Monthly Archives: November 2016

For Remembrance Day students collected sticks, painted them, and an SA assembled them into a wreath. The kids enjoyed painting the sticks and the finished product, but the concept of Remembrance Day was difficult for many of them to grasp. On the other end of this, there was one girl who was crying as someone in her family had been in a previous war. A previous writing book activity that asked the kids to draw something they were thankful for had mixed results. Many could come up with something they were thankful for but naturally these were personalized selections including parents, siblings and material belongings/activities (for example birthdays or presents).

A few memorable examples:

“I’m thankful for canes.”
“I’m thankful for volcanoes.”
“I like firework parties.”

These activities make explicit the different stages each child is in: some children could produce something they were thankful for while others drew something they liked. The individual activity each student did was poppies on a black background. They could place one to three poppies on their black backgrounds (one student did four) with the poppies having a big red circle with a small red circle and a black center. The green stems were all the same material but the red circles were either tissue paper or crêpe paper and the black centers were buttons or velcro stickers.  This activity showed how much prep can be involved in some art activities: the red circles were cut out in advance, the stems were cut in advance, and the black centers were purchased in advance.
The background papers also required prep as they were taped to the tables with painters tape (in order to get the white boarders) and then textured (by the students) with plastic bags which another teacher brought in. The results are appealing to the eye, and nicely decorated part of the gymnasium for the Remembrance Day assembly, but made evident the different types of art in the kindergarten classroom. This activity had an obvious outcome in mind and was presented to the children as such. I am curious what would have been the outcome if the children were given a little more free range on their poppy art. Despite the structure of the activity, the children still enjoyed completing this art project.

I was excited to do this lesson because it was one that was prepared as an assignment for a class. I was curious to find out what I had and/or had not accounted for during the actual lesson over the paper version. It was a read-aloud lesson which began with the book The Way of the Ninja and is a story about friendship. The book depicts the Ninja playing alone, due to careless actions, and with friends once he realized his mistake.

After reading the book we reviewed the activities that the Ninja did alone and with his friends Cowboy and Bear. Next, we brainstormed some activities that they like to do while alone or with friends. The pre-made worksheet had spaces for the children to draw an activity they like to do alone on one side and an activity they like to do with friends on the other. Due to children copying my modeled example before I did not want to draw an example for this activity.

I like playing dress up by myself and trains with friends.

Additionally, their curriculum is very play-based thus, the idea of coming up with activities they like to play alone or with friends shouldn’t have been too difficult for them.

Their results proved my assumption was correct as all but one student was able to depict an example of each activity. Even the one student who did not complete the task put a lot of detail into the picture he drew of himself playing alone.

I like playing guns by myself and playing tag with friends.

Being that this lesson was being observed by my Faculty Adviser it was under a time constraint. At the end of the lesson I had each child share one of the pictures they drew with the class. I can’t help but wonder if without this time restraint the one child who only did one side of the worksheet could have finished both sides. That being said, I have observed this particular student often playing alone over with others, thus it may be the case that he simply prefers solitary play.

I enjoyed having the students share what they drew with everyone at the end of the lesson. They were obviously excited to share with their classmates what they had drawn. For the students who are English Language Learners, with a lower grasp of the language, I made sure to know what their pictures depicted prior to sharing. This proved helpful when one student was stumbling over communicating what she had drawn. I held the students worksheets and pointed to one of the drawings and asked what they liked to play alone or with friends depending on which picture I was pointing to.

I like coloring by myself and playing princesses with friends.

It wasn’t until the near end that one boy asked why he had to share the picture he drew of playing by himself, he preferred to share the activity he did with friends. This made me aware of the perceived power teachers have over students. The same student also asked me why we were sharing our work, to which I responded that it was so everyone could get new ideas of activities to do alone or with friends. I enjoyed his questioning of the activity since it showed that he wanted to know the purpose of the sharing over doing because the teacher said so. Overall, the lesson was a success and the students seemed to enjoy the activity and their ability to easily relate to it.