Prichard Gallery visit with Ryan Law

We met Ryan Law on the second floor of the gallery. She spent time talking about the people of the community and this was their first time to experience art. There seemed to be about 40 drawings. All ages participated. She told us the locals sat on the a small bench, shared pencils, were only able to use crayons and water color. The water came from puddles. Pencils were split in half. There were no erasers. Each person got one piece of paper.
When we got back after seeing the pictures and the slide show, the kids shared their thoughts. They were surprised at the self portraits, the flower shape that kept appearing in so many drawings. As Aurora said, " No one drew anything about the earthquake." Milo was interested that all ages wanted to draw, not just kids. I asked if he thought a room full of adults here would want to do what they did. He looked at me and said,"no". It is understood that adults here have so many other ways to express themselves.
The Crew had some wonderful ideas for continuing to help like raising more funds (we can sing and work at the Farmer's Market) and helping them get more and art supplies. Forest is willing to give two saws he has. He knows that wood and nails would help too. Wil and Semolina know that the people could use goats and chickens.

We will draw pictures for Ms. Law to take back next Spring Break. They can be about anything she said. Just like the art we saw, she wants it to be whatever they want to share. The drawings by the people of Haiti gave us insight into what they think and feel. I hope the pictures we send will make that same connection.

Work and Reflection on the 2009-2010 Year

This week the Crew will finish their brochures...by deadline which is Thursday. We will also be organizing work, reviewing work, and reflecting on the learning. We have anchor charts, the fall expedition,Food Fight!, Inquiry of Science and The Wonders of Social Studies as a start for review. We will also review our Student Led Portfolios.
They will begin evaluating their work. When they evaluate what they do, the work is analyzed through the lenses of criteria that was the focus for that learning. We use rubrics and conferences to help assess all work. The kids do a marvelous job because they are motivated individually, and as a class, push each other to be strong academically.We are guided by the Learning Targets in each area for the "what to know."

The Case Study of Art Basics is going very well and led by Nancy Taylor, a parent expert. She has taught them the elements of art and how to use them in a design.

Music Basics Case Study is led by Chris LaPaglia, an accomplished musician who is helping the kids create a crew song to play on the recorders. The Crew is excited because on June 9, they will play the Palouse Prairie song for the whole school to sing to. We also have a new verse to add for the end of the year.

Palouse Clearwater Environmental Institute (PCEI) will visit on Thursday and connect to our They were Here! Case Study.

We will also plan the 2nd Raucous Readers' Round Up for next week. This is a celebration for all the at home reading that this crew does. Each child reads 40 minutes a night.

Visiting the Prichard Gallery

Our crew will view the art created by local Haitians with the help of Ryan Law when she visited about four weeks ago. The kids were very interested in helping the people of Haiti and every single one of them bussed tables back in the fall at the Breakfast for Haiti to send several members of the Moscow community to Haiti.