Art Class: Lines (Part II)

The P1 children have completed their self portraits and the only thing left for me to do is to put up all the works in the classrooms. 

Class Critique at the art gallery

Art Class: Form & Balance (3,2,1 Reflection)

Another observation that I've noticed is that there is a vast mismatch between their eloquence and their writing skills. Some children can present themselves so well that I almost assumed they have comparable skills in other areas of the English language. I had a little heart attack when I received their written reflection. These 3,2,1 reflections (see below) required only short answers but I had them corrected numerous times.

How I set the pace in class is when I know that the students were clear about what they need to do in their reflection from the previous lesson, I would transit to the new lesson unit by giving new instructions for the new unit and students who have cleared their reflections would embark on the new task while the ones who needs help in writing will come to me for one-to-one conferencing. 

Artventures: DIY Shrinking Plastic Crafts

Hi! Hope everyone is safe and well. It's term break now and I wanted to make something for my class. Here's the shrinking plastic craft video and I've underestimated the time needed to complete 26 of them. It would be faster if I feed everything in the oven but sadly it's out of bounds for non-food items. So, I had to heat these up individually with a heat gun. I made some twice as it didn't turned out as I've expected. 

Housekeeping: Early Finishers

A friend who just started to conduct art classes asked how I track the progress of the different classes. As the classes spread throughout the week, some classes would miss their art lessons due to mandatory school programme such as health screening or accumulated time loss due to snack time embedded in the curriculum (a lot can be done in 10 min!). Thus, we have to plan for buffer time to ensure all children can still complete the curriculum. For my students who have completed their task this term, they will be helping to do up the art room by referring to the above video for a quick lesson. 

Art Class: Form & Balance II

Stories serve as a useful platform to share about values and good habits. Since the children could tell me about the characteristics of Roberto in the story, there is a common understanding between us when I reminded them about helping friends in need using their skills and talents.

The children designed and planned their playground on paper and used Makedo components to saw and join the cardboard pieces to create 3D structures. A group innovated by using a girl's hair band to propel a marble down a ramp. Another group created a marble tube by using toilet paper rolls. The more ideas are shared, the more ideas they have! 

Art Class: Parts to Whole

Ever seen this noise barrier at construction sites? The purpose of these panels are to minimise noise and dust to the surrounding residences due to the underground MRT construction. It's the details that matter. On closer inspection, I suppose that the individual rectangular panels can be taken apart and put together. The different colours have to be fixed in a calculated manner to enable others to see a represented image of trees. It's interesting to discuss about what we see on the streets. Hopefully, those children who did not get a chance to see these will be able to observe one soon. 

Art Class: Just some thoughts

In Singapore, we board the public bus from the front and alight through another door situated in the middle of the bus. Most of the buses are wheelchair accessible, in this photo, while the bus driver was assisting a wheelchair-bound passenger to board the bus at the other door, the rest of the passengers had to wait at the front. Only when the wheelchair-bound passenger is safely secured in the bus, will the driver open the front door to allow the rest of the passengers to board.

Sometimes I wonder if the passengers would still wait patiently at the door should the front door be opened? I'm sure the bus drivers were trained to do this because they could anticipate that it would be more efficient by allowing the wheelchair-bound passenger to board first as there will be more space to manoeuvre. Thus, any bus driver would know better than to open the front door first.

So, human psychology is applicable in the classroom or workplace. In eduation, we term it as classroom management. Understanding how people think and behave very much has an impact to the flow of lessons in school. For instance, most teachers would not distribute materials/ resources to the students first before our explanation. Logically speaking, it is nice to have all the materials placed on the desk in front of the students before they walk in. But, in reality anyone working with young children in public education can tell you it would take a lot of discipline from the child to keep their hands or eyes off the materials right in front of them and just focus on your verbal instructions.