tie about half of them (and I'm thinking about 5th graders here).
Both lesson plans sound great! Hope next week is better. Brenda
Haha, you are so right about the knots (plus the valuable lessons learned about glitter). I think there was chocolate involved in the aftermath. But the mobiles turned out really nice. Tomorrow, which is an inservice day, I'm going to be hanging them from the classroom ceiling. Should look awesome. I can pretend we actually get more than an occasional dusting of snow down here, lol.
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