Mallory & Jen Week 5: House Junk

House Junk

Saturday March 24th, 2012

 This week our lesson was framed around House Junk, where students brought to class some junk from home.  We gave parents a request for this at the end of the previous class, and about half of the class brought junk, and awesome junk at that!  We continued to further their understanding of what junk is, and how complex it can be, but most importantly, we reviewed why it was important that we use junk, and in this case, junk that you can find in your own home.  When we asked them why it is important to use junk for new things, they responded exactly how we hoped they would: "Landfills are getting to big, so we have to make new landfills, and eventually, there will be way to many landfills to fit on the Earth!"  Another student answered, "Because it keeps the Earth healthy!"  Another response was, "We need to use junk because it helps keep the Earth alive, because if we don't then it will die!" and "We can make cool things out of junk!"  Even though our unit on Junk culture is not framed around planting trees or using leaves in their artwork, they continue to make the important real-world connections between using junk to make their art, and how and why they do it!  Our process focuses on why we do things, not what projects we get to take home at the end of class, but important values that they take with them.  Our main activity was making junk robots out of house junk, and we also discussed how junk is cleaned up, where it goes, etc.  The focus is not on the robots themselves, but the concepts which fuel the activities.  The things that they make are simply a means for facilitating and understanding a larger concept, which they can connect to their own lives.  

When the students entered the classroom, they brought their junk over to the corner of the room, where we helped them sort their objects into different bins, based on shape, size, and material.  They were allowed to keep one object from home that they liked and wanted to save for their robot.  Everything else was combined in the bins and shared with the rest of the class.  We thought they would be more attached to their own objects, but they were more than willing to give it up for class use, and one student didn't even want to keep an item for himself, because everything he brought was already junk in his eyes, so why would he need to keep it if someone else thought it was great? 

 

This photo shows Kate sorting her junk in some of the bins.

The robots were constructed at two centers, but some worked on the floor in the center of the room which is kept open for ease of movement.  As usual, we never force students to make something that they don't want to make, so not everyone made a robot, which is fine with us! Below are photos of robot construction and a final robot!

 We also had our other centers where students may work.  Some students will stay at one center for the entire class, and others will move around every few minutes, and either way works! We had very little behavioral issues this week like most weeks, and we feel this is because students are for the most part always engaged in something they really want to be doing, not just doing something because we tell them they have to.  Kids are people too, and they should have a voice in the classroom and be given choice!

We continued the miniature photos this week because it was such a hit last week.  Instead of using junk food, they used House Junk, and we got some great photos this week as well!

Our class straw light is always a nice activity that students can collect themselves at if needed, or be a part of a more quiet and relaxed activity, because only two friends can work on the light at one time.  Below are two students working on the light!

Trash can painting is also something that is always a center, and Sophie, who's trash can you can see below, loves to paint on it with paint markers, and this week she spent the entire time drawing elaborate designs on her trash can.  She didn't even want to take a break and eat snack because she wanted to keep working!  Talk about being engaged!

We added a mobile center after their class made their individual mobiles a few weeks ago, so we decided to hang a large one at a center so students can come and go to the mobile, adding objects as they wish.  Some students make little sculptures with the junk and hang those from the mobile!  Here a student attaches an object to keep the mobile balanced!

This week was the easiest of all days, simply because we are getting used to how this classroom works, and so are the students.  They are respecting that we give them lots of choice and freedom, which in turn makes them respect us when we do need to give them boundaries or structure.  It has also become popular during snack, or at any random moment, for a student or group of students to dance in the big open space in the middle of the room.  Merrick, a very intelligent and articulate young student, started free style dancing all by himself during class, saying to Mallory and I, "The 70's are back! Wanna know why?  Cause it's FUNKY!"  Two other students joined Merrick in the dance party for about three solid minutes, then returned to their work on their own.  We like to embrace this kind of exploration and excitement!  If you need to dance, go for it! Everybody can use a little funk in their lives!

All in all, this week was great.  Things are getting easier for us, we're spending the majority of our time talking to the students about their processes, helping them with small tasks, and not spending much time needing to discipline.  It's all making more and more sense as each week passes, and we're thrilled that our students are engaged and more importantly, free and able to make decisions on their own.