Hoplite Sheilds

In Greece, Hoplite were elite foot soldiers. Each soldier wore breast plates, guards for his lower legs, carried a spear, sword, and shield. The shields had designs on front meant to intimidate their enemies, the scarier, the better. As a class we have been designing our own Hoplite Shields. 

First we traced a plate for a basic circular design.

After cutting out our circles we then sketched our design.

I gave my students access to any art supplies in the class, Oil pastels, colored pencils, crayons, markers, etc. Although we are not completely done they turned out pretty incredible.  

  

Very intimidating!

Manda

An Alphabet Bestiary Book

As promised, more of my class activities! We are currently moving into our space unit. I decided it was time to add some creative writing to our day. First I gave the kids play dough and asked them to create a create that could live on another planet. It could be a planet in our solar system or in another solar system. It doesn't matter, but be creative. Think about how is he gonna protect himself, where does he live, what does he eat and so on. Below is my alien, Macaroni:

Next we created a alphabet book. The dots are from Macaroni walking across the book. Each page measured 8 by 4.5 inches the cover was 14 by 5 inches so I could the cover back to back to make it look more professional. Below is the book: 

Next we started the Bestiary. Each page is dedicated to a letter in the alphabet. This is not finished we are just starting. A is for appetite, B is for Basics.....Z is for Zoom.

Each letter will be illuminated. This is a technique used in the Middle Ages. I started my A above and added some depth and a bug at the top meaning he will eat bugs. 

Once each page is set we will go into further detail on the information. Such as Macaroni like to eat bugs, bugs give him the juice to make it through his day. His favorite bug is called a mockroach. The point is to use your imagination and make it into anything you want. This will be written along the bottom and a picture will be drawn in the middle. Stay tuned for more to come.

Below these are other aliens created by my students. Some are made from salt dough others play dough.

Manda

Things I Learn From My Students.

Me: Ok kids we are going to work on our hoplite shields today. Remember the scarier the better use scropions, lions, cyclops, etc. No flowers, unicorns, bunnies, kittens, nothing cute. Yes Mario?
Mario: Mrs. McKnight would a unicorn with a dead bunny on his horn quailfy as scary?
Me: *sigh* Yes Mario, yes it would.

Story Problem:

A company offers a payment plan for any item that costs over $200. You must make a $100 down payment and the rest must be split into three payments. What was the original cost if the payments were $250?

One students accidentally added the down payment into the three payments. This in turn made her over pay $200. She was great and let me use her mistake as an example. I told her that as the store owner I would keep her money because she didn't know how to do the math, her problem, not mine. Then the class started to discuss what I could buy with her money, a Kindle Fire, toys for Miles, lots of food, clothes, etc. We finally decided that we could buy my 9 month old child his own set of POWERWHEELS! Lol. It was great to imagine.

Manda

Miles and his truck!

Just like the blocks we of course had a truck his Aunt Gwenda gave him. It is so cute and adored by all his cousins so we of course bring it with us each time! We tried to get it in on his 1 month photos but the truck was so huge that it would have been dangerous to place him inside!

Here is his 3 months. Finally able to fit inside!

Miles at 6 months! Such a hilarious face!

 Miles at 9 months! Big Boy!

Miles and his Blocks!

I just can't get enough of my kid! Each time we get his pictures taken we bring some of our favorite props. This one is based off of his name blocks I had custom made for his room.

This is him at 1 month with the blocks being twice the size of his head! You can see the monitor that is attached to his foot and heart.

This is him at three months!

Miles at six months!

Most recent Miles at nine months! Too cute!

Manda