Penguin Mask Fun

During my practicum I taught many science lessons on Penguins. In my last week I decided to be brave and make penguin masks for art. My teacher said that the most important part of art is being organized, which is something that I love to do. I cut out the masks ahead of time out from white stiff cardboard, which is stiff enough to manage lots of glue and materials. The students first coloured their masks with felts, the teacher had a box of extra felts for students who needed it. Once students finished colouring, they wrote their names on the back and started to add materials. I organized the decorative materials in egg cartoons (one at each group of students). This worked really well and maintain the materials with very little mess. Each table had a paper plate with glue, the students used popsicle sticks to spread the glue. The students loved it and were very proud of their work. I put on a "Hoja" CD and very little behaviour management was needed. I would definetely teach this lesson again.

A Helpful Resource

I had the opportunity to teach about the lines during my practicum. During my first week of practicum a retiering teacher at the school gave me a number of teacher resources, one of them was "How to Teach Art to Children" published by Joy Evans and Tanya Skelton. I used the book to help me find an activity that I thought would help students understand the types and directions of lines. The pictures above show the lesson that I taught. I put the students work up on a bulletin board outside of the classroom and some inside the classroom. The book is organized into seven different concepts. Within each concept their are seven different lesson activities and worksheets for students. Each lesson has a step by step procedure, list of materials and pictures of completed work. This book was great and very helpful. I look forward to using more activities in my next practicum.

Funny First Dance

Brian & Katie's Evolution of Wedding Dance
Source: www.youtube.com
Play Video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QujA8YYgTWU

I am getting married in June and came across theis video. It definetely made me laugh and I was really impressed with the dancing. I am not the greatest dancer, which makes me appreciate others who can dance. I took ballet and jazz dance lessons in my early elementary years. I often needed extra help from the instructor because I couldn't quite get the steps. I remember having fun, even if I was one of the worst dancers. My fiance and I have taken a variety of dance lessons together. He often gets mad because I like to lead, it is very hard to let him tell me where to go. This video definetely made me think of my fiance and I at our future wedding. We will need to take a few more dance lessons, but hopefully we will be able to dance and have fun. I think I will be able to teach my future students that you don't have to be the best dancer, the most important thing is that you have fun.

Haida Art

This is a book that my mom gave me. It's an awesome book because it has the picture of an animal on the left side and then the Haida version on the right side. I decided to experiment a bit and I drew one of the animals. I picked the frog because it is my mom's favourite. I think this would be a fun activity in the classroom. The students could draw their own animals then draw the Haida animal.