For national read-aloud week, we decided to explore the works of Peter H. Reynolds. If you have not read his books, go, right now, and find them! Seriously. Stop reading this blog post and go! (And then please come back - I'm a new blogger, I need my readers!)
We first introduced Peter H. Reynolds to the Grade 3's with "The Dot". Inspired by International Dot Day (
http://www.thedotclub.org/dotday/), we read the story about a young girl who felt she just could draw, until her teacher inspired her to 'Sign it!'. We then had students create their own dots and create an art piece inspired by them! This story inspired our students to 'make their mark' on the world.
Our next story was "Sky Color", about a young girl named Marisol (who we later determined grew up to be the art teacher from "The Dot" - how cool is that!) Marisol loves art, but was faced with a challenge when asked to help create a school mural - how can she paint the sky if she doesn't have any blue paint? 'Sky Color' inspired our students to be creative and proud of their own thinking.
After we finished our story, my students were given an art challenge "Sky and sun". Their art could be anything they wanted, but had to include a sky and sun. As you can see, they all created unique and colourful pictures! One student was inspired to draw what they sky and sun look like from underwater, while another drew what the sun and sky look like at night. One of my favourite pieces was the student who drew a Nintendo DS and included the sun and sky in the game screen! He even cut it out and created the fold for the two screens! (Top right corner of the picture).
Our final book of the week was "Ish", the story of a young artist named Ramon who is enjoying drawing a picture of a vase of flowers until his older brother laughs at him and claims the art 'doesn't look right'. Ramon crumples up his art and keeps trying until he gets his art to look 'right' but never seems to be satisfied. When his little sister (Marisol - yup - she's back! Students minds are blown!) is caught stealing his crumpled art, he realizes that she has create a gallery of all of his attempts, because they are all beautiful. They may not be a perfect vase and flowers, but they are vase and flowers-ish, and that's what makes them beautiful!
After our story, my 3's were inspired to created their own 'Ish' art, once again inspired by the book! Their only rule, include a vase and flowers. They continued to be peppered with questions "Can I include...?" "Can I use ...?" "Should I ..." to which every answer was yes - it was their art, so they should create what ever they see in their brains.
Our amazing art included a pastel drawing of flowers, a poster asking up to "Be Yourself", a drawing of a living room (including a hole for a mouse) and comic story of a vase of flowers that falls from space, chases a student, and then they become friends! I am always amazed at what my students can create!
So why do we do this? Create. Inspire. Grow your brain. The three simple rules for my class.
I love when teachers get a chance to play! There is nothing like a little hands-on inquiry that gets adults releasing their inner child (well that, and the chance to make balloons fly around the room!). 
