Placement 1: Four Mile Elementary, Iowa
Mitchellville Elementary, Iowa
Teacher: Cynthia Murphy
Tuesday, Jan 7 (5.5 hours) Grade(s): 2-5
2nd Grade: For this class, the students continued to work on their clay owl projects that they were modeling before winter break. Now that their owls went through the kiln, the students were allowed to paint them with the provided glaze. The students had a lot of fun trying out different types of glazes and trying out different color combinations for their owls. During this process, I did have to remind them to remember the edges as well, so the glaze can look its finest.
5th Grade: Students were given a choice to model either a clay dragon or gnome. Before they were allowed to begin, a tutorial was provided by the teacher on how to approach and create each option. While the students were tasked with creating the same subjects, they all turned out completely different from their peers. For me, the highlight of this class was going around and hearing the different stories and personality traits the students have given for their project.
3rd Grade: Students were introduced to a Frank Stella design project, where they were tasked to draw two circles with smaller circles on the inside. Before beginning, Mrs. Murphy gave a demo on how to approach coloring the circles and its protruding rings, so it can look nice and neat at the end.While the drawing process was a little stressful for some students, most of them seemed to have enjoyed the coloring the circles.
Wednesday, Jan 8 (3 Hours) Grade(s): 2nd and 4th
2nd Grade: The students were introduced to a new weather vane project. Before starting, Mrs. Murphy provided a presentation talking about the history of weather vanes and how they can reflect one’s personality or hobbies. I really admired the creativity of each of the students’ weather vanes. Each one told a lot about the student and what values the most to them.
4th Grade: For this class, the students were introduced to a new David Hale project. They were tasked to pick out an animal and create a design that revolves around its natural habitat. At first, it was hard for the students to draw the right size and have the animal fill up the entirety of the paper, but they were eventually able to learn how to draw bigger rather than smaller.
Friday, Jan 10 (4 hours) Grade(s): 2nd, 4th, and 5th
2nd Grade: The students continued to work on their weathervane projects that they’ve started before winter break. Those who were done coloring their weathervane were assigned to add a sky to the background. This taught the students how different colors can affect the overall mood of a drawing. For example, a sunset would indicate the setting to be more peaceful and warm, while a rainbow in a blue sky could be more hopeful.
4th Grade: During Mrs.Reichardt’s 4th grade class, the students were introduced to a new David Hale project. Similar to the other class, the students were still having a hard time drawing the right size for their animal. In the end, they were successful in drawing their animals and providing a habitat design for them. One thing that I admired about this project was the creativity of the designs each student drew inside their animals.
5th Grade: The students were assigned to draw a Claire West inspired stylized animal that would be later added to a surreal background the following week. What I found the most interesting about this project was the creativity in color choice. None of the animals the students drew had the typical color palette. Each one was really bright and colorful, giving them an extra pinch of personality.
