Elementary Classroom
The class that I am observing only goes to art one to two times a week. The last time they were in their art class they were doing this really fun project. The students were paired up and given the blue kulligan water jugs. The class before they painted on paper that looked like honey comb. They stuffed the painted, colorful paper into the water jugs. Then they were given a variety of different other mediums in order for them to create their bugs like: cups, cotton balls, pipe cleaners, felt, fault, and many others. The teaching points about art when building this bug were texture and color. The best part of this activity was that all of the bugs turned out different even though some of the students chose to create the same bug.
To integrate this lesson in the core classroom, my host teacher tied this art project in with writing and science. When all of the bugs were completed they were brought to class and the students observed their bugs and filled out a worksheet that included the following questions: Where is your bug? What descriptive words describe your bug? What does your bug eat? Where does your bug live? These questions were used to later write out a paragraph about the bug they created and use it as the artist statement.
The big idea used in this integrated lesson was to create. The students had to visualize and create a piece of art out of a variety of different mediums. Then the students worked with observation, imagination, and visual thinking because after they created the bug they had to justify why they made it by creating an artist statement after they observed and used collaborative thinking with their partner.
The suggestions I would give when doing this project would be to pair up the higher achieving students with the lower achieving students because I noticed that some of the partners had a very hard time because one or both were lower achieving and they had a very hard time completing the artist statement. To make this learning more meaningful I would have also asked questions about what was learned while creating the bug on the worksheet. Then I would have added the teaching points from art class into the artist statement.
To integrate this lesson in the core classroom, my host teacher tied this art project in with writing and science. When all of the bugs were completed they were brought to class and the students observed their bugs and filled out a worksheet that included the following questions: Where is your bug? What descriptive words describe your bug? What does your bug eat? Where does your bug live? These questions were used to later write out a paragraph about the bug they created and use it as the artist statement.
The big idea used in this integrated lesson was to create. The students had to visualize and create a piece of art out of a variety of different mediums. Then the students worked with observation, imagination, and visual thinking because after they created the bug they had to justify why they made it by creating an artist statement after they observed and used collaborative thinking with their partner.
The suggestions I would give when doing this project would be to pair up the higher achieving students with the lower achieving students because I noticed that some of the partners had a very hard time because one or both were lower achieving and they had a very hard time completing the artist statement. To make this learning more meaningful I would have also asked questions about what was learned while creating the bug on the worksheet. Then I would have added the teaching points from art class into the artist statement.
Art classroom
When my students went to art class they were working on an integrated project. The students were paired up and given the blue kulligan water jugs. The class before they painted on paper that looked like honey comb. They stuffed the painted, colorful paper into the water jugs. Then they were given a variety of different other mediums in order for them to create their bugs like: cups, cotton balls, pipe cleaners, felt, fault, and many others. The teaching points about art when building this bug were texture and color. The best part of this activity was that all of the bugs turned out different, even though some of the students chose to create the same bug. The teachers strategy for this lesson was to let the students create the art, and then have the lesson about what they just created. When the students were all done filling the water jugs with the different colors and textures, she went more in depth and the students were able to use their bugs as examples, instead of having to think of new ones. The students seem to really enjoy this lesson, they worked really well together because the classroom atmosphere was very conducive to learning. One thing I would do different if I were teaching the class is behavioral management. The students at times got rowdy with the big jugs, and wouldn't stop making noise with them. I would have implemented the give me five strategy to get their attention and so they wouldn't be allowed to touch anything. I would love to have a fun class atmosphere like this teacher brought forth. The students seemed very eager to learn because it was very hands on. My take away from this observation would be to always keep students engaged in what they are learning.