Yesterday was my second lesson with Logan’s class, and I had recruited three moms to help out again.  I dropped off the kids in the morning and went on a Target shopping run.  I came home to do some last minute prep work for the lesson, then it was almost time.  I quickly ate a lunch, then headed to school.  I gathered my materials and chatted with the moms before the teacher and the children returned from lunch.  This time I decided to have the discussion with the children at the rug, and it worked much better as I was closer to all of them and I could try to call on many of them.  I started by reviewing what we discussed last month, and I was happy that they recalled the subjects well.  Then I began discussing the topic for the day, shapes.  We talked about different types of shapes, geometric vs free-form, natural vs man-made, and we also discussed about the concepts of positive vs negative space.  I used my homemade flashcards and did a quick drawing to explain, and they all worked well.  Then I showed three famous paintings for discussion, and the kids were engaged.  They were all eager to answer questions, and I tried my best to call on different kids.  I finally learned most of the kids’ names, however I did make one mistake and the boy corrected me. 

    Then I had all the kids return to their seats so I could use the projector to demonstrate the hands-on project.  I gave the class instructions while I finished making my demo; the kids were excited to guess what I was making.  The project was to use tear-out construction papers to build an animal or a plant on paper.  This art work was actually more challenging than I expected as the children had to give us their pencils to sketch but use their imagine to build the object with shapes instead.  The other parents and I went around the room to give guidance and I had to put down a few pencils from the kids.  Most kids got the hang of it quickly, but a few needed some suggestions to get them started.  The one who gave me the most trouble was Logan.  He became grumpy as he did not know what to make.  One of the moms talked with him patiently for a long time to give suggestions, but Logan did not give way.  I was busy answering questions, but later I tried to help him out too.  He did not try to listen for suggestions and just appeared to be giving up; he was really pushing my patience there.  After the kids were happy with what they built, they started gluing the pieces onto the paper.  At last the parents and I went around helping the children to make a rubbing with crayon for an additional piece of art work.  By then, Logan sort of put together something to finish up his project.  We gathered all the pieces from the kids and I thanked the class for a great lesson before the parents and I left.  I was happy with how the lesson went except the part with Logan’s grumpiness.