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1.06.2011

3rd and 4th Grade Books

This was a new project I did this year with my 3rd and 4th grade students - a lot of fun.  The covers were completed in the first class period.  I wanted the students to expand their reasoning/critical thinking skills - so for their covers they had to create a non-recognizable line composition.  The trick with this assignment was that the students needed to tell me why they were done.  Some students needed some guided questions to help them articulate why they were done - many stumbled onto the answer by accident or out of frustration.  Students would try things like, 'I worked hard' or 'I did my best' or 'I filled the whole thing in' -- all great things - but not why they were done.  For many students who still struggled I compared their project to making cookies.  You spend all the time making the cookies and when they are done you take them out of the oven - if you keep cooking them they burn, or get ruined.  At this point many students understood that if they kept working on their project it would be ruined.

The next two classes were spent learning how to use a jig, folding and punch holes in paper and then binding their books!

These books are made in such a way that they are meant to be taken apart if desired.  This way the students could take out pages or add pages after they left the art room!!!

Students Learned/Practiced:
- Compostion
- Critical Thinking
- Patients
- Fine motor skills
- what and how to use a Jig
- Problem solving  


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