Tuesday the 5th, we came with a lesson about the previous Saturday’s holiday: Groundhog Day! All students, both middle school and second grade, were familiar with the legend of Punxatawny Phil and what his shadow means.
The middle school kids are just on the cusp of outgrowing Groundhog Day but they love coloring, so they happily decorated and put together a 3D groundhog craft. While they worked, I sat down with each group and had a conversation with them about what art they’ve been exposed to and what they’d be interested in learning about moving forward; I wanted them to participate in and enjoy the lessons we bring them. I compiled a list of all the wonderful and unique things middle schools kids are into and spent the rest of the week brainstorming.
Next up was the second grade group. Because of the beautiful weather, a lot of them were outside playing. The benefit of a smaller group was a more intimate class. I love being able to sit everyone around 1 table to work together, something about it just feels so much cozier and more impactful. We made paper bag groundhog puppets and chatted about Groundhog Day. Because there were less students, it took less time to complete a project so we had extra time on hand. Luckily, Jay and I also brought a groundhog coloring page for the kids. Some of them just colored theirs in, but some of the kids cut out the groundhog and taped it to their paper bag puppet. They love making narratives for their art, so we heard lots of stories about the bigger groundhog being the mommy and the little one being the baby. Overall, a quiet but enjoyable afternoon!
