This week the teachers asked us to do a lesson that related to Earth Day. We wanted to do a visual arts lesson and utilize their amazing art room. We found a project online that allowed the students to express their appreciation for the earth and doing so by creating a peice of artwork that used only eco-friendly materials. We discussed the concept of earth day and got their input about what it meant to them. We then gave each student a few minutes to write a couple words and/or sentences about what earth day personally meant to them. We then had them close their eyes and visualize some natural element of the earth that they get joy from and would miss if it was no longer in existence. (If we don't protect out earth these things we enjoy could possibly not be here for us). My example: I love reading outside under trees on Michigan State University's campus, however, if we don't protect the earth this might not be something that everyone is able to enjoy. The students then opened their eyes and did quick sketches on their paper of the images that they just had in their minds. This was effective in allowing our students to quickly capture that image.
Next, we discussed the concept of a mosaic and the various materials that people use to make mosaics.We then showed the students the mosaics that we both made using recycled cardboard to mount our mosaics and various types and colors of beans. We passed out the materials to the stuents and explained to them that they should fill their entire cardboard (about the size of a postcard) with beans, leaving very little open space. The students did amazing! Jena and I were impressed not only with their images and the natural elements that they appreciated and their careful execution with the small materials.
This activity was even more sucessful than I thought it would be and I was blown away with their art products. The students were very enagaged and excited with their resulting products and were so eager to share! I feel like it was effective in helping the students to appreciate the earth and have a peice of artwork that was created using recyled materials, thus, reinfocing the idea of protecting the world around us.
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Monday, April 12, 2010
Murphy Elementary
My name is Katelyn Provo and I am working in a fifth grade classroom at Murphy elementary school. I work with a class of twenty two students, with eleven boys and elven girls. A few Fridays ago I prepared a lesson on shapes. I wanted to help the children look at the shapes they were learning in math in a different way. I set up stations and split the class into four groups. One station was molding various shapes out of playdough. I thought this would be a good way to get the children thinking about how to make shapes that are three d. At another station I had the children making shapes with their bodies and walking shape patterns out on the floor. At the final two stations the children were making tangrams. Which are pictures made up of seven shapes. I had the children cut the shapes out of construction paper and then make them into the pictures. The children had to think about measuring the shapes so they would be the correct size and about positioning the shapes in the correct way to make them fit into the picture. Overall I think this lesson was very successful. The children seemed to really enjoy it and I heard them talking a lot about what they learned in math and how to make the shapes in the various activities. I think it helped the children begin to look for shapes in the world around them and it gave them a chance to participate in hands on activities with shapes.
Friday, April 2, 2010
Williamston Musical
This past Wednesday I went to see the Williamston muscial production of Wizard of Oz. I was extremely impressed! Although not all of the students that I work with were in the musical, a large number of them were. It was fabulous to see all of the smiling faces and talented dancing, singing, and acting. I was very happy to see the students getting to participate in such wonderful artistic expression at such a young age...I know my elementary school never did anything like this.
Although this wasn't directly related to Artsbridge because I was not a part of the musical planning, it was nice to see the students in another setting. I think they really appreciated seeing me there at the show. Also, the next day that I saw them in class many of them commented on how they saw me and I was able to tell them personally how much I enjoyed their performances. Many of them who didn't see me at the show seemed very proud when I mentioned that I was there and saw them. I am so glad that I went to see the musical!
Although this wasn't directly related to Artsbridge because I was not a part of the musical planning, it was nice to see the students in another setting. I think they really appreciated seeing me there at the show. Also, the next day that I saw them in class many of them commented on how they saw me and I was able to tell them personally how much I enjoyed their performances. Many of them who didn't see me at the show seemed very proud when I mentioned that I was there and saw them. I am so glad that I went to see the musical!
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Heartwood updates!
Hey all. Heartwood Circus rehearsals are in full swing! A lot has happened since my last entry, so here's a quick run-down...
The Friday before spring break I hosted my students in a field trip to the MSU Auditorium where they had an opportunity to see first-hand how a theatre works. We took a tour of 3 theatres in the building, where students were able to stand on stage like other performers. In the Arena Theatre (my favorite theatre here at MSU) some even were daring enough to do some dancing and singing. After the tours, students met MSU graduate students who took them through the costume shop, scene shop, craft room, and lighting lab. They then worked in the scene shop to paint set and prop pieces for the Circus and experimented with clown make up in the make up lab.
We've finished recording the
text for the Circus and did some work with the Kids (4 actors playing the kids running away to the circus) on acting that recorded text. Yesterday was the first day working with the entire group and we were able to block the entire opening number within the hour and a half that we were working. I am thrilled with the speed and efficiency we are showing right now. It all points to enthusiasm and excitement about the performance.
Personally, I have been working a lot with the set, carnival games, and tshirts. Last Friday I went to Heartwood strictly to work on set and carnival pieces. We are using large sheets of cardboard for these items so I spent time cutting the cardboard and then assigning painting jobs to students. We got a lot accomplished! I'm planning on doing a lot of this type of work on my own next week while my students are on spring break. I've also designed a logo for our tshirts and found a company to print them. Each performance group will have a different color tshirt, which will not only be helpful to the teachers and parapros helping direct the students during the show, but will also create the bright look of th
e circus.
In the next 2 weeks of rehearsal I'll be working with the smaller performance groups starting with the acrobats this Friday. They have longer songs to perform, but since the groups are smaller, it should be easy to direct. After the performance groups, we have a large group number to close the show, followed by learning how to operate the food and games for the carnival. Our show goes up in exactly one month!
Monday, March 22, 2010
Script Writing Continued
Today we continued script writing with our students at Williamston. We looked over all of their "idea" sheets that we had them turn into us last week and gave them more feedback such as:
-Scene 1 where are you/how did you get there
-Each character has a specific mood/emotion maybe? (it'd be easier to identify at the end)
-Make sure people can tell where you are/who are characters
-make it apparent: who you are with, what you are eating/supplies you have or don't have and how you are traveling
-Make sure you have a problem and a resolution
-avoid weapons and violence
We felt that going over these bullet points and discussing them with the students gave them a bit more direction and would lead to more realistically grounded skits. After having a discussion with the students we handed back their idea sheets and allowed them to work with their groups and begin writing out their skits.
As each group finished their 1-2 page skits we asked that they bring their draft to us for approval and then we allowed each group to pick from our "prop box." We both brought various things from home such as hats, sheets, bags, sunglasses, water bottles, masks, etc. and called it our "prop box." We then allowed each group to collaboratively choose 2 props to use in their performance. They seemed to be very excited about the addition of these props and we hoped that only by allowing each group to choose two, it would keep them engaged and excited and perhaps encourage new ideas without distracting them too much from their previous plan. It seemed to be very effective! I distinctly remember one group that was struggling to come up with more ideas for their skit came out and chose a sheet from our prop box and then one student said, "we could have our explorers make a tent for shelter on the island that they are stranded on!" It was very interesting to see the way these simple props sparked new ideas within our students.
Today was overall a great work day for our students. They seemed so motivated, on-task, and extremely engaged with the script writing. Next week we will give them a bit more time to finish up their scripts, time to rehearse and then allow them to perform their skits for the class. I know the students, along with Jena and I, are very excited!
-Scene 1 where are you/how did you get there
-Each character has a specific mood/emotion maybe? (it'd be easier to identify at the end)
-Make sure people can tell where you are/who are characters
-make it apparent: who you are with, what you are eating/supplies you have or don't have and how you are traveling
-Make sure you have a problem and a resolution
-avoid weapons and violence
We felt that going over these bullet points and discussing them with the students gave them a bit more direction and would lead to more realistically grounded skits. After having a discussion with the students we handed back their idea sheets and allowed them to work with their groups and begin writing out their skits.
As each group finished their 1-2 page skits we asked that they bring their draft to us for approval and then we allowed each group to pick from our "prop box." We both brought various things from home such as hats, sheets, bags, sunglasses, water bottles, masks, etc. and called it our "prop box." We then allowed each group to collaboratively choose 2 props to use in their performance. They seemed to be very excited about the addition of these props and we hoped that only by allowing each group to choose two, it would keep them engaged and excited and perhaps encourage new ideas without distracting them too much from their previous plan. It seemed to be very effective! I distinctly remember one group that was struggling to come up with more ideas for their skit came out and chose a sheet from our prop box and then one student said, "we could have our explorers make a tent for shelter on the island that they are stranded on!" It was very interesting to see the way these simple props sparked new ideas within our students.
Today was overall a great work day for our students. They seemed so motivated, on-task, and extremely engaged with the script writing. Next week we will give them a bit more time to finish up their scripts, time to rehearse and then allow them to perform their skits for the class. I know the students, along with Jena and I, are very excited!
Monday, March 15, 2010
Explorers and Script Writing at Williamston
I teach at Williamston Elementary in two classes. One class is a fourth grade with around 25 students and the other is a fourth and fifth grade split with about fifty students. Both of these classes are very different and each have their own challenges. I have really enjoyed teaching the same lesson, with different adaptations clearly, to both of the classes and seeing the different ways they respond in each of the classrooms. I am lucky enough to have an amazing teaching partner this semester, Jena, and have found that we work so wonderfully together. Not only do I feel a constant support in the classroom, but outside of the classroom it is amazing to see how rich our lesson planning sessions are.
This week we decided to begin a lesson on explorers and script writing that will continue into the next couple of weeks eventually leading to final skits. We chose this type of theatrical lesson because in the past although we include mini dramatizations, pantomimes, etc. the students have made many requests that we focus on theater so we were eager to get started on this with them because of how interested they were in theater. We wanted to base our lesson on the students recent knowledge of European explorers. Therefore, we started out by having them immediately take out a sheet of paper and free write for 2 minutes about explorers: what is an explorer? What explorers do you know of? Why do explorers go exploring? etc. We then had a short discussion with the students about their thoughts. We chose to have them do the free writing so that our discussion would be more effective and everyone had thoughts on their paper to contribute if they felt comfortable doing so. This was very effective! I found it was a great way to start the lesson off instead of having blank stares and no hands raised, all the students seemed more engaged in our introduction discussion.
Next, we explained to the students that they would have ten minutes to write a journal as if they themselves were explorers. They would be coming to a new land on earth that they had never been to. We encouraged them to think about the following:
How did you get to this new place? What type of transportation brought you here? What supplies did you bring? Who are you traveling with? Why are you on this journey? What does the new place you have come to look like? What is the climate/temperature? What types of animals do you see? What types of nature and plants are visible? Are these new species or ones you have seen before? Are there natives here? If so, how do they act towards you?
We encouraged the students to be as creative as possible while still making sure that the story/journal was realistic. We also asked talked a bit about how the explorers that they have learned about might have felt during their journey and encouraged them to include at least four emotions in their journal entries. We gave the students ten minutes to do this writing individually. We notices that most of the students seemed to get writing immediately and many didn't want to stop however, there was a small handful of students who were struggling to get started but after some brainstorming help and a minute of personalized attention they had gained enough confidence to start jotting down their ideas. I was very impressed with some of the stories and how imaginative the students were wit their imagery and descriptions. One student in particular called me over and was so excited and proud of his story he had to share it: he discussed how he parachuted in from a plane to his new land and described in great detail the natives and animals that he came in contact with. He really seemed to connect with this prompt and you could tell that he was proud of the journal that he had written.
From here we had the students work in groups of four reading their stories aloud to each other and working towards a final idea for their script and skit. We encouraged students to pick a story that they in particular liked, or chose elements from both that they could combine for their script. The students did very well with this task and both Jena and I were impressed with the amount of maturity and respect in which the students worked together through their ideas. We gave them about 15 minutes with their groups and then asked each group to turn in a final sheet with the plot and their ideas for their script. Next week we will continue working with the classes to formulate scripts with characters, movements and eventually work towards having the students rehearse and perform the skits that they have written to their peers.
Today went very smoothly. I know Joni Starr has given us some great advice after observing our teaching that we sometimes take on lessons that involve too much for our two 45 minute class periods. Therefore, this lesson we really tried to make it simple and manageable. I personally found this to be great advice! Keeping this in mind and spreading out our idea over multiple class periods seemed to allow today to run much more smoothly and I felt less pressed for time and more at ease. I think that both Jena and I were emanating these calm and confidence feelings more so today than ever and it was transferred to our students because they also seemed calm and we dealt with less behavioral issues. Overall I am really proud of the creative expressions that the students showed in their individual journal writing and group work. I feel like the students seemed very proud of the imaginative explorer stories that they created and are really looking forward to the scriptwriting extension next week and the eventual performances!
This week we decided to begin a lesson on explorers and script writing that will continue into the next couple of weeks eventually leading to final skits. We chose this type of theatrical lesson because in the past although we include mini dramatizations, pantomimes, etc. the students have made many requests that we focus on theater so we were eager to get started on this with them because of how interested they were in theater. We wanted to base our lesson on the students recent knowledge of European explorers. Therefore, we started out by having them immediately take out a sheet of paper and free write for 2 minutes about explorers: what is an explorer? What explorers do you know of? Why do explorers go exploring? etc. We then had a short discussion with the students about their thoughts. We chose to have them do the free writing so that our discussion would be more effective and everyone had thoughts on their paper to contribute if they felt comfortable doing so. This was very effective! I found it was a great way to start the lesson off instead of having blank stares and no hands raised, all the students seemed more engaged in our introduction discussion.
Next, we explained to the students that they would have ten minutes to write a journal as if they themselves were explorers. They would be coming to a new land on earth that they had never been to. We encouraged them to think about the following:
How did you get to this new place? What type of transportation brought you here? What supplies did you bring? Who are you traveling with? Why are you on this journey? What does the new place you have come to look like? What is the climate/temperature? What types of animals do you see? What types of nature and plants are visible? Are these new species or ones you have seen before? Are there natives here? If so, how do they act towards you?
We encouraged the students to be as creative as possible while still making sure that the story/journal was realistic. We also asked talked a bit about how the explorers that they have learned about might have felt during their journey and encouraged them to include at least four emotions in their journal entries. We gave the students ten minutes to do this writing individually. We notices that most of the students seemed to get writing immediately and many didn't want to stop however, there was a small handful of students who were struggling to get started but after some brainstorming help and a minute of personalized attention they had gained enough confidence to start jotting down their ideas. I was very impressed with some of the stories and how imaginative the students were wit their imagery and descriptions. One student in particular called me over and was so excited and proud of his story he had to share it: he discussed how he parachuted in from a plane to his new land and described in great detail the natives and animals that he came in contact with. He really seemed to connect with this prompt and you could tell that he was proud of the journal that he had written.
From here we had the students work in groups of four reading their stories aloud to each other and working towards a final idea for their script and skit. We encouraged students to pick a story that they in particular liked, or chose elements from both that they could combine for their script. The students did very well with this task and both Jena and I were impressed with the amount of maturity and respect in which the students worked together through their ideas. We gave them about 15 minutes with their groups and then asked each group to turn in a final sheet with the plot and their ideas for their script. Next week we will continue working with the classes to formulate scripts with characters, movements and eventually work towards having the students rehearse and perform the skits that they have written to their peers.
Today went very smoothly. I know Joni Starr has given us some great advice after observing our teaching that we sometimes take on lessons that involve too much for our two 45 minute class periods. Therefore, this lesson we really tried to make it simple and manageable. I personally found this to be great advice! Keeping this in mind and spreading out our idea over multiple class periods seemed to allow today to run much more smoothly and I felt less pressed for time and more at ease. I think that both Jena and I were emanating these calm and confidence feelings more so today than ever and it was transferred to our students because they also seemed calm and we dealt with less behavioral issues. Overall I am really proud of the creative expressions that the students showed in their individual journal writing and group work. I feel like the students seemed very proud of the imaginative explorer stories that they created and are really looking forward to the scriptwriting extension next week and the eventual performances!
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Heartwood Circus: Recording the script & planing the field trip
Hey all, welcome to the MSU ArtsBridge blog! I'm Sarah, and I'll be your hostess for the Heartwood portion of this grand weblog of ours.
Heartwood is kind of a special case in the world of ArtsBridge. Instead of going out to a 4th or 5th grade classroom and integrating the arts into the student's cirriculum, I spend my time at a special education center teaching the arts (more specifically, theatre) to a group of 30 some high schoolers with varying degrees of disabilities and needs. Last year I re-wrote and directed an adaptation of High School Musical with the students and this semester we're working on writing our own show, Heartwood Circus. It's coming along nicely, and I'm very excited to be involving the students much more in the production this year.
My past few trips to Heartwood have been strictly devoted to recording the students reciting the script of the show. Last year I had an assistant stage manager who read interludes between every musical number in order to advance the plot. Since I am recording the students reading the script this year, I will be able to play it during the show and that way the students will be performing the entire show on their own.
They've been doing a nice job with recording. It's very demanding for any student, to sit quietly until it is their turn to speak a line, and when they do speak it it must be loud and clear. I'm very proud of the work they've done so far. I only have a few more scenes to record and then I'll be working on blocking and choreographing the show. Opening night is April 30th!
This Friday (tomorrow!) is going to be very exciting. In order to enrich the students' experience, I've organized a field trip to the MSU Auditorium. I thought it would be great if we could show the students how a more professional level of theatre is organized. We'll be touring the theatre spaces and doing a couple workshops in makeup (clown makeup!) and painting with the help of a few wonderful MSU theatre graduate students. They'll also tour the scene and costume shops. Hopefully they'll learn a lot about how theatre works and that there's a lot more than just getting up on stage to sing and dance and act. I'll be sure to post some pictures after our big field trip tomorrow!
A field trip! I feel like a real teacher!
Heartwood is kind of a special case in the world of ArtsBridge. Instead of going out to a 4th or 5th grade classroom and integrating the arts into the student's cirriculum, I spend my time at a special education center teaching the arts (more specifically, theatre) to a group of 30 some high schoolers with varying degrees of disabilities and needs. Last year I re-wrote and directed an adaptation of High School Musical with the students and this semester we're working on writing our own show, Heartwood Circus. It's coming along nicely, and I'm very excited to be involving the students much more in the production this year.
My past few trips to Heartwood have been strictly devoted to recording the students reciting the script of the show. Last year I had an assistant stage manager who read interludes between every musical number in order to advance the plot. Since I am recording the students reading the script this year, I will be able to play it during the show and that way the students will be performing the entire show on their own.
They've been doing a nice job with recording. It's very demanding for any student, to sit quietly until it is their turn to speak a line, and when they do speak it it must be loud and clear. I'm very proud of the work they've done so far. I only have a few more scenes to record and then I'll be working on blocking and choreographing the show. Opening night is April 30th!
This Friday (tomorrow!) is going to be very exciting. In order to enrich the students' experience, I've organized a field trip to the MSU Auditorium. I thought it would be great if we could show the students how a more professional level of theatre is organized. We'll be touring the theatre spaces and doing a couple workshops in makeup (clown makeup!) and painting with the help of a few wonderful MSU theatre graduate students. They'll also tour the scene and costume shops. Hopefully they'll learn a lot about how theatre works and that there's a lot more than just getting up on stage to sing and dance and act. I'll be sure to post some pictures after our big field trip tomorrow!
A field trip! I feel like a real teacher!
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