Arrowheads, Art Journals, and Moon Orbits

Electron Muon Writers Workshop
The kids finished editing thier projects from last week and started the decorative process. They took their “currently lists” and decided what sort of paper they would like to use,what lay out,and what sorts of materials to use to create the final piece that will be added to their journals.
I brought in some books for the kids to use as inspiration. The Art Journal Workshop by Traci Bunkers, Altered Book Collage by Barabara Matthiessen, The Decorated Page by Gwen Diehn, Alter This by Alena Hennessey,and Encyclopedia of Scrapbooking.
Neutron Writer’s Workshop
The group continued on with our story of “A Tree in the Trail” and did a unit study on types of arrowheads and how they were made. The kids all chose an arrowhead style and worked to carve that shape out of a soap block. When our arrowheads were complete, we practiced our hunting skills with miniature bows and arrows (made from popsicle sticks, dental floss, and cut Q-tips). The group seemed pretty surprised at the patience it took to create something even out of much more manageable materials than the native americans we are studying.
Neutron Drama
The neutrons were very busy practicing and preparing a special autumn play to be performed at the fall party later this month! Using plush animals as puppets, they acted out two stories about hibernation~ ‘Bear Snores On’ and ‘The Very Cranky Bear’ while I read the stories. We talked about who will play what characters and everyone received a script (will take home next week).
Quarks Science
Today the Quarks began our session on space — starting with the moon! We learned about the moon’s orbit in relation to the Earth and our Sun and played to figure out if our moon chased the Earth, or if rotated around it. We then plotted that relation into the different phases of the moon and learned the appropriate terms and stages of the lunar cycle. Many of the kids were surprised to learn that the moon does not really change shape even though it appears to. We applied the lesson scratching off icing in oreo cookies to diagram the correct lunar cycles to their labels. The class was fun and the kids all caught on quickly to several new words and concepts!
Quarks Art
Since all things fall have been on my mind (and in the chill of the air), we have included some of those ideas in our last art class.
Our paintings began with corn meal. The artists had palettes with various colors of corn meal that they applied to their glue-covered paper. As we set these sticky corn creations aside to dry, we moved on to an exploration of color. We started with our palettes of primary colors, and then with Q-Tips and paint, we attempted to slowly dab the colors on our color wheels. Moving on from the primary color, we attempted to see what those colors would make when mixed in order to get our secondary colors. We did end up with varying shades of the browns that also surround us this fall. We can use our artist eyes to pick up colors in the falling palettes of color in the leaves all around us. Finally, to add a little light to these sometimes dreary fall days, we rolled beeswax colors in a variety of shades. These candles may have made it home in some backpacks, but some of them also ended up in cubbies in the art room. Next week these artists will transform, for two weeks, into actors and actresses as Ms. Claudia leads us…
Quarks Writer’s Workshop
We are all storytellers! We started class telling stories. Then we used our special really large paper to draw stories and the adults assisted the children in writing the stories they wanted. We read a few books together as a group and put our large papers away in our even larger envelopes for next time. The Quarks were interested in learning to spell the phrase “Once upon a time.”