Cont of my Science Unit :)

The Kager Lake Hike Trip was fun. Walking around the trail was quite an adventure. The whole school had fun.
After the students put their samples into books to be pressed. My CT thought it would be a good idea to make a rubric for the science booklet. I did create one. But couldn't upload file to blog.
I also did a legend, how the birch tree got its strips as a part of the science unit because there was a birch tree in the science unit. I also did a little feast with my students after the booklet was completed. We watched raven tales while have Labrador Tea

My dad taught me how to find and collect Labrador tea leaves. We usually have Labrador tea by Babine lake at Donald's Landing. I love campfire tea, especially when my dad makes tea in his big campfire tea pot. All my siblings and nieces and nephews line up to have a nice cup of campfire tea at Donalds Landing. I was happy to share my Labrador Tea and Bannock with the grade 1 & 2 students. After we did the science lessons, one of the students dragged her mom all over their property to find the plants and tree samples from the science booklet. I thought that was cute. The same student also wanted bannock recipes, so I brought my little bannock recipe book to class and let her choose afew recipes and I made the students a little bannock booklet for them to bring home. I was proud and happy to share everything with the students, I will be looking forward to Christmas break and going to visit my little friends.

The Science Unit I did for my last PRACTICUM!!

I really enjoyed my last practicum, I did not want to return to school in pg. The staff and students were awesome to work with. I made a few lessons plans that turned into a unit, and to my surprise, the science unit was GREAT. I started off with three lessons. A power point on traditional and medicinal plants and trees, that was actually used by the whole school for the school wide hike (field trip) at Kager Lake. So I created three power points, one for a preview of the plants and trees for my grade 1 & 2 class, and another one (#2) for the whole school with more details of the plants and trees medicinal properties and traditional uses, and the third power point for my grade 1 & 2 class with more detailed pictures of the plants and trees.
For my second lesson, we went on the hike to Kager Lake and the students were able to find the plants and trees at Kager Lake trail. The goal was to identify the plants and trees that were on the power point and take a sample; leaves, back to the class to be pressed and put into a booklet that I created for the next lesson.
My last lesson was having the students identify their pressed samples and gluing them in to their science booklet. I was so happy to be able to do this unit for my practicum. The students loved learning about traditional and medicinal plants and trees. My great grandmother was a medicine women, Mary Louise Michell, and I felt a connection to her when I was doing these lessons with the students I got to work with.

This is a picture of my great grandmother, Mary Louise Michell. She also worked in a sawmill, like I did before going to the B. Ed program. Im proud of my great grandmother, she was strong, a great medicine woman and also a midwife. I always listen to my dad Leonard and grandpa Mathew talk about the good ole days and tell me stories about my great grandmother.

The platform presentations were GREAT!!

Norval Morrisseau, The Picasso of the North!  Im glad Cheyenne and I chose Norval Morrisseau, I never knew much about First Nations Art from other areas in Canada. I admire Norval's style of painting, and the bold and vivid colors he uses.

This painting is so neat, I love the colors Norval used. I also enjoyed learning more about Norval. He also had one of his paintings put on a Canadian postage stamp. He is also known as Copper Thunderchild. One of the first aboriginal artists to have his paintings in an art gallery and not in a museum.

I also enjoyed the all the other presentations that was done in our Educ 406 class. I couldnt stop humming the Fred Penner songs, and really enjoyed the variety of other presentations I saw. I wanted to hear the Bieber sing for us too. (LOL) Great job to everyone who presented their platform inquirys.

2013 Unbc Art Show part 2

The 2013 Unbc Art Show was a great success!!  All the art work presented in the art show was magnificent, I was very impressed with the variety of art projects that were being shown. Everything was set up according to the plans, the banner, "Falling into Winter UNBC Art Show," looked very nice!
Everything that was donated, purchased, and made for the art show was done well: the leaves, lites, timbits, brochures, decorations, and the nice young lady to played her violin during the art show was a great idea, I really enjoyed the music she played on the violin.
My students from my practicum werent able to make the art show, because I did my practicum in Burns Lake. My students were excited about having their art being in the Unbc art show. They did their best work for me during my practicum.

I did this art project on the last week of my practicum. The students I worked with love art. I saw my students give 100% effort, 100% creativeness. Before this lesson, I read the book, "A poppy to remember." and showed different pictures of poppies in fields on the smart board for students to see a variety of pictures. I used scotch tape for the crosses, and had the students sketch in their pictures: the field of grass, the blue sky, option to have a mountain, and poppies. When students were ready they painted thier pictures. After the painted pictures were finished, the students waited for the paint to dry. They did read to self while they were waiting. After the paint dried, the students used a black sharper marker to outline the grass, sky and poppy stems. I enjoyed this art lesson. I am looking forward to my next practicum to try different art projects with the students.

UNBC Art Show Part One

The planning stages of the Unbc art show.
There was many things to consider in order to plan for the art show. The beginning part was selecting the committees to begin the planning and brainstorm for ideas for the art show. There was decorating, media, clean-up, and welcome committee that was formed. I chose to be on the media committee. Every committee had their own goals and everyone in participated in their committee to plan for 2013 Unbc Art Show. I was happy to see everyone working together to make the art show a success. The media committee was in charge of taking pictures, making the programs for the artshow, and making signs for the location of the art show.
When I was on my practicum, I told my CT about the art show and she expressed her interest for the students to participate in the art show. My CT and I told the students about the art show and they were excited to be a part of the Unbc art show. The students I worked with on my practicum loved art, during center time on Friday afternoon, the students would crowd the craft corner and make their own craft inventions from used (clean) boxes, yarn, pipe cleaners, anything that was in the craft tote that they brought from home to make anything they wanted to create. I loved seeing their inventions, the students were so creative.
I did three art lessons with the students for the art show, I was lucky to have such a great cooperating teacher who allowed me to do so many art lessons with the students. I will plan to use as many art lessons that I could do with my students for my next practicum. I enjoy seeing the students be creative and imaginative when they are doing their art projects.

Birch Tree Art Lesson

Here is one of the art lessons I did my last practicum. Its a Birch Tree art lesson I linked to my science unit on medicinal plants and trees, and also linked to language arts reading and writing.
First I read the legend, "How the Birch Tree got its Stripes," and used the prediction reading strategy with the students.
Then we did the Birch Tree art lesson. We started by etching the birch trees on white paper with black paint, and then set aside the birch tree paintings to dry.
Then I let the students choose from 3 colored construction papers to do the background picture for the birchtrees. I picked teal, purple and brown for background colors. I gave the students pastel colors to use for their back ground picture, and I gave them a choice to draw in clouds, sun or moon, grass with lake or just grass.
We had a discussion about the legend, "how birch tree got its stripes," how the birch tree looked in the legend, and I also asked the students how a real birch tree looks from our fieldtrip to Kager Lake in the beginning of October. The students were eager to share their answers in the class discussion on birch trees. After the painted birch trees were dry, the students cut out their birch trees and glued them on to their background picture. I gave the students a choice to have thin, thick, tall or short birch trees in their art project. The students loved this art project :)
The following day I asked the students to write a small moment story about birch trees for their writers workshop assignment (Language Arts). I was so happy to be able to link birch trees to art, science, and language arts reading and writing.

BUILDING a SENSE of COMMUNITY at SCHOOL

During my first week at my practicum, I learned how the class I worked in and the school I went to built a sense community :)
In the class I worked in, my CT taught the students a secret handshake. I thought this secret handshake was pretty kewl. The students had fun learning the secret handshake, and so did I. Was neat seeing grade grade 1 and 2 students giving their full attention and participation in the secret handshake. I miss the students and my CT from my practicum, we had so much fun!
The school I went to, had a morning assembly every day. The teachers and principal all took turns running the assembly. The assembly started off with the school song every day, here is part of the song:
Build a road of peace before us,
Build it wide, and deep and long,
Speed the slow, remind the eager,
Help the weak, and guide the strong.
The school song is great, took me a long time to learn the song. I even tried to record the school singing the song but there was a no cell phone policy and I couldnt record the song. But eventually I learned the song.
Once a week the school would sing 'O Canada,' and I knew this song very well. I enjoyed singing 'O Canada,' brought back some good memories of when I went to elementary school.
After the students and staff finished singing, they announced important messages to the whole school at the assembly. Then the students would say the school motto when the assembly was over. The school motto went something like this, "At .... we take care of ourselves, we take care eachother and we take care of this place." I loved the school motto.
During Friday's assembly, the teachers gave out stars to the students, from grades k-7. Usually 2-3 stars per grade. Also there was a gratitude remark made by two of the staff members everyday. I thought this was great to see, hearing what staff members are greatful for. The staff members took turns giving gratitude remarks because once a week the whole school stands in a circle and has a gratitude assembly. Where two students from each grade say what they are greatful for. This is a super great idea, seeing students say what they are greatful for.
These are the activities the school I went to did, to build a sense a community for the students, staff and parents. The morning assemblies are always open to parents. I enjoyed working at this school for my practicum, I enjoyed seeing how a community is built in school, and the strong community values being promoted, I learned alot from my practicum and wish my practicum was extended (more than 4 wks)

What I would teach in Elementary School:

As an educator in training I would teach a variety of art lessons in elementary school. From my previous practicums I have learned that students love art, and I have enjoyed giving art lessons and watching the students put in 100% effort, showing their creativeness. Each student had their own style, and I must admit I was amazed in all the students creations of art.
I have been collecting afew things for future art projects, and have been getting alot of support my other half. I started a milk jug collection, for making a paper mache mask in the near future. I also started saving empty paper towel holders, for a future science/art project. A little advice from the teachers I have been working with, 'to start collecting things that I would use in my own class.'
Now for lessons, I will plan to balance the different types of art: music, dance, visual arts and drama. I think its important for children to learn different types of art. I would also try to incorporate aboriginal education content in afew of the types of art that children could learn. For example: singing a song in carrier, learning how to do traditional carrier dancing, and aboriginal arts and crafts (painting, beading, working with moose hide, dream catchers). With careful planning and practice I am sure students would enjoy learning about aboriginal culture.
I will go into more details about what I would teach in elementary schools as an educator in training in my future blogs:)

Visual Arts as a Strength

During my educ 406 class, we were given choices to pick a group we wanted to be in to study the elements of art. There were four groups to chose from. I chose to be in the visual arts group because I always liked doing visual art projects and feel it is one of my strengths.

I remember what we learned in elementary, we did alot of different types of visual arts. I had alot of great teachers to learn from. I had alot of opportunites to be creative and make things, they were the best times from my memories of elementary school days.

One of my favorite visual art activities that I learned in school is making things using moose hide. My grandmother Mary use to come to my school and teach us how make coin purses, baby moccasins, necklaces, earrings, key chains and purses with beads, rabbit fur and moose hide. I was very fortunate to have had the opportunity to learn about my culture in school. Some people might call this type of art handi-crafts. But I think its a very creative visual arts project, because you can be creative and put what you feel into making different things from moose hide. My grandmother was patient, helpful and a very good teacher, she also spoke to us in carrier, which was another bonus. We learned to make creative art projects and learn carrier. During the summer holidays, my grandmother went to aboriginal art shows to dispay her products, and she sold all kinds of crafts during these art shows. When we were done making necklaces, baby moccasins, keychains, or coin purses, sometimes my grandmother asked us if she could bring our creations to these art shows to sell for us. I was surprised my grandmother asked the girls and I if she could take our creations to art shows because we were just beginners and just learning how bead. My grandmother was proud of our creations because we were fast learners and able to make things with her on a weekly basis.
I really enjoyed learning how to bead, use moose hide and rabbit fur to make different visual arts creations, I look forward to sharing this part of my strength in visual arts with students that I will be working with in the near future.
I wanted to share this memory, of my learning native art work using moose hide from my grandmother. I have a lot of respect for my grandmother, and very happy that she was willing to teach us her knowledge and have the patience to teach young people about First Nations Arts. This is one of my future goals, to teach what I have been taught, and share a part of my heritage because Im proud of my heritage. :)