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investigate with jam

Jam investigates street art

8/29/2015

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We drove around Annapolis Maryland to check out some murals. We talked about how artists are commissioned to do these paintings and the difference between murals and graffiti.
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One thing I was surprised to see around the city was these fun giant chicken sculptures. Throughout Baltimore you can find giant crab sculptures, and in Norfolk, VA they have mermaid sculptures. I understand crabs for Baltimore and mermaids for Norfolk, but the Annapolis chicken?? I will have to look up the history and the city’s connection to this bird. I love these types of sculptures and how they are used to define and bring identity to a city. I think our City of Laurel should have something but what should it be? Let the ideas begin.
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Back to the blog- So we talked about how murals are made. They typically start with a smaller sketch. Once the artist is finish with the design they create a grid over it to understand the proportion and scale in relation to the wall that it will go on. Lastly the sketch gets translated on to the wall. For this blog activity we took this concept and applied it to the sidewalk. This is what I call color by number at its simplest. You gotta love street art.
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Activity


Search your city for street art. Keep an eye out for murals, sculptures, and fun pavement designs.

Case study #8: Create your own street art. Use sidewalk chalk to recreate the case study picture on the ground.
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Jam investigates directions

8/21/2015

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When we don't know how to get to where we want to go we use directions. Jam and I discussed what directions look like on the phone and printed. We discussed how directional words help us communicate our actions, and how to represent them graphically.  We talked about the importance of our address and how it is connected to our streets system, and then we did the activity sheets for this blog. 

We talked about common road names like road, court, lane, and street. I asked Jam to make an address for his room and he picked “Sewer road” for a street name because everything we do has to be connected to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

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 I asked I'm where he wanted to start giving directions from and he picked our red car. I proceeded to walk him though the path to his room. 

We stopped at every changed in direction and discussed what should be written down. When we got to steps I would ask him things like what is the next step? He would say turn left then I would ask him questions like should we say walk up steps or just say turn left?

After we finished the sheet Jam gave it to his father to see if they worked. After a silly start his father made it to his room, and then gave some suggestions on how to make it easier like adding step counts.

 



Activity


Print out directions to your next destination and review them with your child. Ask them to help you find the streets and turns.

Case #7: Create an address and directions to your room from your parking lot. Give them to a friend or parent to see if they can find your room.

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Jam investigates a playground

8/14/2015

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We explored two playgrounds on two different days. The first playground is a modern looking playground made up of one big play unit in our neighborhood.  We counted the things that could get you high in the air and the things that you could play under. Jam tested the things he could climb and the slides. 

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Afterwards we talked about his likes and dislikes of the playground. He said his favorite piece of equipment was the tic-tac-toe board, but the playground needed swings. One of his comments about the design was “it (the playground) has all the cool stuff other parks have”. There was no uniqueness. I asked him what would he add to the playground and he said he wanted a race track for small race cars.


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Day two we went to a completely different type of playground. It is located in the woods at the edge of a stream verses an open field next to a road. This playground had the swings Jam was so eager for but that’s about it. Instead of the popular large play unit it had freestanding equipment- a total of 5.  Jam said the playground was quite boring however he had much fun on the duck spring rider.


Back at our house we discussed the differences, his likes, and dislikes, and at the end of the day he became a playground designer.

Activity


Visit two different playgrounds and discuss their differences.

Case study #6: Design your playground. Download the playground critique and use your experience from the two playgrounds to design and draw your own.
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Jam investigates the London Plane Tree

8/10/2015

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In our last blog we investigated different types of leaves. In this blog Jam tried to put that knowledge to use. We went on the hunt for one of my favorite trees, the camouflage tree (aka London Plane- Platanus x acerifolia if you want to get technical). We talked about the tree’s cool peeling bark and its leaf structure. The London Plane tree is a common street tree in our area so I knew we simply had to hop in the car and drive around to find it. I had a particular place in mind to go, but on the way guess what we spotted from the car- the camo tree!!! We were simply a few blocks away from our house. We parked in the neighborhood and counted the trees, a total of 10.  
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 So what do you do when you find the camo tree? You take a tree selfie. Now whenever we drive past a London Plane tree Jam yells in excitement “I see the tree mom. There it is!”

Activity


Find the London Plane tree.

Download Case study #5 for tree facts and clues. Tag us on Instagram with your tree selfie or hashtag #IWJFun.

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    Investigate with Jam is an activity blog in the 
    Radicle Roots Series. Our mission is to get out and explore our environment.

    #iwjFun

    Join the investigation & share your fun with  
    #IWJFUN on Instagram

    Author

    Courtney McQueen is a landscape designer and children's book author from Columbia, MD

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  • Radicle Roots
    • About
    • Author
  • Books
    • Come Plant a Seed
    • 30 Day Design Adventure Journal
    • ABCs of Land Arch
  • Activity Blog
    • Free Activites
  • Teachers
    • Author Visit
    • Classroom Activities
    • Testimonials