Ethics and Wild Things

Where the Wild Things Are is one of my top 10 favorite stories. I love the complexity of it and the way Sendak plays with imagination. Anyway, since we are working on the concept of ethics, the students wrote about their opinion of the characters in the story. Who was right and who was wrong?

Getting Students Out of the Box

I know it's a cliched saying but I speak to my kids often about thinking outside the box. I thought about that a lot this past week with the passing of Steve Jobs and how many people must have thought he was crazy to even suggest a new way to manage music (among other things). I saw this political cartoon and thought how amazing that technology is considered today:

Anyway, I know that these kids are our future visionaries and with all the bubble-filling standardized education they will have to endure throughout their academic careers; one of my many goals for them is to have that foundation in creative thinking. I told my class last year about a billboard I just LOVED for the station fx--their tagline was "There is no box."  So far outside the box that there isn't even a box anymore. That class just ate it up. My kids used to quote it all the time. When I reminded them to "think outside the box"-they'd repeat back "there is no box".

Let's just say it's always a work in progress. Today I felt like I should be featured on the show "When Good Lessons Go Bad". I tried an exercise in creative thinking where they use a leaf to create something. Now we've done divergent art before with squiggly lines-so this shouldn't have been much of a stretch. And it's been successful with previous classes, i.e.  :

divergent leaves

This group is still safe inside their box. Many of the kids turned their leaf into.....a leaf! Some made it a tree, which at least was a little more creative. At one point I had a very Homer Simpson d'oh moment when one of the kids came up with a picture they had drawn in one hand and the leaf in the other asking what she was supposed to do with the leaf. *sigh* There were a few that I really liked:

In any case, we'll keep working on it. Creativity can be tough nut sometimes.

What's More Important-A Heart or a Brain?

It's not hard to get little ones to give their opinion on something, the hard part is getting them to qualify it with the why. We took a little poll the other day for our morning tally graph. I asked one of the students what they had for dinner the previous night. The answer was pasta. So we made a very simple t-chart-do you like pasta? Yes or No. We took the votes and I asked some of the kids who said yes to tell me why-2 of them voted for it and didn't even know what pasta was! I often ask my kiddos to get past those one word answers and back it up with why they feel that way.

In the novel of the Wizard of Oz, Scarecrow and the Tin Woodsman have a conversation about what is more important--having a heart or having a brain. I asked the kids to choose one and back it up with why they believe that way. Here's what they came up with:

Because it gives you life.

Creative Reasons for Why The Leaves Change Color

I love giving my kiddos a question that there is a scientific answer to; but asking them to come up with another reason to explain the phenomena. I tell them it can be silly, or funny, or serious--but it has to be something different from the real reason. Since we have finally begun to feel Fall weather (it's actually in the low '90's here in Texas). It seemed appropriate to discuss why the leaves change color in Fall. We are still working on getting those creative cogs going--I've said it before and I'll say it again: creativity like anything else, takes practice. But some of them did come up with something new. My favorite one is "because they want to be cute".

Ethics and The Giving Tree

I like this story for different reasons than I think most teachers do. I believe many teachers use this book with the intention of discussing the benefits of being a giving person. As I look at other blogs describing this story-it's "heartwarming" and a "great lesson about morality". Being the consummate rebel that I am, I read this story and am flabbergasted at this boy, who turns out to be just an entitled taker. I wonder why the tree wouldn't just tell him to "talk to the branch" when he kept coming back for more. I don't share my opinions with my kiddos before the read-aloud; but let them come to their own conclusions. Although this group audibly gasped when I got to the part where he took her trunk and all that was left was a stump.

I do love this story as a beginning lesson in ethics. We talk often about how ethics are not always black and white (although that is the representation on the icon for this concept)--there is often grey area. And 2 people may believe 2 different things to be true and neither of them is necessarily wrong. We read the story and I asked my students to write about who was right and who was wrong in this situation. This is what they came up with:

It is wrong because it's hurting the tree.

Snack Portraits

I am a big fan of teaching kids to use different mediums for their creativity. We painted self-portraits and made collages of ourselves. Today we made tortilla self-portraits. With cream cheese as the glue and a variety of moderately healthy snack aisle staples (don't you just love those curly cheese curls for their hair? I had never seen those before!) --the kids made mirror images of themselves.

I love to see them use the same materials and come up with such different ideas!

This one actually kind of looks like him.

I think this guy gave himself a beard and moustache for the extra pretzels! :)

A Balloon for Isabel-Critical Thinking

I found this cute little story about a porcupine who has a bunch of friends at graduation with balloons but her teacher won't let her have one because...well, as her teacher puts it: quills + balloon=trouble. She tries different ways to cover her quills then comes up with a creative way the teacher can't resist.

I asked my kiddos to come up with another way Isabel could have gotten her balloon. Most of them talked about being sweet to the teacher...hmmm, does that really work? But some came up with some interesting ideas. Most of all, I think the activity made them think a little bit-I think I saw some smoke coming out of their ears! :)