Re: Bev Playing the Recorder

I really wanted to put a video on here, so I made one of me playing the recorder. But as you see the path was wrong and it didn't show up. So I am going to try it again and hope it works

Sing along

Well, I thought that went rather well. I really enjoyed the singalong and so did the audience. Everyone had so much enthusiasm. Thank you Nathan for playing the part of Santa Clause and to Kristen for helping us choreograph the moves. You are all such professionals. I know everyone is stressed and yet you rose to the occasion. OH, I don't want to forget Linda, thank you for all the hats and the santa suit, they were great. The costumes really added to the mood. And Amber, your chicken was greaaaaaat!

Bev's attempt at playing the recorder. lol

This was just for fun. I didn't even play the right notes, but I was just seeing if I could put a video to the blog

Bev's Assessment Diorama 2

These are some of the pictures of my diorama

Assessment Diorama

I realize that my diorama was not for art, but the assignment really got my artistic juices flowing. I am tired of writing papers, taking exams and recording notes, so this assignment was an avenue to express a little of who I am. Here is my artistic statement. The diorama has 6 holes, you use a flashlight to look into the holes where you will find an assessment tool; test, rubric, report card etc. Each assessment represents a snapshot of where that child is at that time. It sheds a little light on what the child knows, but it is not until you open the lid of the box can you see all the assessment tool, representing all the assessments of that child. It is after you have analysed all the artifacts that you can begin to understand what that child knows and understands.

Art Show

I forgot to talk about my contributions to the art show.
I was able to bring 5 pieces of art with me from Quesnel. As parents, not necessarily my own students, arrived I greeted them and explained some of the art work to them. Many thought that that picture Van Gogh painted was incredible. I told them it was Van Gogh and each one of them giggled and said "That's why it was so good" I got a real kick out of their reaction. As I was explaining some of the art work to my students and parent, other parents told me that they were going to follow me around so they could get in on the commentary. I offered to help with distributing the cake but our catering team were enjoying themselves and did not want to get 'spelled off' I handed out some of the brochures (Thanks to Cathy's hard work we had incredible brochures to hand out as keepsakes for the parents and students).
Anyway, enough about what I did, thanks to everyone for their contributions to the show. The flowers were an aestheically pleasing addition to the show, as was the banner and the art work
Thanks Willow (and Linda) for organizing such a wonderful night

Creativity across the curriculum

Many of you have seen this game I created, but I wanted to show Willow. This is a music/SS/LA unit. It is called "Instruments Around the World." It teaches the history of instruments regarding communication. The game is played by each child picking an instrument for their game piece. They then pick cards from a pile. There are four piles designed for 4 levels of reading. The cards have statements about instrument. eg. Made in Africa. They would then move to the next instrument that was made in Africa

I made the game by taking a world map, downloading pictures from the internet and pasting them on the map. The whole map is laminated. I arranged the pictures so that the path meanders around the continents. The first one to the end is the winner.

I have made centers and lesson plans that also revolve around the topic of instruments as communication.

I found I had a few glitches after playing the game. One pile of cards seems to just keep certain groups going in circles. I will remake that groups cards to ensure every group has equal access to winning.

Rez Sisters

My girlfriend had tickets to see the Rez Sister. I was excited to see it, because of all that I had heard about it. I was expecting somewhat of a comedy. Boy was I shock. I felt like crying throughout the play. The whole play represented the despair of the first nation people living on a reserve. I was not entertained. The acting was superb and the props and scenery were fabulous, yet because of the serious content I did not enjoy myself. Maybe someone else saw it differently.

The Cremation of Sam McGee

The play we did today was really interesting. I think this could work in a classroom if you gave the children a few class periods to work through it and to work with other groups if need be (like dancers with chanters together). I think this would be a good time to teach about tone and expression, whispers and shouts. I know I was so focused on my part that I really didn't get to enjoy the dancers or much of the play. It would be neat to play with this a bit and let the students rotate into different postitions, actors become props and audience become dancers and so forth. Even rotating so that every person over a period of time would play every role. This would be a way of making students comfortable with every aspect of drama. Thanks for squeezing this part of the course in Willow. I really thought it was beneficial

More Plasticine Art

Here are the rest of the pictures

Plasticine art

For the art show I chose to make plasticine art pictures. I didn't know how to do this, so Z invited our ADDM group over and she taught us how to do it. I had a great evening learning how to make plasticine pitures. I thought that the children would really like to learn how to do this too, so I had 2 art lessons for them. The first hour was just doing the background. The second lesson, was also and hour, and we focused on making two items in the picture and a bat. All students completed all the requirements in the time alloted. This was the only project that everyone finished on time. Thanks Z. I know I will use this art project again and again.
PS. I'm sending this in 2 posts

Scrapbooking

I have alway taken pictures. When the children were young I had a main album for my husband and I and individual albums for each of the children. But through the years I fell behind and most of the pictures I've taken in the 10 years are in shoeboxes or on a disc. So when I graduated last year I wanted to make sure I made an album as soon as possible. I added pictures,cards, the program for the ceremony and my dipoloma and hat (really, I did put the hat in the album). This was my first attempt, but not my last, I loved it. I found it to be relaxing and creative. I just wanted to share a few pictures with you

When I was in Quesnel we did a unit on Geometry. I had taught the children 6 shapes and the names of them. For an art/math project I had them create their own Geocreatures on the Geoboards and then transfer them over to paper where they coloured them and added more detail. Here is an example of 6 students work

Student's Art Show

I didn't think that having my students show up last night would be so exciting. I wasn't expecting anyone and so I was resigned to wandering and watching the excitement of the rest of my cohort's students. I felt thrilled to see my students and the excitement they were feeling. I believe the exposure to the university is a good thing for these budding post secondary students.

I felt the art show was a huge success. Parent, grandparents and students were delighted to look at the artwork, especially their own personal artwork. The parents of two of my students, from Quesnel, felt that coming to the art show was extremely important for their child. I could see the pride in the eyes of the parents and students as they wandered through the show.

I will definitely be putting on my own art show with my class in the future.