Pet Photos

I spent most of yesterday organizing and uploading photos from 2010. In the past, I have done a good job of keeping up with this task throughout the year. This year, I left it all for the end. Let's just say that I've learned my lesson. Going backwards through the year, I'm only on June. Yikes!

One of the silver linings in my procrastination, however, is that I'm seeing the full sweep of the year at year's end. I forgot about some of the items I sewed, quilted, or knitted-- until I saw the photos I took (time to update my Ravelry page)! Several themes have emerged-- butterflies and the flowers that sustain them, leaves (always leaves), pets, education projects, documentation of creative projects such as sewing and knitting, and of course, family/friends.

Today, I share some of my recent pet photos. The first photo is Bailey in his ever-present and ever-graceful bow. When we pull in the driveway, I see him rising from his window spot-- bowing. He meets us at the back door with his happy face and tail.

The second photo shows a quiet moment between all three pets-- seeking the sunlight streaming through the windows.

In the third photo, Conn is in the Christmas tree. He climbs it at least twice a day, knocks off at least two ornaments, messes up the light arrangement, and breaks a few limbs. Good thing I love him to death. Good thing the tree has a stable base.

Last, Rowan was ill on Christmas Eve. Because we had switched the cats' food, she had been quietly losing weight-- a lot of weight-- because she was so stubborn she refused to eat. Willpower. Sheer willpower. After a few days of the old food, meds from the vet, and some special canned food, she recovered. Here, Conn is comforting her. So sweet.

Loving

: : these zinnias outside of my kitchen window

: : the places my cats sleep

: : block printing with 10/11 year-olds


: : sewing with friends young and wise

Good times of the summer.

Stopping By

Stopping by on a hot and humid afternoon--
A yellow swallowtail on white butterfly bush
Close, closer, and closer still.

Young Photographers and Authors

During the last four weeks of literature connection class, fourth, fifth, and sixth grade students at St. Therese Catholic School started their own Fibonacci accordion book project. Mrs. Tartleton and I took classes outside on the school grounds on Wednesday with five digital cameras. In April, Sarah Campbell, Lynn Tarleton, and I field tested the project involving book-making, photography, and poetry with third graders at the school (photo below). Sarah and I developed the arts integrated project as an extension of her new book, Growing Patterns: Fibonacci Numbers in Nature, to meet a variety of objectives in math, science, language arts, and visual arts.

Only 5 weeks after the third graders took their photos, the school yard looked very different. Wednesday was unseasonably warm at 90 degrees and sunny. The leaves on the trees were large and thick unlike the just budding leaves of April. More varieties of wildflowers dotted the landscape while many of the blooming shrubs had already lost their spring colors.

The grass around the ditch which separates the playground from a meadow area was lush and varied with pink bindweed, wild garlic, and elephant ear-like plants. One boy spotted tadpoles in the ditch! Sycamore balls decorated the ground near the back of the church. The third grade class had exchanged their pansies for marigolds in their garden box, and they had hung pine-cone bird feeders from the tree outside their classroom. Several classes had flower pots of seed-growing projects lined-up outside their classroom doors.

The young photographers captured it all! They were enthusiastic, eager, and engaged-- dispositions which are sometimes hard to encourage during the last weeks of school. This is the perfect project with which to end the school year, and I hope that it will provide some good background experience and knowledge for both students and teachers to create a seasonal field guide, using this model, to our school yard during 2010-2011. It is so rewarding to share my growing interests in photography and environmental concerns with students who are excited to try out something new along with me.

Ground Level Fib Poems

The following photos and poems were written by third grade students at St. Therese Catholic School. Read more about the project here and check out their flower Fib poems from yesterday. Most of these poems were inspired by photographs taken at ground level. There are more spring flowers of the wild variety, but there is also a photo of a crawdad hole that C. R. identifies as a snake hole. Either way, it is worth reading and seeing! The exception to "ground level photos" is B. L.'s humorous poem/photo of red berries in a category of its own. I can testify from experience that B. L.'s personality matches his poem!

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Fibonacci by V. B.

buds
dark
nice things
rain forest
purple white sunshine
fairy tale land with white flowers

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Fibonacci Poem by S. C.

green
blue
yellow
beautiful
I love bright flowers
I love nature, trees, birds, and grass.

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All About Flowers by K. C.

buds
leaves
so bright
beautiful
as the midnight sky
God's creation is in full bloom.

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Fibonacci Poem by C. R.

snake
hole
brownish
hiding in
a secret, dark spot;
giant, brownish, scary snake hole!

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Fibo What?

Brown
Red
Berry.
Beautiful.
Looks good to eat it.
I want to cook and eat it bad.

Flower Fib Poetry

This group of poems and photographs by third grade students at St. Therese Catholic School focuses on flowers in full bloom. See yesterday's post for more information about this arts integrated project. Happy Earth Day!

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Fib Poem by C. B.

Pink
green
flowers
bursting high
happy, loving thoughts.
It's spring time in the world around.

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Fibonacci by A. N.

Small
blooms
pansies
bright, green leaves
beautiful purple
shining pollen on the flowers.

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Fibonacci Poem by C. L.

Pink
white
pretty
tall, green grass
reaching for the sun
drinking water from down below.

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Fibonacci Poem by T. H.

White
green
flowers
growing nice
like a tear of sky
shining in the sky like a bird.

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Flowers by L.B.

Cute
green
purple
beautiful
purple as my church dress.
The yellow pollen peeking out.

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Come back on Friday for 5 more student Fib poems and photographs.

Fib Poetry Readings

How can you celebrate National Poetry Month, National School Library Month, and Earth Day all at the same time? It's easy! Host an author in your library who writes about nature, go outside to take photographs of nature, write poetry based on your photographs, and have a poetry reading in your library to celebrate everyone's creativity and hard work. This is exactly what third graders at St. Therese Catholic School have done during April through a special author/teacher/librarian collaboration (see my last post on this topic to catch up). On Monday, April 18th, Sarah Campbell returned to our library to listen to thirteen poems based on student photographs and read from student-made Fib accordion books.

Each student took my "read-aloud" chair to share their book. First, they read their poems without letting us see the inside of their books or their photographs. We practiced making mental images from the words of the poem and then compared our images to the actual photograph on a second reading of the poem in which the student also revealed their photograph. Sometimes we were able to predict the subject of the photograph, and sometimes we were surprised that the final image was different from our mental image. As Sarah Campbell remarked, listening to the thirteen poems all together made her remember in new ways the beautiful day we had spent outside taking our photographs. The students did a wonderful job!

Over the next few days, I will share the students' original poems and photographs a few at a time so that we may continue to celebrate poetry. The students' books will also be on display in the library for all classmates to see on Earth Day (April 22nd). Finally, Sarah and I are taking the books and this project to a workshop we're facilitating at the annual convention for the International Reading Association in Chicago on Monday, April 25, 2010.

We concluded our poetry reading with some cookies and fresh pineapple (a Fibonacci fruit!). Sarah signed and dedicated a copy of Growing Patterns to our library so that we may continue to learn about the special relationship between math, science, and nature through Fibonacci numbers. Thank you, Sarah, for collaborating with me and with the third graders at St. Therese Catholic School!

And now, for a few of the students' poems and photographs. Three students chose to photograph and write about nature subjects related to trees:

Trees, Trees by J. P.

Trees, trees
Beauty
Prettiness
That I really know.
Trees, trees gracefully that I see.

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Fibo Number by B. B.

Birds
live
in trees
laying eggs
living a new life.
Their children live a new life, too.

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Spring Fib Poem by J. R.

Brown
branch
sunshine
reflects on
sharp, hanging pine cone
I see it on my springtime walk.

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Check back tomorrow for more student photos and poetry.

Writing Fib Poems

Third grade students are well on their way to publishing their Fib poem accordion books! To review, they have visited with author and photographer, Sarah Campbell, to learn about her new book, Growing Patterns: Fibonacci Numbers in Nature. They have taken their own digital photographs on the school grounds and chosen their favorite photos to use in their books. They have constructed blank Fib accordion books in which to write and illustrate their poems with a photograph and other drawings. On Wednesday, they wrote their Fib poems.

Each student had a manila folder with their photograph and a "Fib Poem Template" with which to work. Fib poems are similar to haikus in that each line of the poem has a certain number of syllables. These students had already written haikus for a unit on Charlotte's Web and cinquains for a unit on snowflakes and crystals with their classroom teacher, Mrs. Holder, earlier in the year. The syllable count for a Fib poem is based upon the first few numbers in the Fibonacci sequence: 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, and 8.

Mrs. Tarleton, St. Therese's art and music teacher and my co-teacher for literature connection class, was also on hand to help guide students through the process of brainstorming, counting syllables, writing, and revising. To help get them started, Mrs. Tarleton suggested students brainstorm and write down words and phrases about their photographs. We asked them questions such as:

• What colors, shapes, and textures do you see in your photograph?


• What does your photograph make you feel or think?


• What do you remember about taking your photograph?


• Does your photograph remind you of anything?


• What do you know about the subject of your photograph?

We all used our fingers to count syllables! Many of the students chose a similar word for the fourth line of the poem which demands 3 syllables: "beautiful." The day on which we took photos was beautiful, and their nature subjects of springtime were also beautiful. The poems are all different, however, and reflect their personalities and interests.

On Thursday after checking out new books for the week, students wrote their poems on the folded pages of their Fib accordion book. On Friday, the students will illustrate their books in their classroom. Sarah Campbell will return to St. Therese on Monday for thirteen book readings as the students share their completed books and poems with her and with each other. We have tried to keep their photo choices and poems secret so that the final sharing session will be a surprise to all!

Growing Patterns Photo Selection

In individual conferences, I met with third grade students to review their photos taken last Thursday on the school grounds of St. Therese Catholic School. I used Flickr to organize each student's photos into a set so that I could show them their photos as slide shows at my desk computer. Then, we looked at a few photos that stood out to each student from the slide show so that we could narrow down each set to one photo for the poem writing and book making. I remained neutral during the photo selection, and the students did a wonderful job picking out their better photos.

I recorded what the students said about their photo choices in the comments field of each photo. They chose photos for many different reasons. For some, colors or contrasting color combinations were important factors. For others, the image in the photo reminded them of something else. In some cases, students chose photos because they were "pretty" or because they remembered taking the photo.

When a photo was not in focus, the student was disappointed that he or she had not captured the photo desired. I reminded them that they took their photos with a camera that they used for the first time and that we did not have a lot of time to take our photos and review how photos were turning out on the playground.

Since I don't want to spoil the surprise of the students' final poems and books, I won't show you any of their final selections now. Instead, I'll let you see a peek of some of their other photos that almost made it into the final selection. Tomorrow, we will make our accordion books with measurements based upon the first few numbers in the Fibonacci sequence: 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, and 8. You can find good instructions for making a simple accordion book here. Can you guess how we will construct our Fibonacci accordion book? Check back soon to find out!

T. H. took this photo of pansies that her class planted around a tree outside their classroom. Her class also watches birds feeding at a bird feeder hung outside their classroom windows.

J. P. liked this photo of ants spilling out over the recycled rubber tire pieces that surround the playground equipment. He "loves ants."

Not every student looked towards the ground; some looked up at the large trees budding and shedding pollen. This was one of C. R.'s photos.

While less glamorous and colorful than some of the many flower photos the students took, I liked the textures of the lichen, tree branch, and grass in this photo by K. C.