Teaching Filipino using Visible thinking routines

I told myself at the start of the year to be more intentional in teaching our kids my language and culture. Teaching them through songs is one approach that I have been using and have added some new Tagalog songs but it still feels like they are missing on the essence of the language because they are memorizing more the lines than what it means.

This made me reflect on what we normally say to the kids and an "ahuh!" moment occurred when I realized that I should be teaching them the daily questions/prompts that we use in our daily conversations. I am a big advocate making thinking visible at home and given the fact that we use these thinking routines/lines regularly then it is a good way in introducing them Filipino words and phrases. Here's a list of questions we normally ask  and how it's translated in Filipino:

a) What are you thinking? Ano ang iniisip mo?
b) Why did you say that? Bakit mo yan nasabi?
c) What if....? Paano kung?
d) What similarities/differences do you see? Ano ang nakikita mong pagkakahawig/pagkakaiba?
e) What else can you do? Ano pa ang puede mong gawin?
f) What's next? Ano ang susunod?
g) What got you happy (change to other emotions) today? Ano ang kinasaya mo sa araw na ito?
h) How did you feel? Ano ang naramdaman mo?
i) Why do you like (don't like) it? Bakit ayaw mo?
j)  What do you think others feel? Ano sa tingin mo naramdaman ng iba?

Some of these questions I wrote in my article for International Almere on Introspection. I am hoping that by teaching children to think about their thinking in another language, it  will elicit more understanding for our kids than teaching them basic concepts like colors, shapes or numbers.Let's see how the year unfolds with this technique!

Exploring Romero Britto

We loved the exploration on Romero Britto! The use of dark, thick lines and vibrant colors appealed to the children. But what was interesting in the activity was that it offered me a chance to use different thinking strategies with it. We used the thinking routine "Step inside: Perceived, Cared about, Know about" in looking at Romero Britto's artwork "The New Day" . It was interesting to hear about the children's replies and they were able to point out it was "sunshine". We also used the thinking routine to ask the children what Headline they will give for it. Milos remarked ""Flying Heart" whereas Katie said "Sunny Day."

We also used this in emphasizing on the Habits of the Mind Thinking Flexibly as a way to emphasize on looking at different perspectives.This went well also with the Exploring Viewpoints of the Artful thinking palette and the Different Perspectives of the Depth and Complexity Icons. It was surely interesting how these strategies blended together in one activity! We even had a follow through of Romero Britto using coloring dolls. I need to see if I got the photos done for those though :/

 I am definitely loving Romero Britto!

Exploring Van Gogh

I found another gem online! I was already contemplating on introducing Vincent Van Gogh's The Starry Night for our art activity but I am so glad that I surfed some more to get inspiration on what to do. The post In the Style of Vincent Van Gogh by Julie Voigt gave me the essential information that I needed in introducing Van Gogh's creative style.

I know doing one 20-30 minute activity is not enough to really learn the techniques but giving them tidbits of ideas and seeing it in their work is inspiring. I can only hope that the children get inspired as well.

Exploring Mondrian

We're back to exploring the great artists! Here's what we did with the kids and new playmates :)

Part 1: Making Thinking Visible at Home

I have been reflecting on some of the things we have applied recently regarding making thinking visible at home. Here are the top 3 activities that we are now starting with the children.

1. Make asking questions a routine.
The past few days we have started on the "5 things you did in school today" asking routine. This gets Katie to reflect on what she has done or who she has played with. Hopefully this routine instills in her not only the sense of awareness to her daily activities but also and more importantly get her to freely share her day's events (and keep such interaction up until she's an adult!). For the younger one, we use "3 things" instead of 5. As enrichment though whenever they answer a short line I always try to follow it up with questions such as where? with whom? what happened? how did you feel?

What is encouraging about this asking routine is that a few days ago after picking up Katie from school and asker her 5 things, she turned to me and said "now Mama your turn, what are 5 things you and my brother did at home?" Isn't that well worth the energy? :)

2. Start them early on mind mapping.
Children communicate best through drawings. After an eventful day, give them a diary/blank notebook where they can draw what they did or enjoyed for the day. Encourage them to draw what they did first, second, third, etc. Make a written account on their narration on a separate paper and then attach it at the back of their drawings so as not to ruin their creative output (this I am learning to do just now). For older children enrich the process by making simple mind maps with a center as a topic (or the date) and the branches with drawings of different events or activities. They can also be encouraged to draw symbols and use different colors to express different emotions. Later on this can be used as a planner for the day (What 5 things you will do/accomplish for the day) instead of being a recording of what has already transpired. I can't wait to get Katie into doing this! For now she is still practicing with her diary drawings but soon enough I'll definitely introduce this technique with her.

3. Don't be afraid to use "big words".
It makes me beam with pride whenever I hear our 3 and 4 year old say "I have a plan." Words like "think, reflect, design, create, constuct, and plan" should be staple words used in conversing with children. Remember that children need to be exposed to different terms to enrich their vocabulary and their repertoire of "thinking words" should also grow for them to fully express themselves and their thoughts.

No wonder that our 4 year old looked at me like I came from another planet when I asked her where she got the idea of wanting to ride a horse for her 6th birthday (yes, she has her birthday gifts planned till she's 17!!!). She looked at me, placed her index finger on her temple and said "from my brain Mama, I got the idea from my brain." :)

My Reflections on the Making Thinking Visible Course

The past two months I have been busy with the online course Making Thinking Visible from Wideworld Harvard. For educators and parents I would recommend this course to see how our parenting and teaching collide in creating a thinking culture for our children. This encouraged me to share two of my course reflections as I feel parents and educators can also get some sense out of my ramblings. Please read the page MY RAMBLINGS to read both reflections. Let me know what you think!

Introducing Shapes and Patterns using Klimt and Klee (part 1)

We've recently been reviewing shapes, colors and lines as part of the children's art activities at home. This made me pretty enthusiastic since it means I get to introduce my favorite artist: Gustav Klimt! For those who want to know more about Klimt the multimedia presentation found at iklimt is an interesting starting point. But just a word of caution, it is not for the sensitive eyes since his works can be a bit too erotic.

However for children, Klimt's works can be a good way to introduce the use of shapes, patterns and lines in art. This can be seen in his works The Kiss or The Tree of Life.

For this activity, I used the thinking routine Colors, Shapes and Lines to look at Gustav Klimt's The Kiss.

One of the key features of Klimt's work aside from the shapes and patterns is his use of gold in his art works. Since the kids didn't pick up on it in their responses on the colors, shapes and lines, I know that this is something that we can do for the next projects. Patterns also seem to be something that they didn't identify with the artwork presented. But overall it was good since they are now beginning to also recognize different types of lines.

When I showed them The Tree of Life, I used the Looking 10x2 thinking routine but was refitted to their age group so it became Looking 5x2. It was fascinating to listen to Katie's very specific observations of the owl.

How about you what can you see in this artwork?

Too bad that wasn't the full artwork on The Tree of Life. It was nevertheless interesting to show to the children. The session wouldn't be complete without the children doing their own artworks. Using the masterpiece coloring page from Art Projects for Kids on The Tree of Life (definitely worth the 5 dollars, and do check out the drawing pages as well!), I printed it out on tracing paper for the sgraffito activity that I wanted to introduce to the children. Sgraffito is what we commonly know as scratch art technique. For this activity we used oil pastels instead of paint which is common for sgraffito artworks.

We started well on doing the coloring using pastels. However Milos felt he didn't want to ruin his work with the black pastel on top. The little one is at the stage where he doesn't want his works touched or influenced in any other way. So for now it's just him watching what Katie was doing. Here are some photos of the little artist in action...

Painting A la Andy Warhol

I finally got the documentation of the Portrait a la Andy Warhol activity that I did with the children. I still need to further expose them to Pop Art but the initial activity was encouraging enough...

Thanks to Art Smarts for kids for this activity. Can't wait to do the other Warhol activity (blotted line drawing) for them to really get a better grasp of how Andy Warhol did his art works. But for tomorrow, this interactive Warhol game will be their homeschool activity.

Pointillism

This time we tried another way of making art. Using the "What Makes You say that" thinking routine, I first asked the children what is going on in the sample what do they know and what do they see that makes you say that?

Too bad the audio recording I did was a bit too big a file. I'll see how I can attach it here. But for now here is the output of the activitiy.

Famous Poses See-think-wonder activity

This is the first see-think-wonder activity that I did with the children.

After introducing the famous poses I asked them what they see, think and wonder about the photos. I recorded their replies and as an extension, I asked Katie and Milos to think of 3 different poses. I got my camera and started clicking! Now they understand the concept of "posing" better :)

Picasso Heart Faces by Katie

I am getting so enthusiastic in practising the "Making Thinking Visible at Home" with Katie (and sometimes with Milos)and incorporating teaching art in the process. For today's activity, I was inspired by a lesson plan I read from incredibleart.org on Picasso faces. I decided to use the opportunity to make my assignment for the course and at the same time give Katie and Milos a bit of Picasso orientation. Milos was not so involved though so I ended up making it along with Katie.Here is the documentation of what transpired in our make-shift art wall