Our learners continue to find mandalas everywhere (see our previous post about mandalas here). They find them in the puddles when rain drops, they find them in flowers, they create them with loose parts and draw them in their daily writing. The classroom next door had a parent volunteer come and create beautiful mandala window paintings with the students. Our learners admired them when out at recess. When we asked if they would like to do them in our classroom, we were met with a rousing chant of "yes!". The wonderful parent volunteer came into our classroom and helped our learners create these beautiful masterpieces! We are so thankful to her!
Our learners worked collaboratively to create the mandalas. They started the mandalas and each learner continued to build on it. We were so impressed by the additions they made. They each took 'think time' before starting to paint, to visualize what they wanted to add. Then began painting!
What happened was truly magical.
Taking 'think time' before beginning
Even Ms. Tompkins wanted to add to the mandalas!
Here are some snap shots throughout the process of each mandala for you to see how they evolved as they moved through the creative process.
The first three mandalas
The view from outside...we were amazed at how a change in perspective changed the beauty of the mandalas.
The other three mandalas.
The view from outside.
Reflection.
(I'm sure many of you are wondering how we did this...the mandalas are painted with acrylic paint into clear plastic table cloths.)
A special thank you to Madeleine for all her hard work!
Our learners have been busy thinking and learning. We are so proud of them as they continue to amaze and inspire us. They work hard everyday and have demonstrated so much growth. Here is a snippet into thinking and learning in our room. (You will notice that math and literacy are integrated into everything we do.)
Measurement provocation
Lots of patterns of different lengths
Writing about their creations by tracing the shapes and then describing the shapes they used
Learning about 3D shapes
Finding words around the room and then finding the vowels in the words they wrote.
We love this vowel song!
This JK found the vowels in the alphabet cards and came to show us.
We love to play 'sentence detective' to determine which sentence is the correct one.
Brainstorming ways that we can be good friends
We are great writers!
Stretch break!
Representing 1-5 in different ways.
Creating growth patterns using buttons.
We love letter sound Bingo!
Writing math sentences and using fingers as manipulatives
The students found out that you can put 5 straws in the bears. We asked the students if the bears each have 5 straws, how many straws do you have? Students worked to show their thinking.
Learners enjoy reflecting on their learning journey by looking through their portfolios.
Writing about their building creations.
Daily writing (see below for the retell of 'The 3 Little Pigs'
Students began to create spinning tops using cubes. They wanted to time each spinner to see which one would last the longest. These two worked together to time and record each trial.
