First week... Joyful! Joyful!

She entered the classroom eagerly. They had all been so excited about their CSI class. It was to be their first art class of the year.

The teacher asked the student her name, and told her to lead the other students into the room. She heard the words "We're going to make a big circle in my room, so follow the line leader and come on in."

Wow! Look at the things on the walls. The teacher's voice spoke invitingly "Look high on the walls, look low... look on the bookshelves... look for works of art!" Then she put on some music. Many of the students' eyes lit up in recognition.... one of them said "I have that one at home."

Another said "I have that movie at home too!"

The smallest one raised her hand and said "That's the Lion King!" They danced around and circled the classroom listening to the words of 'Circle of Life' as they searched for all kinds of art.

The girl saw black and white pictures she had never seen before. When she asked about them, the teacher explained "I'm glad you noticed those prints.... those were done by a very famous artist named M.C. Escher. We'll be learning about his artwork this year."

                                                    

A little boy asked about the picture of the ice castle. The teacher told him it looked like it was made of ice, but look closer. She took the poster print down and let all the kids get a closer look.

                                                      

"Hey!" one boy exclaimed. "There's people there. That looks like Disney Land."

Another boy said no, it wasn't Disneyland... it was a big building, a castle or something.

"It looks like it's wrapped in shiny silver paper," he added.

The teacher told them he was right... two artists named Christo and Jean-Claude wrapped this building in Berlin, Germany. She said it took them 24 years to wrap it, and when it was done, they left it up for ten days. Then they took it down.

The teacher asked them  "Why do you think anyone would want to do such a thing? Why wrap a huge building like that, and take 24 years to do it?" The students thought about it and raised their hands.

"I think they just wanted to get rich and famous."

"Maybe they wanted to protect the building. Maybe there is a surprise inside."

"So that all the people will come to see it?"

"I think it's a stupid idea because it would cost a lot of money to do that."

She told them that they were all right, except the part about it being a stupid idea because in the end, the old building was made new again.

Then she asked them "Is this wrapped building a work of art?" They had to think long and hard about that one because it wasn't like a painting, and it wasn't like a statue. And it wasn't even about the building getting built. It was just a wrapped building, like a big present. Some of the kids thought it was art, and some of them didn't.

They talked about respecting each other's work, and not making fun of eachother's work, that each one of then is an artist and they each have their own way of expressing their feelings and ideas through art. Kind of like when you write about what you think, except art uses a different kind of language.

Art is a language.

Other students raised their hands and pointed to art on the walls, asking questions like "What is that?" or "Who did that?" They talked about one painting, a mother cat and her two kittens, noticing that the artist must have really loved cats to paint them like that. And those Indian masks way up high on the wall. "Are we going to make them this year?" No, that was a fourth grade project. Someday they would be fourth graders!

There were books with pictures on the cover, and clay sculptures. They were all interested in the insect collection. Were they real? Were they alive?

One kid asked "Are we going to paint in here?"

"Yes, but not today." A few kids clapped their hands, and their quick glances at each other assured the teacher that they couldn't wait to get started.

But alas, it was only their first week, and they had already used up 15 minutes of their 35 minute class time. There were only fifteen minutes left so she let them draw with markers, color pencils, and crayons for ten minutes while she made a seating chart... with seven hundred students, she would need some way to keep up with each class.

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That's somewhat a picture of how one typical class went this week. The kids were all so excited... they remembered CSI from last year. Most asked about Mrs. S... some kids told me they knew why she wasn't here. "She's retired!"one child said knowingly. I explained their former teacher's new position far away in another school. They wanted me to tell her they missed her and hoped she likes where she is. They love her very much. I'll probably email her some pictures soon.

Eachday I've pondered the upcoming weeks, the future projects, the numbers of students, the supplies I'll be using up. There is a lot to do, but I love being the one to do it! I've come across some things I hadn't thought about before... like keeping all those colored pencils sharpened. I don't like it when the kids sharpen their own pencils... they break them too easily. I gave them a lesson on proper use of pencils and erasers... but I did a lot of sharpening this first week.

My greatest challenge has been getting one class out and being ready for the next class to come in... with five minutes or less in between the transitions. I will definitely need to plan activities that use similar materials across grade levels to help reduce the preparation time between classes.

The first week went well... I learned how to 'doggy paddle' this week.

I will learn some new strokes, so to speak, next week. It will be like entering a swim meet. The pace will change. I'm up for it.

I've got my flippers on and I'm diving in!