IPS/Butler University Laboratory School

Working hard on observational drawings.

Aidan working on his observational drawing details.

What parts of the airplane do you see?

One of the things that our class wants to know about airplanes is how they fly. One of the ways we can better understand how they fly is by understanding their parts and their functions.  To begin this task, we did an observational drawing of an airplane. I projected a large picture of a jet on our screen and asked the children to sit quietly in a comfortable drawing spot and draw exactly what they saw. We talked about noticing the details of the picture- the shading, the small words on the plane, the placement of windows. After we were done, we talked about what parts we had added to our planes and what we supposed each part did. We also took time to admire each friend’s drawing-we really enjoyed seeing how different each friend’s interpretation was of the same picture. We talked about how we have many similarities but we can also have very different perspectives on topics we discuss so it is important to listen and share everyone’s ideas. Our observational drawings are proudly displayed outside our classroom. Come and see them!

In Writer’s Workshop,we have been talking a lot about details in our pictures. Last week, we talked about faces and bodies of our characters and how we can add detail to them to show how they are feeling and what they are doing. This week, we are learning about adding detail to our stories by adding a setting, or background. Coincidentally, I had an experience this weekend that had to do with setting and shared it with our class. Over the weekend, my beloved dog Jackson ran away. He was gone for about 15 hours,  and then my husband and I got a phone call that he was in the neighborhood in someones yard. While I am so relieved to have him back,  I can’t help but wonder what Jackson did all that time he was missing and where he visited in the time he was gone! We decided to write a class book about where Jackson could have been in those 15 hours he was gone. Each child created a page that illustrated Jackson in a place he may have visited (the setting!) and focused on adding lots of detail to clearly show the location. Some of the pictures were quite humorous (the beach, Wal-Mart, school) and some were rather realistic (the pound!). While I can’t say I am glad that Jackson went missing this weekend, I will say that it provided a fun and authentic reason to talk about setting. I just hope Jackson doesn’t give us a reason to do this lesson again!

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