Atelier News!
January-March 2017
-Ms. Román
Levels & activities:
page
3
Kinder
-This is ME!
1st
grade
-Movement: Forces
pulling and pushing.
-Project
skateboard.
2nd A -Constellations…
and B Art in the Sky
3rd
-United States
Landforms
4th
-Red Umbrella
-Turtles’ Life
5th
By: Camila- Kindergarten
“Ves, ésta soy yo!”
“
It’s better
later than
never!
We would like to
congratulate Sabrina
Ferr who won 3rd place
in the City of Doral
Holiday Card Contest.
We couldn’t be prouder
of your achievement
and for representing
our school so well.
Our students’ artwork was
recognized during a memorial mass
commemorating the Anniversary of
Hermanos al Rescate. The drawings
were made as part of our Human
Rights program directed by Mrs.
Olavarrieta.
-Planets
-I can do that!
Circles inspired by
Wassily Kandinsky
Upper
-Tartaglia’s Pyramid
Academy
Atelier News!
“This is Me!”
Week of August 22nd – 26th 2016.
Kinder
Our students from Kinder learned about turtles during the Marine Biology program and with
excitement shared many facts about turtles with the atelierista. We drew turtles, researched about
turtles, and did 3D models of turtles. Our students’ favorite technique for that project was the drawing
white over white paper and then do a water color experiment.
A few weeks later during atelier time the students engaged in a meaningful conversation of things they
like as a way to introduce themselves to their new classmate. With enthusiasm the children described
places, food, hobbies, cartoons etc. We set up a provocation on the table with all kinds of recyclable
materials. Since they were so interested to share things about themselves, we asked them to make a
self-portrait out of the materials at the table. They students were so excited to have a chance to use not
only the materials at the table also the ones in the jar in the atelier, they were entitled of their choice of
materials. The kids first planned how many pieces or materials they were going to need. “I think if you
pick ten items you have what you need for your body.”-David. “Oh no! I forgot the head, now I don’t
have a brain.”- Katalina. “Mine needs super strong arms, look, I will use this metal for the arms!”Ayden. They solved problems such as how should I paste the materials; will this work? Is this material
too heavy? how can I make it look like me? Soon the kids started to share ideas about how to use the
liquid glue, what will work better, how to add some elements of their personality etc.
Atelier News
2
Atelier News!
First
Grade
Atelier News
Movement Matters!
Week of August 22nd – 26th 2016.
During a science lesson the students from first grade
learned about movement and the different types of
forces such as push, pull etc. Mrs. Martinez made a
provocation by bringing toys that moved with a
motor, and manual, such as pushing and rolling. The
children had a chance to see a demonstration of how
they moved. Mrs. Martinez motivated them to answer,
what is the difference in the movement of each toy? Is
it movement important? The children became aware
of forces and were so motivated to learn much more.
When the kids visited the atelier they took turns to
share what happened in their class and to describe
the different types of movements. “Ms. Román, let’s
make something, that can move!”-Sebastian P. The
whole class agreed, so we decided to sketch a
proposal/plan of a creative invention that could move
that we all should execute as our next project. Our
stents sketches were impressive, they used sentences
to describe materials that they will use, how to test
their inventions, and they type of movement that it will
make. Each one of them presented their
proposals/plan in a persuasive way, they only had
one minute to expose their ideas. Since there were so
many incredible ideas we had to vote. Options were:
Boat that could float and move/roll on the ground,
skateboard and a robot. The first picked was
Adriano’s idea! The skateboard! Adriano’ was so
excited and his classmates couldn’t wait to make a
model of a skateboard. For couple of weeks we have
been perfecting the idea of the skateboard. We did
research, look at pictures and made little models of
how we would like our skateboard to look like. We
made an analysis as class, none of our small models
moved. The children realized that they can’t glue the
wheels otherwise it will be impossible to move. As a
experiment/provocation Ms. Román placed different
items such as wheels, bottle tops, sticks, pipe
cleaners etc. The children explored possibilities and
found out how to put those items together and make
them roll like a skateboard. The kids collaborated
with one another in order to make them items move.
“We need to place the stick between he wheels sto it
can move.”.-Samuel “But wait, oh, oh it rolls but they
are falling apart, how can we make them stay?Sebastian P. “What about if we put something, hey
pipe cleaners on the outside of the wheel and stick,
that way they won’t fall apart.”-David “Look now they
will come together in the middle and it won’t work”Serena. “Ok. I know how to fix it!”-Arnau. “Let’s test
it!”-Adriano
3
Atelier News!
Constellations…
Art in the Sky!
The
second
graders
learned
about
constellations during a Science lesson. The
students
found
quite
interesting
that
constellations look like the game connect the
dots. The children loved the idea of
researching about constellations and guessing
their names by the shape they had. When the
students visit the Atelier we brainstormed
about ideas to illustrate the constellations. The
children agreed that we should use black to
illustrate the universe and then plan a design
as a reference of a constellation. Each one of
the kids had an idea of a possible design for
the constellation so we decided to work
individually. The students sketched their ideas
on a paper and then, then they decided to
simplify their drawings to more linear ones
inspired by the constellations research they
did. Yarn, glue, metallic colors tempera paint
was used for this project. Our students
mastered the splash technique splashing
metallic colors to represent the stars as some
of the kids suggested.
3rd
Grade
Atelier News
Week of August 22nd – 26th 2016.
Second
Grade
Discovering United States
Landforms
Ms. Sotillo’s class has been learning about
landforms and how to use the key to
understand and read maps. The students
decided to make a huge map, mark the
landforms and use symbols in order to
represent some of the industries in Florida.
The children submitted ideas of how to make
our map, they voted and the result was:
recycle materials, yarn and paint. We
delegated and assigned different tasks that
way all the students collaborate in this project.
During the creative process some of the
students nominated classmates that they think
would be great drawing the shape of the map.
Adam and Evin were chosen for their great
abilities at drawing. While the students waited
their turn to participate in the map activity;
they engaged in a class drawing representing
Spring. Group activity is an excellent way to
build partnerships, reinforce social-emotional
skills and learn how to work as a team.
4
Atelier News!
4TH GRADE
Week of August 22nd – 26th 2016.
In Language Arts the students have been reading as a class a book
called The Red Umbrella. The Red Umbrella narrates the story of a 14-
year-old girl's journey from Cuba to America as part of Operation Pedro
Pan—an organized exodus of more than 14,000 unaccompanied children,
whose parents sent them away to escape Fidel Castro's revolution. Since day
one the students have been so interested in this tale. For some of them is the
connection with the immigration theme, the family love and the re-location
aspect, but either way the kids have felt identified with this story and Mrs.
Fontirroche noticed since the first day. In the atelier the students
brainstormed about the a possible Red Umbrella project ideas, the children
began an investigated by using Mrs. Fontirroche’s computer. The students
engaged in meaningful conversations about themes that are present in the
story. The children named 4 main themes: Love through the Distance,
Culture Adjustment, Sadness and the Importance of Family. “Well, I suggest
love through the distance, it will be my theme, because no matter what, their
parents loved them.”-Luciano. The kids were empathetic with situations that
the characters went through. “Being apart from your family must be so sad”Sabrina. As a class the students partnered in small groups and chose to
make a visual representation of the themes in the story and to also represent
the characters.
Turtles’ Life
Through our amazing D.I.V.E. program our students were learning
about turtles. “There are five kinds of turtles in Florida!” shouted Taiga.
“Yes, Ms. Román my favorite is the green turtle it is very cute and
small.”-Gabriel B. “The leatherback is the coolest, its huuuge.”-Logan.
The students engaged in a meaningful conversation sharing facts that
they learned during the Marine Biology class. Later on Lia, Valeria and
Maria José explained how the turtles were in danger, that humans and
many facts attempt to their life every day. Since everybody in class was
so amazed by the beautiful creatures unanimously the students decided
to investigate about this subject of their interest. The students later on
went on a field trip to Key Biscayne an explore the turtles’ habitat and
the things that attempt with their life. Rafaela and Anna K. suggested to
bring some sand from the beach for us to use in our class project. As a
project the children took initiative making turtles out of recyclable and
organic materials and other chose clay. Each turtle posses the
characteristics of the turtle of their choice and the one they students
investigated about. Other students researched about the life cycle of
turtles and represented in a tridimensional way.
Atelier News
5
Atelier News!
Concentric Circles
.
.
Our fifth graders worked in an extensive investigation about
planets as part of a project that they completed few weeks
ago .Even though the project, was fun, messy and a learning
experience, Mrs. Velazquez and the atelierista noticed
something. The fifth graders enjoy collaborating and working
in small groups but in occasions not all the students have the
same motivation. Some have great ideas but feel stuck at the
time to executed. There are some students that we wanted to
reinforce their self-esteem and make them feel that they have
abilities and that to work in our projects you don’t need to be
artists. We wanted to inspire our students to trust in their
talent and to believe they can create, and that the “I can’t do
it” is only a product of insecurities. We presented to our
students an artist called Wassily Kandinsky who analyzed
colors, and mentioned that he could hear colors due a
synesthesia disease. The first artwork we saw were just
circles, an experiment of colors. He attributed meaning to
colors according that what will they transmit him. The concept
of abstraction and simplicity interested our students. We
asked: “who knows how to draw a circle?” they all agreed
they could. The children started creating art compositions
with circles and attributing meaning to colors. The result is
fantastic and it was a moment of reflection for our student that
they could create, as long as they set up their minds. The
students were impressed by their own artworks all of them
had circles but each one integrated and developed different
ideas. Please come see our mini-exhibit next week!
Upper Academy
In the context of 7th grade classwork they studied the
volume and surface area of pyramids. Square pyramids and
triangular base pyramids (tetrahedron). Mr. Escalante made
a provocation by using a white sheet of paper and showing
his students how 4 equilateral triangles could make the
shape of a pyramid. The students couldn’t wait to make their
own tetrahedra pyramid. The students along with Mr.
Escalante made a template and copies, soon all the students
were making pyramids. After several tests we could agree
that we would use equilateral triangles of 15 centimeters of
side and height of 13 centimeters. The children used the
knowledge gained in the study of triangles to construct the
equilateral triangles. The students also wanted to use the
three-dimensional Pascal triangle model. The triangle of
Pascal is a triangle of infinite and symmetric integers, which
will be used later in combinatorial numbers and binomial
distributions in statistics. The students measured the board,
trace triangles, learned how to use the X-acto knifes and
ensemble their class pyramid. In order to add an aesthetic
aspect the children used stencils to make patterns and
designs. The engineering labor is not over, now the students
suggested lights to make of it a modern sculpture look. The
purpose of working different mathematical contents in a
single project is to show them the interaction between the
different branches of mathematics in a fun and meaningful
way.