Friday, April 23, 2010
news form the Sackler
I will share this e-mail with the italian students and the parents of the children at G&P. Please, go see your child's artwork at the museum. You can tell your friends that your kid had his first big show at a museum when he was 6!!!
here the email:
Dear Patrizia and Cara,
We got the go-ahead from our deputy director to put together the display of the
Graham Parks students' self-portraits!
We'll be able to put together a display that will be up the weekend of May 15th.
The display will be in the space outside the entrance to the Sackler Lecture
Hall - there is a large bulletin board we can use, and we will set up an
additional table so there is space for all 58 art works and a description of
the project.
...to be continued, but wanted to share this good news!
Kelsey
here the email:
Dear Patrizia and Cara,
We got the go-ahead from our deputy director to put together the display of the
Graham Parks students' self-portraits!
We'll be able to put together a display that will be up the weekend of May 15th.
The display will be in the space outside the entrance to the Sackler Lecture
Hall - there is a large bulletin board we can use, and we will set up an
additional table so there is space for all 58 art works and a description of
the project.
...to be continued, but wanted to share this good news!
Kelsey
Italiano al Sackler - by Matthew Da Silva
The students of Harvard’s Italian 96 class are taking a field trip. However, they won’t be alone. Students of the advanced language class are taking Pre-Kindergarten and Kindergarten students from Cambridge’s Graham and Parks School on a field trip to the Sackler Art Museum.
The Harvard students have been teaching the "bambini" Italian all semester long as a part of their class. In a few weeks, the semester’s work will culminate in a field trip to the Sackler.
To integrate the Italian language with the beautiful artwork the Sackler, the students have been rehearsing lesson plans that are both engaging and educational. From playing Italian “I-Spy” with still-life paintings to pointing out the parts of the face on a little girl painted by Van Gogh, the students have managed to make the artwork of the Sackler come to life – in Italian!
One student plans to create an entire story about a statue that is filled with seemingly random objects, while another will help the story of Aphrodite come to life. In each student’s presentation, integration of the Italian language is key. As the students they are working with have only been taking Italian for a couple of months, it is a difficult task to blend Italian into exciting lessons that the preschoolers and kindergarteners will find engaging. However, the students of Italian 96 have constructed brilliant lessons that combine the museum’s artwork with the Italian language in a fun, interesting manner.
While teaching youngsters a foreign language can be difficult on its own, policing a group of four and five year olds in a fine art museum is no easy task. However, the students, with help from their instructors and museum staff, have worked hard to ensure no mishaps will occur.
With excellent teaching, an exciting lesson plan, and beautiful artwork, the Italian 96 field trip to Sackler Museum promises to be one of the highlights of the academic year – both for the kindergarteners, and the college students.
The Harvard students have been teaching the "bambini" Italian all semester long as a part of their class. In a few weeks, the semester’s work will culminate in a field trip to the Sackler.
To integrate the Italian language with the beautiful artwork the Sackler, the students have been rehearsing lesson plans that are both engaging and educational. From playing Italian “I-Spy” with still-life paintings to pointing out the parts of the face on a little girl painted by Van Gogh, the students have managed to make the artwork of the Sackler come to life – in Italian!
One student plans to create an entire story about a statue that is filled with seemingly random objects, while another will help the story of Aphrodite come to life. In each student’s presentation, integration of the Italian language is key. As the students they are working with have only been taking Italian for a couple of months, it is a difficult task to blend Italian into exciting lessons that the preschoolers and kindergarteners will find engaging. However, the students of Italian 96 have constructed brilliant lessons that combine the museum’s artwork with the Italian language in a fun, interesting manner.
While teaching youngsters a foreign language can be difficult on its own, policing a group of four and five year olds in a fine art museum is no easy task. However, the students, with help from their instructors and museum staff, have worked hard to ensure no mishaps will occur.
With excellent teaching, an exciting lesson plan, and beautiful artwork, the Italian 96 field trip to Sackler Museum promises to be one of the highlights of the academic year – both for the kindergarteners, and the college students.
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Alezandra's Class 4/11/10
Hi Parents!
Today Stacey, Jackie and I started to speak more Italian to the children. While they seemed confused at first, they eventually got the idea and seemed to understand all of our instructions in Italian. It’s amazing how quickly they’ve learned!
After our customary song, “La Bella Lavanderina”, we read the story of “The Girl in the Castle Inside the Museum” as a class. We read it in English but repeated all of the nouns in Italian (eg. “Once upon a time there was a girl-ragazza- who lived in a castle- castello- inside the museum- museo”). Many of the words were repeated multiple times, so by the end of the story the children had most of the basic vocabulary nailed down.
After the story, we introduced the parts of the face, using the front cover of the book in a simple “say and repeat” format. When we felt that the children had learned the words, we played a game of “Simon Says” in Italian (“Simone dice”). In this part of the lesson, there was absolutely no English, so the kids had to follow instructions (eg. “Simone dice tocca il tuo naso”- Simon says touch your nose) and remember the vocabulary that they had just learned. They did a great job!
Lastly, we drew self-portraits, with the kids again following our instructions in Italian. The teachers would say “Ora dessiniamo la bocca” (Now we’re going to draw the mouth), and all the kids would draw the mouth on their self-portrait. They managed to remember the vocabulary really well and follow all of the instructions. It’s great to see how much progress they’re making!
Teddy, Jackie and Stacey
Today Stacey, Jackie and I started to speak more Italian to the children. While they seemed confused at first, they eventually got the idea and seemed to understand all of our instructions in Italian. It’s amazing how quickly they’ve learned!
After our customary song, “La Bella Lavanderina”, we read the story of “The Girl in the Castle Inside the Museum” as a class. We read it in English but repeated all of the nouns in Italian (eg. “Once upon a time there was a girl-ragazza- who lived in a castle- castello- inside the museum- museo”). Many of the words were repeated multiple times, so by the end of the story the children had most of the basic vocabulary nailed down.
After the story, we introduced the parts of the face, using the front cover of the book in a simple “say and repeat” format. When we felt that the children had learned the words, we played a game of “Simon Says” in Italian (“Simone dice”). In this part of the lesson, there was absolutely no English, so the kids had to follow instructions (eg. “Simone dice tocca il tuo naso”- Simon says touch your nose) and remember the vocabulary that they had just learned. They did a great job!
Lastly, we drew self-portraits, with the kids again following our instructions in Italian. The teachers would say “Ora dessiniamo la bocca” (Now we’re going to draw the mouth), and all the kids would draw the mouth on their self-portrait. They managed to remember the vocabulary really well and follow all of the instructions. It’s great to see how much progress they’re making!
Teddy, Jackie and Stacey
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Claudie's Class 4/16
Hi again! This week in Italian class we continued to prepare for our visit to the Harvard Sackler Museum. As always we began our lesson with Giro Giro Tondo- the kids all know the words by heart now! Here is a picture of some of them while playing... Next
Next we read a story about a little girl in a museum- The Girl in the Castle Inside the Museum by Kate Bernheimer.
When we go to the real museum we are going to look for something from the little girl because she told the Italian teachers she is going to leave something special for us there! After finishing the book we played Head, Shoulder, Knees, and Toes (Testa, Spalle, Ginocchia, Piedi) again. The kids were impressive in their ability to both say the italian words and sing the song faster and faster each time! Here is a picture during the game...
Occhi (eyes)- guardare (look) At the museum we will look at lots of paintings!
Mani (hands)- toccare (touch) At the museum we cannot touch the paintings!
Orecchi (ears)- ascoltare (listen) At the museum we must listen to instructions!
Bocca (mouth)- parlare (talk) At the museum we must speak softly (parlare piano)!
Piedi (feet)- camminare (walk) At the museum we should walk, not run!
Each action verb had a gesture or a motion that we also learned. Then we played a memory game where we, the teachers, would say either the body part or the action verb and then the kids had to say the partner word that we didn't say. This was challenging to begin with but the kids caught on. Afterwards we looked at the self portraits (autoritratti) that the kids drew last week. We went through each one and asked questions about colors, numbers, parts of the body, and family members. The kids did a wonderful job responding in Italian- they have learned so much and are ready to learn more! Finally we played Giro Giro Tondo one last time to close. The thing that impressed me most about this lesson was the amount of italian the kids understood. We had two teachers speaking only in Italian this week and all the questions we asked were only in Italian. The kid understood and were able to respond! This was so amazing! Keep up the good work!
Ciao,
Brennan, Alex, Nick, Alex
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Pre-K, Max Came to Class
Dear Parents,
This week, we did another museum simulation, incorporating lots of elements from past weeks like vocabulary (numbers, colors, facial expressions, museum etiquette, etc.)
as well as some new words and concepts. We started the class like always -- handing out nametags and forming two lines to get ready for entering the museum. This time when we entered, there were colored dots for them to sit on in order to set up an appropriate viewing space. We reviewed the commands -- "fate silenzio", "non toccare" and "siediti" -- and then brought back the picture of Max so they would recall some of last week's themes. This time, though, we had a surprise: Giancarlo entered the class dressed as Max, in a black suit, a bowtie and nice shoes. A lot of the kids recognized him and called out "Giancarlo!" so we asked him, 
"Come ti chiami?" and he responded, "Mi chiamo MAX."
From here, we reviewed many of the words which we had introduced last week -- "vestito nero" (black suit), "farfalla" (bow tie), "faccia seria" (serious face), and "faccia felice" (happy face.) This was a good time to introduce some of the other works surrounding Max in the museum, some of the pieces which Max talks to when he gets lonely. Lam walked in dressed as a sculpture made by Rachel Harrison called "I'm with Stupid." We introduced Lam as a friend of Max and did a comparison of the two, but introduced new words like: "carota" (carrot), "scatola" (can), "maschera" (mask), "scarpe" (shoes), "erba" (grass) and "legno" (wood.) We used this time to compare the facial expression of Max with that of Lam, as well as some of the activities each of them might do.
Sitting beside Lam was a letter, which the little girl from the book (The Girl in the Castle inside the Museum) had left. We read the letter to the class which thanked everyone for making self-portraits last week, and asked the students to make new drawings of the pieces this week. The letter was essentially a prompt for the game "I Spy" -- each time we said "Io vedo.....", the kids had to draw the object. We distributed little colored booklets (also a review of color words!) and crayons, and began the game of "I spy" using the objects on Giancarlo and Lam.
The class really enjoyed the drawing activity and many of them were able to identify the objects even though we only stated them in Italian. A lot of them remembered the color words when we went around and asked them what colors they
were using, and they were eager to share their drawings with us.
When it was time to go, we got ready by lining up and "faccendo silenzio"....then we exited the museum and collected all the little books. On our actual visit to the museum in May, we will again distribute these sketchbooks to encourage them to creatively respond to the artwork they see. We think it will be really exciting for them to see the actual painting of Max and the sculpture, "I am with Stupid" when they go to the museum, and our hope is that they will recognize and remember many of the words/objects which we introduced.
We can't wait for our final lesson after spring break! We hope you continue to review the words we have introduced -- especially numbers and colors. On our last lesson, we will be giving each student a little bag with all the work they have been doing this semester!
A dopo,
Julia, Giancarlo and Lam
This week, we did another museum simulation, incorporating lots of elements from past weeks like vocabulary (numbers, colors, facial expressions, museum etiquette, etc.)
as well as some new words and concepts. We started the class like always -- handing out nametags and forming two lines to get ready for entering the museum. This time when we entered, there were colored dots for them to sit on in order to set up an appropriate viewing space. We reviewed the commands -- "fate silenzio", "non toccare" and "siediti" -- and then brought back the picture of Max so they would recall some of last week's themes. This time, though, we had a surprise: Giancarlo entered the class dressed as Max, in a black suit, a bowtie and nice shoes. A lot of the kids recognized him and called out "Giancarlo!" so we asked him, 
"Come ti chiami?" and he responded, "Mi chiamo MAX."From here, we reviewed many of the words which we had introduced last week -- "vestito nero" (black suit), "farfalla" (bow tie), "faccia seria" (serious face), and "faccia felice" (happy face.) This was a good time to introduce some of the other works surrounding Max in the museum, some of the pieces which Max talks to when he gets lonely. Lam walked in dressed as a sculpture made by Rachel Harrison called "I'm with Stupid." We introduced Lam as a friend of Max and did a comparison of the two, but introduced new words like: "carota" (carrot), "scatola" (can), "maschera" (mask), "scarpe" (shoes), "erba" (grass) and "legno" (wood.) We used this time to compare the facial expression of Max with that of Lam, as well as some of the activities each of them might do.
Sitting beside Lam was a letter, which the little girl from the book (The Girl in the Castle inside the Museum) had left. We read the letter to the class which thanked everyone for making self-portraits last week, and asked the students to make new drawings of the pieces this week. The letter was essentially a prompt for the game "I Spy" -- each time we said "Io vedo.....", the kids had to draw the object. We distributed little colored booklets (also a review of color words!) and crayons, and began the game of "I spy" using the objects on Giancarlo and Lam.
The class really enjoyed the drawing activity and many of them were able to identify the objects even though we only stated them in Italian. A lot of them remembered the color words when we went around and asked them what colors they
were using, and they were eager to share their drawings with us.When it was time to go, we got ready by lining up and "faccendo silenzio"....then we exited the museum and collected all the little books. On our actual visit to the museum in May, we will again distribute these sketchbooks to encourage them to creatively respond to the artwork they see. We think it will be really exciting for them to see the actual painting of Max and the sculpture, "I am with Stupid" when they go to the museum, and our hope is that they will recognize and remember many of the words/objects which we introduced.
We can't wait for our final lesson after spring break! We hope you continue to review the words we have introduced -- especially numbers and colors. On our last lesson, we will be giving each student a little bag with all the work they have been doing this semester!
A dopo,
Julia, Giancarlo and Lam
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Pre-K Class; Stories and Games
Dear Parents,
A few weeks ago we had a wonderful Italian lesson with Liz's pre-K class! We split the class into two groups and did two fun activities to teach the kids some new words in Italian.
Stories
In one group, we read the kids a book called "The Girl in the Castle Inside the Museum." This is an easy-to-read child
ren's book by Kate Bernheimer, and it is beautifully illustrated by Nicoletta Ceccoli (an Italian, no less!). As you can see, not all great Italian art is hundreds of years old.The book tells the story of a young girl who lives inside a castle which is inside a museum - the girl enjoys the company of museum visitors during the day but gets very lonely at night after the museum closes. We used the book to introduce select Italian vocabulary (such as "castello," meaning castle), as well as to have the children start thinking about what it means to visit a museum and admire beautiful art. In light of our upcoming class trip to the Harvard Sackler Art Museum, we thought this would be a great warm-up exercise for the kids!
Games
In our other group, we focused on Italian vocabulary for various types of fruit. After an initial lesson, we reinforced the new words by playing the familiar children's game "hot potato." But don't worry, we taught the kids more than just the word "potato." The class learned the Italian words for many different types of fruit (such as "mela," which means "apple"). We played the "hot potato" game with various toy fruits - instead of saying "stop," the teacher would call out an Italian fruit ("mela!") and whichever children were holding apples would have to get up and do a funny dance for the rest of the group. The kids had a great time - they're as good at dancing "the funky chicken" as they are at learning Italian!
Overall, a wonderful time was had by children and teachers alike, and we can't wait to come back next week. Feel free to ask
your own children which Italian words they remember at home! (But don't blame us if they start dancing "the funky chicken.")Julia, Giancarlo and Lam
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