Using Photography in the Classroom

I am a big fan of photography as an expression of art. So why not let the kids experience this medium as well. Several times a year the students go out and take photographs with my very old digital camera to use in activities. We took pictures of patterns, something to write a poem about, to sort for the 5 senses and my favorite one is something that inspires them. They take a picture of something and then write about it, paint it, make a collage of that photo and put them all on a poster board for our final project of the year.

Some make really interesting ones, like a door, or a flower coming up out of the sidewalk. We talk a lot about art and different artists and how what inspires them artistically doesn't have to be beautiful. The picture above was one the student thought was ugly-but represented winter and what happened to the plants. The kids really enjoy thinking like a photographer.

Creative Thinking

I often talk to my students about "Thinking Outside the Box". Most of them understand what that means. When putting it into practice I want them to use their imaginations to invent, create, visualize. But I also want them to be able to use humor in their writing as well.

I like giving them a prompt-a question that has an answer, but one that's unlikely a 5-year old will already know the answer to. This week's was "Why is a Flamingo Pink?". I encourage them to use their imagination and come up with something creative or funny, not necessarily scientific. For those of you who may not be aware I had to look this answer up once when asked by a student (gotta love GT kids)-they eat a kind of shrimp that turns their feathers pink. If they eat other foods their feathers actually turn back to a translucent color.

Anyway, my little darlings came up with some creative answers. To camoflauge themselves, they ate too much cotton candy or pink cupcakes, they wanted to blend in with the flowers and my all-time favorite-they got a sunburn!

I do what happened to the dinosaurs, why does our hair grow, etc. I love to see the little cogs and gears in their minds turn trying to think of an answer.

Writing

I love teaching writing in Kindergarten! Not everyone does-- and in a lot of classes writing comes down to handwriting or just copying the morning message. I believe children should be given many opportunities throughout the day to express themselves. Is it an easy task-by no means! Most students enter Kinder (even GT students) with a limited ability to sound out words to write. You have to have a lot of patience and work with them student by student, encouraging them to sound out their words.

In the beginning you get "Du dg s n du hs" - that's "The dog is in the house." for those of you not fluent in Kindergarten :). Eventually they are able to sound out words more completely and begin to really put some creativity into their stories. I added a few examples one is a recent assignment to compare the perspective of roots to that of flowers. The others are what they felt listening to jazz music.

The face of these little ones the first time they bring up something they read and I read it back to them is absolutely priceless!

"A Place for Wonder"

I was working Saturday and would have lapses of time between work sessions. I pulled out a book that caught my eye-it's called "A Place For Wonder" by Georgia Heard and Jennifer McDonough. This book reminded me how important it is to encourage a child's (particularly a GT child's) natural curiosity for the world around them.

I get questions pretty much all day long from my students (which I always love, by the way). Where to chairs come from? Why are flamingoes pink? (actually had to look that answer up because I didn't know). What else is in space? Why is the sun so hot? It amazes me sometimes how their little minds work.

I am going to start implementing some of the ideas from this book and make a "Discovery Center". A place for kids to bring in their treasures from nature. I feel like in the past my-nothing comes in from outside rule-was doing them an injustice. (You wouldn't believe what their pockets were full of some days). And we are also going to start a "Wonder Wall" a place where they can post their questions and have other kids attempt to answer them. How much will this help them later in there education? Being able to model for them how to find the answer to a question or how to critically think about what the answer may be. I'm so excited to tell the kids about this tomorrow-I know they will just adore it.

Open-Ended Art Projects

I like letting the kids have a free-for-all on art projects sometimes. You should have seen how giddy they were to discover "googly eyes" in our art box. We read the story "Snowballs" where the narrator is using all different kinds of objects to make a snow family. We did something similar with free range over the art box. Some of the students make people with popsicle sticks or feathers for arms, used part of the mesh from who knows what for a dress and rope for hair. I just love to watch their minds work. Whenever they would ask-can I use this for... or can I make this color... my response always is "you're the artist"!

Advanced Level Products

I think all Kindergarten students are capable of more than we give them credit for. Every year I change the chapter books I use for read-alouds. Sometimes I go with something new, sometimes the classics work, every class is different but I am always reading to them a story several grade levels above their recommended level. This is fabulous for building vocabulary and listening comprehension skills.

Anyway, we're reading "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" and I was very proud of the projects they made. Before we got to the chapters where Willy Wonka shows off his magical inventions-I asked my kids to invent their our out-of-this-world candy. They decorated the triorama and then modeled their candy out of clay. I also had them write about their creations. One invented a candy cane that lasts forever, one a chocolate that looks and tastes like a hot dog and my favorite-gum that makes you smarter! Who couldn't use some of that.

I think this is a really good example of asking kids to apply what they are learning and it's an activity that fits right along with their ability levels.

Best Laid Plans

Teaching GT students you learn to be flexible with your expectations. Very often you can see the little cogs and gears working overtime turning a simple task into something completely different. This, for example, was a workstation activity. The second photo shows the expected outcome-making growing patterns with color tiles-simple enough. The first picture shows the outcome for one student-maybe a future architect. And it's very hard for me to redirect, because I do encourage them to use their creativity!