Human Organ Pop Art

As part of our human organ unit, students will be hosting a museum for all pod members this upcoming March. We will include various human organ projects such as our edible human organ models, human body narratives, persuasive letters on organ/human body health, and pop art. 


Our Organ Pop Art is a project we have been working on with the new school librarian, Ms. Gibbons. Ms. Gibbons and I have known each other for many years and in fact went to college together both originally majoring in the arts.


This past week, Ms. Gibbons came by our class to teach us about the term pop art and more specifically what it means to make art out of words. One of her examples was a portrait of the president Barack Obama which students could very much relate to as an important public figure. 


Ms. Gibbons asked students about their organ unit using questions like: What had they learned so far? What organs were they studying? What three important facts would they share first about their group's organ of study? After she gave students time to think about these questions, she told them how the art they were about to create would include organs made up entirely of words- words that they would use to explain important organ facts.


Each of our seven organ groups was then given a blown up image of their organ. The organ had been cut into pieces so that one whole study group would be working together to create their organ. Students placed the image under a blank piece of white butcher paper and were instructed to lightly trace over the lines of the organ. They then would use word lines to create the image of their organ. They could use any important facts or thoughts they had about their organ and write them in. The goal was simply to completely fill the organ with words.


As of right now students are still working on these pop art masterpieces. We have learned it is very hard to fill a chunk of organ with words so that there is no more white space to be found. But when our organ art is complete, one will be able to find it on display in the library and our class museum this upcoming March! We will of course keep you updated on its progress here on the class blog though! 

NWEA Tree

As a pod, Team Spruce began the year charting student growth in our classrooms. We knew that students would be taking the NWEA tests three times over the course of the year. Each student is given growth targets for each test and has their scores charted over time. In order to make the process more visual for the students themselves- the Spruce tree was developed. 


In my class each student who started the year was represented with one Spruce pine bunch. When they took the test this past fall, students who made growth since the spring test in second grade were given one more pine bunch per test. There are three tests- Math, Reading, and Language. That means each student had the opportunity to earn 3 bunches. As a class we earned 20 pine bunches this fall. This was good, but not great. 


We just finished taking the NWEA tests again this winter and the growth was more than doubled, almost tripled even. We earned 55 pine bunches between the three tests this time! Almost the entire class made growth on the Math and Reading tests and we have discussed strategies for making our Language scores go up just as much for the spring NWEA tests where as this winter we had about half the student growth. For more specific break downs of the tree please check out our wooden post signs in the picture to the left. 

NWEA tree with fall student growth versus NWEA tree
with fall and winter student growth.

For the Love of Human Organ Day!

Students are insistent that we celebrate the holiday of love. So this is what our class has come up with. Sorry the invitations are so last minute...

NWEA Awards

We have officially completed the NWEA assessments this winter and have awarded the three students with the highest growth! Asha A. was first awarded with the Math NWEA trophy making 23 points growth since our fall assessment. Halimo A. earned the Reading NWEA trophy with 33 points growth and Nasra A. received the Language NWEA trophy with 18 points growth. More Golden Pinecone trophies will be awarded at the end of the spring assessments this May.