Introducing Bottle cutting to White Cane

This week was a good week.

Monday in level one I cut out supper big paper ties and I outlined different design such as poke dots, zigzags and lines. I took each student one at a time and I had them use the puff paint to make the design stand out more. Then the paint dries it stays pronounced and you can feel where the paint is, I thought this would be grate because the kids in level one are the low functioning students. They really need more one on one help but there is not enough teachers to make this possible. Any ways they can use the ties we made for their fathers day cards.

In Level Five we worked on popsicle stick fish. Each student got six sticks and they had to paint them. When they where dry we had to assemble them so they would look like a fish, and add a goggle eye. They turned out cute.

After lunch is Level Four, and they had started a project all ready so we continued to work on that. They had gotten a nutmeg bag and cut up pieces of cloth so that they could make a doormat. Their class was only three students because the others went to a sports event. It really does amaze me how important sports are here. I also makes me sad because most of the students are to low functioning to even attend the Special Olympics that they are trying to get into place, so in my opinion they are loosing valuable education in the classroom when they are constantly being pulled away from school. It was a realizing class I can say that at least.

Tuesday

I was a bit nervous to bring the bottle cutter to White Cane because I have not gotten a hang of it yet myself, but I decided that it was time to introduce that to them. It turned out to be a fun breath of fresh air and a science class all in one. They had a grate time. Each of my students got a bottle of their own to score and cut. I first went over how the cutter worked and all of the different pieces. Then each one went threw and scored their bottles. It was a bot challenging for one of them because he only uses one hand, but for a first try he did grate. Then I lit the candle and they started one at a time heating up their scored bottles. It was so much fun to watch how exited they got when the bottle broke. It was like a new addiction to them. When it was time to go they could not wait for the next day to come so we could continue are lesson.

Wednesday

I started with Level Two I was testing them to see if they could follow along with a color by numbers sheet. It went better than I thought it would some of the smallest kids in the class where understanding what to do. I was disappointed that numbers where so small though on the sheets that made it hard for them as well.

Level Two A, we hung are big apple tree that we painted all together a few weeks ago and then I measured all of the kids on the trunk. This is a billion and one thing that we can use the tree for (Science, Math, Colors) and more. I want to get it laminated so that we can stick things onto it but its like six feet tall so it will be expensive. Any ways I also had the kids color their owls and birdhouses for the tree. It was fun. I am hopping that some day I can paint it on the wall and them maybe do an under the water seen that was requested by the teacher.

I also was exited to see that some of the upper level classes seven and eight where working on the project that we started last week. We where making newspaper rolls to put together for a picture frame. That was exiting to me because that shows that they were interested in what I was doing with them.

Wednesday is my half day so at lunch I headed down to White Cane and I wanted to test their skills with the bottle cutter that was so much fun to watch them try and remember what I had thought them the day before, and they did good so I think that means we can keep going with it.

Thursday I worked with level four on father’s day cards again, but they had different ones than the other classes they made little t-shirts and then cut color ties out of paint swatches. They loved it and when they where done I used a letter stencil to write Happy Father's Day inside that took a lot of time because I had them each one at a time identify each letter and then they traced it. It went well.

Level six, seven, and eight are working on rolling their news paper around the pencil to make tubs, and we will line them up to frame a picture frame. It was a good week all in all.