BEYE Discovery

Thursday, April 11, 2013

Chalk: Inventing a Story's Ending

post contributed by Jocelyne Adkins, Program Director

A warm April day turned cold and chilly, however that did not stop us from bringing Beye's black top to life, with illustrations for a new ending to the imaginative picture book "Chalk" by Bill Thomson. This is a wordless picture book, and when the book's characters' chalk illustrations come to life, they find themselves confronting a huge, ferocious dinosaur on the playground. How do they escape? We asked the students to work in groups to solve this dilemma and to illustrate their own version of the story. It was exciting to witness how each group developed an original idea to subdue this frightening dinosaur. Following the groups' presentation of the story's ending, we went back to the classroom to see how Thompson solved the problem in his story (I won't give the ending away here... but it is clever!) Please see below for each group's solution:

Group 1: Andrew, Laila, Anika and Cassie (below) illustrating the middle of the story

Group 1, illustrating the ending of the story

Anika, Group 1, drawing the children

Group 1, The Story: The Dinosaur is distracted by a drawing that comes to life of "dead meat"

Group 1, The Story cont: The hungry dinosaur eats a tasty meal and the children escape!

Group 2: Leila, Norah, Mikel & Emily (below)

Group 2: Emily

Group 2, The Story: The children are frightened by the dinosaur, but they have an idea...

Group 2, The Story cont: One of the children draws a female dinosaur...

Group 2, The Story cont: The scary dinosaur is distracted by the female dinosaur that has come to life before his eyes

Group 2, The Story cont: The scary dinosaur falls in love with the female dinosaur and the children escape!

Jalen, Group 3

Isaac and Emory, Group 3

Group 3, The Story: A ferocious dinosaur scares the children...

Group 3, The Story cont: A net, illustrated by the children, comes to life & captures the dinosaur

Group 3, The Story cont: A child runs to return the chalk to the fake dinosaur on the playground

Group 3, The Story cont: the chalk hangs from the fake dinosaur's mouth for other children to find

Group 4: Ben, Jackson, Joseph & Xavier

Group 4, The Story: An angry dinosaur threatens the children

Group 4, The Story cont: the frightened children escape into a portal that they drew with the chalk

Group 4, The Story cont: The children exit the portal safe and sound!

Kudos to all the children for their teamwork and creativity in completing this project!

Monday, April 8, 2013

Clay Vessels & Play-doh Fun

post contributed by Jocelyne Adkins, Program Director

Last week we welcomed the start of Earth Month and worked with clay, a natural component of the earth itself : ) Our project was to make a small vessel to hold a cherished item from nature (also made of clay). Students learned how to form a ball of clay into the desired shape (round or oval); to cut the shape in half with a wire (to create the top and bottom portions of the container); and to scoop out the clay from the top and bottom pieces to create a vessel with enough space to hold their special object.

Today, the children painted these vessels and special items with much thought and care. Then they had some additional fun creating sculptures with play-doh. The colors and textures around the room created a visual feast ~ nice work students!

Dexter, painting a mushroom cap

Jessica with rainbow color palette

Jessica, in process

rainbow heart

Isaac

Isaac's finished vessel with dinosaur tooth!

Emory

Emory painting his cherished object

Emory and completed vessel

Andrew, in process

Jackson

Jackson's completed skull vessel with cherished object

Caleb, in progress

Caleb's finished vessel with egg

Ben's finished vessel with earth object

Joseph's completed vessel with object

Laila, working with play-doh

Laila's vessel

Laila's completed vessel and forms

Heidi with embossed flower

Heidi's pink polka dot lidded vessel

Ben

Joseph with sea coral

Friday, April 5, 2013

Eco-Conscious Critters & Characters

post contributed by Jocelyne Adkins, Program Director

This project, which made its debut last year during Earth Month, is an absolute favorite of the children! Outgrown socks, tights, mittens and gloves are transformed into adorable critters and characters with button eyes, scraps of ribbon and embroidery floss. Except for our youngest children, a number of students were able to sew most of their critter's features independently. To help students understand how the tapestry needle* moves in and out through the fabric, we first demonstrated how to sew a running stitch using yarn and lacing cards.

As you view the photos below, you will see that a number of students created sling pouches for their critters. Norah, a 3rd grader, is the designer of the original sling pouch: after seeing Norah's super idea, many of the students adopted it for their own critter, making comfy little pouches to carry their new friends in. Kudos to Norah for her innovation and successful idea!

*To keep fingers free from injury, we use blunt tapestry needles to sew through the open knit fabrics. Also, the larger eye of the tapestry needle makes it easier for children to thread their own needles with the embroidery floss.