Chain of names..

Surprise!! Art on a Friday!
Since my site supervisor was at a conference today, I had about an hour of art with the students. On Friday it's a little less than half the amount of students we normally have during the rest of the week. Well, I had the students create a paper "name" chain.  I ask the students if they could write a student’s name on each link and to decorate it. (It was just the girls in art today, so it was 8 students while the boys went to do an activity with another instructor.) The oldest girl cut different colors of construction paper into strips, while the younger girls wrote the students name on each link. When the girls noticed that the glue wasn't really working, a student suggested using a stapler. However, since they are between the ages 5-9, I took over the stapling process. Only one girl decided not to participate in creating the class chain. She also happens to have been the only girl who ever gave me a hard time. Could it be that she was being rebellious? While the other girls expressed excitement as the chain grew longer, that particular girl would grab the stapler out of my hands every chance she got and take off with the strips that the other girls would cut. I left it alone because I knew she was just trying to proof her independence. Also, the girls who cut the strips never confronted her about taking them. It was team project for the remaining girls and at that point her actions didn’t seem to bother them.  I realized that if I used Maslow’s model, “hierarchy of needs,” that many of these girls just want to belong. So, while working on this project I talked to the girls. This helped them to get to know each other a little more. Sadly, the boys didn’t get to work on their chain. However, that’s a different story for another day…
To a great weekend!
                   Miss. Tanja