Franklin 4/30

Odyssey canvases, drawings, and sculptures are well under way. As I circulated and observed student work today, it was so clear that they had created beautifully inspired pieces. I could see the original artist at the root but student personality, voice, and creativity shining though at the surface. The objective for students was to create a piece inspired by an artist known for using geometric figures in their work. In addition to their art they have created biographical pieces about their chosen artist.

Chantelle and her art, inspired by Josef Albers:

Sophie's work was inspired by Wassily Kandinsky:

Victoria's work was inspired by Victor Vasarely:

Nolan's work was inspired by Sarah Morris:

Leah's work was inspired by Camilla Low:

Sebastian's work was inspired by Delphine Brabant:

Corey's work was inspired by Victor Vasarely:

Lotus's work was inspired by Josef Albers:

Jason's work was inspired by Laszlo Moholy-Nagy:

Nick's work was inspired by Piet Mondrian:

Sergio's work was inspired by Victor Vasarely:

Most students continue to complete their final pieces. Reid was ready to start calculations. He took a picture of his canvas, labeled his designated figures using mark up in photo, then continued to calculate perimeter and area of each of his chosen shapes. He measured to the 1/4 inch so had the chance to work on adding whole numbers, fractions, and mixed numbers.

All students will move on to this step as they complete their canvas, sculpture, or drawing in the coming days.

I'm looking forward to see our artists' work displayed at the Franklin showcase next Thursday 5/9!

An artists' co-op, a place to share materials and ideas:

Team Enterprise 4th Graders participated in a shared math lesson on area today. We reviewed what we know about calculating area of a square or rectangle and applied that knowledge to finding the area of a parallelogram or triangle. Students worked to deconstruct and reconstruct those figures to fit what they know about area.

For example, we compared what the area would be of a triangle with a base of 1 in. and height of 2 in., to what the area of a rectangle with the same dimensions would be. Through discussion and diagramming we realized that if we used the same formula to calculate area of a triangle as we do a rectangle it wouldn't make sense, because they do not cover the same amount of space. We looked at how we could fit the triangle inside the rectangle with space too spare. The space remaining could actually be constructed to create a triangle congruent to our original triangle. This led us to discover that the are of a rectangle is double the area of a triangle with the same height and base. So we looked at the area formula of a rectangle (bxh-same as lxw) and reasoned that the area of a triangle would be 1/2 x b x h. We then practiced using the formula and will continue to revisit this concept. This lesson was was shared on a white board so I tried to re-do it here. This was a challenging task but students persevered and worked to gain an understanding of this concept. Way to go 4th Grade Enterprise students, as this is a 6th Grade Standard CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.6.G.A.1!

After our lesson students moved on to working on canvases. Some students spent time creating labeled photos to show which figures on their canvas they would be calculating area and perimeter for, others continued painting, and some moved on to calculations. Cameron actually jumped into utilizing the formula to calculate area of a cylinder- A=pi x r^2 x h. He measured height and radius and we discussed what pi means mathematically (as far as digits and irrationality, not circumference divided by diameter at this point). He completed the first few steps of the formula, converting fractions to decimals, using decimal multiplication, and only needs to multiply by height next. Wow, way to go Cameron!

Team Voyager students are working through similar stages as Team Enterprise. Students are creating photos with figures labeled so that viewers at our showcase can match calculations with shapes on their canvas. Other students are finishing details on their paintings. Many students began taking measurements to calculate area and perimeter of their polygons.

This afternoon we held the final 2 rounds of our Franklin school chess tournament. Competing in the final rounds were:

Bella Westlake

Castor Rhodes

Tevin Danek

Dolce Plain

We played two 15 minute rounds to determine our champion. Congratulations to Tevin! This is his first year in chess club and he picked the game up quickly while committing to attending weekly chess club sessions during recess. Bella took 2nd place, also her first year in our school chess club. We will be sending 10 students from Franklin to our WAWM tournament on May 17th! I can't wait to see these students utilize the skills they have been developing all year to play against elementary students from across the district!

A busy but great day here at Franklin!