1-22-10

Starr King fourth and fifth graders know what it means to share the love.  Last Friday, they reflected on the importance of sharing positive thoughts about themselves and their friends.  Each student wrote compliments to themselves, and to the peers they sat next to on Friday.  Then they learned the basics of symmetry by cutting out paper hearts and decorating them with colorful pieces of paper.  At the end of class we placed all the students’ hearts on a “Sharing Tree,” and at that very moment in time, a beautiful rainbow appeared in the sky just outside our classroom!

Sarah and Diana with her heart

The group is all about LOVE and PEACE

1-15-10

On Friday, the 4th and 5th grade stars each received their very own MMAP sketchbooks to practice drawing and to record their thoughts and feelings.   We began class by playing “Emotional Rollercoaster,” an improvisational acting game that helps strengthen students’ awareness of simple and complex emotions.  After playing a rowdy game, the students settled down by personalizing their new journals with magazines and colorful papers.  After all of the students were finished, they received a prompt for their first journal entry to celebrate the upcoming MLK holiday: “If Martin Luther King, Jr. were in the room with you right now, how would you thank him for changing the world we live in?”

Kalani grooves to the improv game

Buddies Dorian and Chris

Taeja and Nakina smile in front of a spread of magazines, colorful papers, markers and colored pencils

1-8-10

The energetic HEArt 4th and 5th graders are all about working in 3D.  Francesca led a discussion on self-esteem and ways it affects one’s lifestyle.  Students learned how self-esteem affects the way people act and the decisions they make in the face of challenges.  Students were asked to think about their strengths, happy memories, and positive goals, an exercise in developing high self-esteem.  The students then made wire and aluminum foil sculptures that communicated various emotions through posture and gesture.  They were asked to consider the following questions: What size will the sculpture be? How will the figure be posed? Will there be other figures? Is there a narrative or a story in the sculpture? How will the sculpture convey emotion?  Here’s what the students came up with:

The beautiful Michelle, all smiles with her aluminum sculpture

The whole crew proudly showing off their work

12-11-09

The Starr King 4th and 5th graders concluded a unit on Nutrition by receiving their own handmade cookbooks with simple recipes they could make at home.  The cookbook included recipes for yogurt smoothies, biscuit pizza, orange drink, grilled cheese, nachos, and salad.  After coloring their recipe books and binding the pages together, Franny demonstrated the recipe for strawberry smoothies.

Franny serves delicious strawberry smoothies to the class

Franny helps Joseph make a snowman.

12-4-09: Students continue to learn about how to make healthy eating choices. Students learned how to read nutrition labels on food packaging and then compared different brands of cereal by their nutrition facts.  After considering the effects of different fats, carbohydrates, sugars, vitamins and minerals, students modeled their favorite healthy snacks out of clay.  For the remainder of class, students were encouraged to continue using the clay to model whatever they chose.