Sunday, February 26, 2017

The Animal Kingdom, Augmented Reality, and a Fluff Puff Party!

After learning about vertebrates, invertebrates,
mammals, fish, amphibians, birds, and reptiles, we spent Thursday morning mapping out the Animal Kingdom. 








....and honing photobomb skills.  





Augmented Reality!  We are so fortunate to get to work with local artist, Agnez Chavez, 
STEM Art coordinator for TISA.  
STEM = science, technology, engineering
and mathematics. 
 The latest project is inspiring the Dragons to no end.  
Using the Quiver app on the i pads, the students are able to turn 2D images into 3D.  There is much experimentation and art to be done.  The kids spent time
this week playing with the new technology and creating storyboards for their chosen 3D drawings.












Fluff Puff Party!  We have a
"fluff puff" jar that gets a new fluff puff each 
time I catch a Dragon in an act of kindness.  They
filled up the jar! (105 fluff puffs...we counted)
In celebration, we had a Fluff Puff Party Thursday afternoon.
Food, dancing, and games.  Way to go, Dragons!
Here are some pictures of 
Angelique and Neenah dancing it up. 



National Read Aloud Day!

February 16th was National Read Aloud Day.  The Dragons were treated to three amazing 
guest readers!  Thank you to Vincent's grandmother, 
Emily (I was too engrossed in
her story to take pictures!), Asher's mom Amanda, and Angelique's mom, Lisa, for 
enthralling the kids with your stories!  







I have to say, it's difficult for me to remember to take 
a picture when the really 
awesome things are happening.  Here is one time I remembered.  Morning Writer's Workshop... 3 
pals sitting together and creating stories with words and pictures.  



Sunday, February 12, 2017

Animal Art, Agnes Martin, and the Birds!

The Dragons had an exciting week full of art, animals, and a new classmate!  Look at these beautiful animal watercolors...







Our new student!




We've been learning about classifying animals: invertebrates, vertebrates, and the classes of the Animal Kingdom.  I love getting to learn along with the kids.




Our trip to the Harwood Museum to learn about Agnes Martin...







Seems like Rio was inspired by Agnes Martin's grids...


How cool to arrive early to school and find birds enjoying the feeders that TISA students made!

Saturday, February 4, 2017

Super Star Students and Making Tempera Paint!

The Dragons have been behaving so well lately that we needed to add a new 
level to out clip chart: Super Star Student.  Thank you to D'Andre for helping 
decorate the crown.  He is one of the reasons we needed this new level!



 (Maybe we'll need to add a "Super Goober" level for some of these goobers.)




We had some extra egg yolk after an eggsperiment.  So, we made our own tempera paint.  The Dragons loved the color mixing and shiny sheen of the paint.