Today we looked into non-traditional music in the form of beat boxing. Tom Thum is an incredible beat boxer and I really enjoyed listening to him. To bring this kind of music to the classroom I think would be a big hit, in particular with the boys, and would be interesting to see the learners take on it and progression with it.
This just shows that music does not need to come from your normal school instruments, that music can be made with only your hands, mouth and throat.
Art
We were given a visual picture in this session and were asked to consider it in many different ways.
The purpose of this task was to get us to really look at the picture and take some time to focus on everything that was happening in it. To think about what it made us feel and if it gave us any inspiration.
One of the nice things about this task is it opens itself to so many different answers and possibilities, which is one of the ten principles of the Arts.
‘The Arts teach children that problems can have more than one solution and that questions can have more than one answer’
(Eisner, 2002)
References
Eisner. E (2002) The Arts and the Creation of Mind, in Chapter 4, What the Arts Teach. London:Yale University Press.
This week in music we were introduced to Charanga.
This is an online tool created to help teachers with music lessons. It provides as much and as little support as the teacher needs and can do so many things. Lyrics, beats, melodies, games and more.
Seeing this kind of tool being introduced into the primary school makes me feel at ease towards teaching music as I have very little music knowledge and so having a tool like this readily available to assist would be extremely helpful.
‘Primary schools play an important role in fostering pupils’ interest in music’
(HM Government, 2011)
This is why tools like these are so important, as it gives the teachers the confidence they need to incorporate more music into young learners lives.
Art
This weeks art session had us printing cards. We were given a painting to look at and watched a short clip relating to the painting, to give us some insight and really appreciate the small details. We had to choose a section we liked and create it on a piece of Styrofoam. This was then painted and printed onto coloured card.
I thought this activity was really interesting and different and would definitely keep a class of children entertained.
We focused a lot on the original picture we were to take inspiration from and this really helped put us in the mood and focus on all of the small bits of detail.
‘By their nature, the arts engage students in learning through observing, listening, and moving’ (Silverstein and Layne, 2010) and this activity would give the learners the opportunity to observe and listen to the description of the original painting and then recreate what they have taken from it.
References
HM Government (2011) The importance of music A national plan for music education [Online]. Available: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/180973/DFE-00086-2011.pdf [Accessed 21 Nov 2016].
Silverstein, L. and Layne, S. (2010) Defining Arts Integratio
Today’s art session began with a lecture with a guest speaker from South Lanarkshire Council looking at teaching the primary art and design curriculum in schools at all levels. We had a look at some examples of primary children’s artwork and some of the different techniques that can be used. For example, oil paintings, line drawings and water colour paintings. This was extremely helpful, as I was never confident in art, and it has given me some good ideas and opened my mind to all the different possibilities and paths art can take you. Looking into how to make art inter-disciplinary by linking the class topic into many different art lessons was interesting and is a good way to keep the children engaged in what they are doing.
Children, as they move up through the primary, begin to feel like they are under some kind of pressure to make their pieces of art ‘perfect’ and become self conscious as their work is getting judged by their peers looking over (McAuliffe, 2007). In this circumstance, as well as a time saver, giving the children a pen as their only option to draw is very beneficial. It not only gives the children more confidence as they do not get the opportunity to rub out and be perfectionists, it also saves time as a child with a rubber will spend all day rubbing and get now where with the drawing.
The input that followed this was interesting as we were looking into many different techniques to use. We started off with a line drawing of a washing line. The idea of this was to draw the whole picture without lifting up the pen from the paper. This posed as quite a challenge but nonetheless I was intrigued as to whether or not I could do this. Although it was difficult (and the pen may have been lifted a few times), it was a fun and different way of drawing.
Line drawing
For children, this would be a great challenge and one they would dive straight into. It again, steers away from the drawing being ‘perfect’, as sometimes to get to the next part you need to draw back over lines which can make it a bit messy.
Watercolour paintingWatercolour brickworkA collection of our artwork
‘Inspired by a range of stimuli, I can express and communicate my ideas, thoughts and feelings through activities within art and design.
EXA 0-05a / EXA 1-05a / EXA 2-05a’
(LTS, 2009)
This is an example of an experience and outcome within CfE which would relate to this lesson, however towards the upper primary rather than the lower primary.
Drama
In this Drama session we looked at the different drama conventions that we can apply in lessons to enhance the learners experience.
Previous to this module, my knowledge of drama was very minimal as I never took the subject past second year of High School. As I was a quiet person in school, drama was never my thing and I worried about teaching it to children. However, going over all of these conventions in the previous session and in this one has really began to put my mind at ease.
We discussed each of the conventions above and were given an example of what we could do for each and gave us the opportunity to try them out with each other. This was extremely helpful as sometimes it is difficult to imagine what you have to do without doing it and gives us a student teachers an idea of what we will be asking of the children.
The thought tunnel I felt was particularly effective as it had us talking about what we were feeling as certain characters and is a good way to link drama to other issues.
References
LTS (2009) Expressive arts: Experiences and outcomes. Available at: http://www.educationscotland.gov.uk/Images/expressive_arts_experiences_outcomes_tcm4-539863.pdf (Accessed: 18 October 2016).
McAuliffe, D (2007) Foundation and primary settings: In Teaching Art and Design3-11. ed. Sure cox, Robert Watts, Judy Grahame, Steve Herne and Diarmuid McAuliffe. London: Continuum
In today’s art session we took a non traditional approach to painting. This was very interesting and encouraged us to move away from making our work perfect and precise, to making it our own.
By creating paintbrushes out of many different materials, what is created can give great effects when painting with on paper. It takes you beyond an average paintbrush and allows for so much more creativity. Before we began using these brushes, I was a bit apprehensive in that I didn’t want my painting to turn out looking bad, which I expected it would given the brush I was using. However while using it I felt like what I was creating was so much better, and the finished product I was very surprised with.
This has opened my eyes to trying this with children. Not only would it make the lesson more interesting and a bit different, it takes some pressure off of children to make their art look like what it should and make it look how they want.
Also by limiting their paint to primary colours and white encourages them to make their own colours and create colours and shades of colours.
We were read a description of a painting by somebody looking at a picture, however we could not see this picture. This was a great way to let us be creative and paint what we could see in our heads instead of copying a picture and everybody’s looking the same.
‘I have the freedom to discover and choose ways to create images and objects using a variety of materials.
EXA 0-02a’
(Education Scotland, 2009)
I feel this activity would be appropriate for this outcome given that the children made their own brushes from whatever materials they could find.
DANCE
In this dance session we really progressed with our dances. All of the groups performed their own, which we brought together, added a beginning dance and end dance with the whole class and each group done their own bit in the middle. This was extremely effective and gave us a finished piece.
This kind of progression of activities would be ideal for doing with children as although in the end it becomes a class piece where everyone is involved, each one of the groups own ideas and moves come through when they get to do their group dance (Cone, 2009). I think it’s so important for children’s creativity to be recognised and it not be completely choreographed by the class teacher as it takes the element of fun and of the children feeling proud away from it. It also gives the teacher less work!
References
Cone, T. P. (2009) Following Their Lead Supporting Children’s Ideas for Creating Dances. Journal of Dance Education. Vol.9 (3), pp.81–89.
Education Scotland (2009) Expressive arts: Experiences and outcomes. Available at: http://www.educationscotland.gov.uk/Images/expressive_arts_experiences_outcomes_tcm4-539863.pdf (Accessed: 18 October 2016).
During our first dance session we were introduced to many different things that should be incorporated into a dance session with children. Warm up games, stretches and the ten key skills to dancing were what we focused on, each having significant importance to the session.
The warm up
Drawing around a peerLabelled diagram
We then moved on to look at teaching children the dancing. Before walking into this session I felt okay about teaching dance. I have been dancing since I was young, however I was unsure how I would bring this to the classroom and what to do with the children. We focused on ten key skills, all of which by themselves are extremely simple, and is all you need to create a dance with children.
In this session, we had to make up one move for each skill and were given a sequence of numbers to follow, which turned it into a routine. By doing this, you are giving the children the opportunity to be creative and create a routine that has come from them. ‘Through dance they bring their inner self to the surface where they can express their dreams, fears, needs and joys’ (Cone, 2009), giving them the opportunity be who they are and hopefully gain some confidence from the experience.
ART
In today’s art input we looked further into how the integrated arts are becoming relevant in children’s education and methods on how to go about teaching it, which I find very helpful. Arts education is so important as it ‘is an approach to teaching in which students construct and demonstrate understanding through an art form’ (Silverstein and Layne, 2010, p.1). It not only allows them to fully understand what they are learning and go beyond the basic understanding, but it gives children the opportunity to become creative and express themselves as they do it (Silverstein and Layne, 2010).
The point of this exercise was to encourage us, and in turn the children, to slow down and really look at what we have in front of us before we move on and create something new. It encourages us to appreciate our work and feel proud of it, but most importantly to have a tolerance for ambiguity.
References
Cone, T.P. (2009) ‘Following Their Lead Supporting Children’s Ideas for Creating Dances’, Journal of Dance Education, 9(3).
Eisner, E. (2002) What the Arts Teach. Ch 4. The Arts and the Creation of Mind, London: Yale University Press.
Silverstein, L. and Layne, S. (2010) Defining Arts Integration.
In our first Arts input we were introduced to the benefits of art in the classroom and how children actually begin their development in writing with a form of art. Children do not have the experience to be able to form letters when they are young, therefore, the begin with scribbles and drawings. This is described by Lowenfield and Brittain as the scribbling stage, the pre-schematic stage, the schematic stage and finally the gang stage (McAuliffe, 2007).
This was interesting as I have never been enthusiastic towards art during my school career, but I now understand how important it is for children in beginning to form letters. It is also important that children get the opportunity to express themselves through art during their time in primary school as it has been shown to have positive effect on other areas of the curriculum for them (Smith, 2009).
During this input we had the opportunity to look at artwork from children at all stages of the primary. Seeing this was helpful in many ways as we not only got to experience the progression from early level up to second level, but we had the chance to consider the resources provided for each piece. Resources are a huge part in the making of artwork and this is entirely down to the teacher.
What I have taken from this input is that no art is too messy when it lets the children be creative. There is always a way around mess and resources. Allowing children the opportunity to create something with appropriate resources allows children to really open up and have a tolerance for ambiguity.
Music
‘Music has a power of forming the character and should therefore be introduced into the education of the young’ – Aristotle
In this session we got an introduction into music within education. We discussed how music can have an effect on our moods and also how it is a fun way to remember facts, for example the alphabet. Learning music can really benefit children and has shown to have links with performance in other curricular areas.
We looked into how certain types of music can convey different moods and make you feel different things. There was a particular piece of music we listened to which was a piano piece by disney, and from listening to this we were to create our own story that fit with the music.
Doing this kind of activity with children would really allow them to us their imagination and be creative. Not only do they get the opportunity to engage with the music, they can go about it in a way that is their own. I feel that this is beneficial way to begin teaching young children music, especially in early and first level, as they can really connect with the music and imagine in their heads what kinds of different moods different music can have.
Not only is music itself a subject that children will be taught and have the opportunity to engage with, but using music cross curricular can be a really effective way of learning.
I feel that throughout these music sessions I will become more confident in teaching music to children, as for me, music was not one of my favourite subjects in school I hope that I can become more knowledgeable on the subject and hopefully one day make it a fun experience for children in schools.
References
McAuliffe, D(2007) Foundation and Primary Settings. In Teaching Art and Design 3-11. (Edited by Sue Cox, Robert Watts, Judy Grahame, Steve Herne and Diarmuid McAuliffe) London: Continuum
Smith, F. (2009) Why arts education is crucial, and who’s doing it best [Online]. Arts Integration. Available: https://www.edutopia.org/arts-music-curriculum-child-development [Accessed 30 Dec 2016].
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We were given a visual picture in this session and were asked to consider it in many different ways.
References
