Dance Dance Dance

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I don't know about how the rest of the class feels about the thought of possibly having to teach dance, but it has me realizing that I don't even know the first thing about it! Even though I took dance when I was younger and learned a wide variety of different styles such as jazz, song and dance, ballet, and tap, I have never though about what it would be like to each it, or how I would go about it.

Luckily in this day and age there is a wide variety of resources available for teachers during this time of need through different modes such as the internet, book stores, DRC, colleagues and staff and finally other social networks. The one that was the most readily available to me (the internet) was the one I decided to check out. While searching online I was able to found various lesson plan ideas for and and was surprised to see just how many cross curricular connections could be made. For sample tacking match concepts through dance, and making poem dances.

One really neat unit plan I found, was one that taught dance through the use of free movements and body expressions. I really liked this unit for it provided all the additional information that would be beneficial to a teacher such as forms of assessment, learning objectives and PLO's. Additionally, it seemed like a unit that would not be difficult to teach and one that everyone would be able to participate in no matter what the students skill level. This is something that is important for me as a pre-service teacher to consider. For I want to make sure that what ever I teach in my classroom, it makes all of my students feel that they are capable of achieving what ever task I give them. Not only does this enhance students self esteem, but it give them the proper attitude that is needed for academic success.

Here is the link to the unit plan that I found for a Grade 6 class in case anyone wanted to look at it for future teaching ideas. I personally like the lesson where students act as atoms and switch from partner to patenter.

Pointillism

George Seurat

Last Friday I had the chance to observe a Fine Arts lesson with my Grade K-3 students. It was during this lesson that I became inspired by one of my students for a Visual Arts project. In the lesson, students were instructed to colour self-portraits, and to personalize it by using a variety of different colours. While most of the students were colouring, I noticed one student in particular was colouring with a different technique. Instead of using the marker to fill in solid blocks of colour, he used the marker to create tiny dots. I really like the look of this and thought it would be a fun technique to have all of my students try. While searching online to find a teaching component for such a lesson, I discovered that there actually is a name for this style of work. It is called "pointillism", and many famous painters use this technique when paining for example, George Seurat. What I especially love about this lesson is it wold not require a lot of materials. All you need are plates to put your paint on and q-tips to use as paint brushes. I also thought for younger students, instead of having them draw their own picture you could provide them with a template of a picture. So all they would have to do is add the dots of paint. You could also incorporate a bit of technology into this by having students perform this lesson on the computer with a paint program. If you are interested in doing this, I found a blog that provides a further explanation of the process.

George Seurat

1st and 2nd Grade Project

3rd Grade Project

PoP ArT

 While in my Practicum 490, I was able to observe an Art lesson that the prep teacher had planned for my K-3 class. It was the second lesson for her PoP Art theme, which focused on Andy Warhol's famous soup can prints.

To first start off the class, the teacher had a powerpoint of Andy Warhol to present interesting facts and an introductory bio of the Artist. I had no idea that there was so much information on Andy Warhol that  would be appropriate for the children to learn, however the teacher provided a lot of fun and silly facts about the artist that made the lesson so engaging. For example, one person told Andy to paint what he liked therefore, he painted pictures of cats for he like cats so much the he owned 25 of them, which were all named Sam! This also reflected his famous soup can prints for he loved tomato soup. He ate tomato soup every single day, a lunch that his mother usually provided for him. Eventually Andy bought a factory where he created many of his famous prints and movies. One movie consisted on a man sleeping for 6 hours! Any one was invited to his factory and could make art during any time of the day for the doors were always open.

Student loved this information and were intrigued by Andy, which motivated the students when it came time for their art activity. The teacher had the students colour their own soup and label it any kind of soup they wanted. She provided inspiring ideas such as your favourite kind of sour, or soup you think would taste good, or even invest a soup that hasn't been invented yet. To do this the teacher handed out little cards with printed soup cans on them. To make the colour of the soup cans really pop, which was a classic characteristic of Pop Art, she had the students used colourful sharpies which really made the colour stand out.

One all the students had finished colouring their soup she glued the soup cans on a canvas and finished it off with a glossy coat. This was then hung in the classroom to celebrate the children's' Art. I thought the turnout looked amazing and very professional. This is something that I would definitely love to do with my class one day for it was engaging, fun and not that much prep work.

Here is a photo of the finished product. I got a real kick out of some of the different kinds of soup, for example make note of the one at the bottom right hand corner lol.

loKal art

I love the idea of exposing students to the many local talents their city has to offer. Furthermore, it provides a good opportunity to show students the various ways people choose to express themselves (while also knocking off a few PLO's). Great talent can be hiding anywhere, and you don't have to go looking in the big cities to find it. Learning about local artists not only helps support your community but it helps support the art industry. Even in times of economic hardships art is still apart of the community. Why? Art is comfort, an escape from the every day, and cognitive enrichment. Even in the darkest days art thrives in ways unprecedented.

One of my favourite local artists also happens to be one of my dearest friends. After dropping out from
the University of Applied Arts in Vienna, my friend made her way to the remote forests of BC. She constantly inspires me even when my creativity is running on empty and has introduced me to a wide array of local artists. It's amazing how one person can unveil a whole other world to the one you thought you already knew. Her work has taught me that you can make art and beauty out of anything, it just depends on the angle you decide to look at it.

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