Octopi Everywhere!

I started working with children in an educational setting when I was eighteen years old. Over the past eight years I've worked with kids of all ages, kids in different settings, kids from different cultures and taught them different subjects, but there is nothing I've enjoyed as much as working with children and art. No matter who the child is or what the craft is, I always enjoy teaching how to use different materials, and guiding them in their creativity. It's important to encourage them to experiment, get their hands dirty, and create something from their imaginations that doesn't have to be anything real. There is no such thing as bad art, and I try to instill this way of thinking in all the kids I work with. Everyone is creative and it is so important to find the confidence in your creativity at a young age so that you continue expressing it as your grow older.

Last year I proposed to my director that I wanted to teach a private English class after school that focused on English through art. I've loved working with a small group of kids every Thursday afternoon, and it has allowed me to teach students that are not in my class. In last week's meeting I suggested that myself and the Milky Way sensei team up to teach a combined art class once a week, and if it went well, schedule it for twice in a week.

The Milky Way class is a year older than Shooting Star, and I thought that by combining the classes, it would give the older kids a chance to both help the younger students as well as set an example for sharing, following directions, speaking in English, and general behavior. It would also be a nice change for myself and the other sensei, as we both work alone without partners. The goal was for the students to benefit from being joined together as well as for the teachers to.

This morning we had all twenty-four kids come into my classroom and we mixed them up at different tables and then began the activity. The project was making an octopus from different mediums, and the students were required to follow multiple steps as well as wait patiently for their turn to rotate to the different stations for the activity.

The kids were amazing, and each octopus turned out adorable and unique!

Our Under the Sea mural is almost complete....

On to Fish

After completing lessons on sharks and jellyfish, Shooting Star began a mini unit on fish. We also worked on the ocean mural and improved the ocean animals environment by adding seaweed and sand.

Jellies!

May’s theme of Under the Sea began with a week of shark fun, and then moved on to focus on Jellyfish! I chose Jellyfish because it’s a vocabulary word we always use when practicing alphabet sounds, as well as my own fascination in them.

(Photos I took from the Monterey Bay Aquarium)

Although jellyfish are one ocean creature you don’t want to encounter when swimming at the beach, you can’t deny their beauty in admiring them from a distance. The university I attended in California was a half hour away from one of the most famous aquariums in America, and I spent countless hours there watching jellyfish of all shapes and colors, from behind a wall of glass.

We also made a focus poster that included some of the facts we had learned about sharks and jellyfish and some images to accompany the vocabulary. Multiple times a day, we will read the poster and focus on learning the basic sight words. Since the children all know the different sounds of the alphabet, I've started to introduce phonics and the pairing of letters. We're beginning with "SH" since it's in, "fish, shark, jellyfish." 

They are so unlike any other living animal, that I thought it would be special to focus on them for a week and plan a lot of crafts around them.

The kids loved talking about them, watching videos of them, doing Jellyfish themed art, and one day, because they were on extra good behavior, we watched a few clips from a popular children’s show, Spongebob Square Pants, where the main character invited jellyfish into his home for a dance party. 

The following week was The World's animal themed party, so the kids in Shooting Star made more jellyfish that they could wear either on their heads or draped around their necks, hanging down their backs. They loved working with the different types of ribbon and sequins I bought for them to use as tentacles. For the next few days  all of the children were finding sequins around the classroom and taking them home as little treasures. Their fascination for tiny shiny things always amazes me. Whenever they find one little blue sequin that has been pushed to the corner of their room to be forgotten about, they are so excited to share it with me and to bring it home to show their moms. 

The best thing about small children is that they still look incredibly adorable, even with paper bowls on their heads!

Working with little kids reminds me to find joy in the simple things in life.