Light lab
- 2. Introduction This activity of Art tries to introduce children to the glass world, which I believe it is a topic not very common to deal with in class. It is also a good opportunity to learn about a not very known artist, Keiko Mukaide. Moreover, it is an activity to experiment not only with glass, but also with light, colours and shapes. It is also a good way to experiment mixing the colours in a different way and discovering the importance of the light. Light labs is a group activity to enjoy working with the classmates, experimenting together and finally creating their own painting.
- 3. Lesson plan • Title of the Lesson: Light labs • Date: 8th May • Unit of Study: The subject of this lesson is Art and we are going to work on the light, the colours and the shapes. • Level and group: 2nd grade class (there’s only one class of this level). • Number of children: 25 students. • Background Information: This activity is from the Kid Tate Website: http://kids.tate.org.uk/create/light_labs.shtm This activity is going to be in groups. It is not necessary to form the groups because in class they are organized in 6 group tables. Therefore, there are 5 groups of 4 students and 1 group of 5 students.
- 4. • Learning objectives: - Learn about Keiko Mukaide work with glass. - Experiment with colours, glass, shapes and light. - Create your own painting. - Work in groups. - Express likes and dislikes about the colours and shapes. Lesson plan
- 5. • Competencies involved: - Linguistic competence. - Artistic and cultural competence. - Autonomy competence. - Digital competence. • Assessment: Observation of the work in groups and the experimentation. Taking into account this criteria: - Experiment with the colours, shapes, glass and the lights. - Coordinate with the group mates, all of them need to experiment and draw. - Express likes and dislikes. Lesson plan
- 6. Lesson plan • Lesson development: We have a whole afternoon to do the activity (1 hour and a half). Activity title Time Description Interaction Skills Materials Discovering Keiko Mukaide. Preparing the colouring glass. 5/10 min 10 min Get to know this Japanese artist, her work and see the material that she uses. Children fill the glass jars with water and put the food colouring. Then, they seal them with a big adhesive tape. T – Ss T – Ss / Ss-Ss L, R L, I PDI and PowerPoint about Keiko Mukaide. Glass jars, water, food colouring
- 7. Activity title Time Description Interaction Skills Materials Experi- menting with light. Drawing our painting. 20 min 10 min Children experiment with glass jars and the torches placing them in front of the big white cardboards that we have bended as if they were some scenarios. We see the effects of the lights, the colours mixing. We create new colours and shapes. I give them some structures to comment on the shapes and colours that they are creating. While they are experimenting, they draw with pencil in the white cardboard the shapes that they are creating with the lights and the glass. T – Ss / T – S S – S T – Ss / T – S S – S L, S, R, I. L, S, I Torches, glass jars, bended white cardboards, power point with the structures and worksheets with the structures. The same materials as the activity before plus pencils.
- 8. Activity title Time Description Interaction Skills Materials Colour our piece of art. Tidy up 30 min 10 min From the shapes that we draw the day before in our scenario, we colour our painting with wax crayons, creating our own painting. It could be a landscape or anything that the group decides. We clean the glass jars. We display our paintings in the class so that they can get dried. We tidy up everything. T – Ss / T – S S – S T – Ss / T – S S – S L, S, I L, I Our scenario, wax crayons. Tidy up all the materials used.
- 9. • Bloom’s Taxonomy In this activity students can reach two levels in the taxonomy. In the first one, Remembering, children repeat an name the colours, the shapes and the structures proposed to do the activity. In the second one, Understanding, children explain their likes and dislikes and what they see in the experiment. Lesson plan
- 10. • ICT resources http://kids.tate.org.uk/create/light_labs.shtm - PowerPoint created for the teacher with the structures that we have to use during the activity and information about Keiko Mukaide. - To make the PowerPoint I have looked for information in: http://www.aestheticamagazine.com/gfx/18keiko.pdf http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keiko_Mukaide http://www.craftscotland.org/find craft/details.html?id=keiko_mukaide and Google images. Lesson plan
- 11. The activity with children: Experimenting
- 13. Drawing
- 14. Colouring
- 16. The paintings!
- 19. Video • You can click on the next photo to see a video about our activity in Youtube: Or clicking here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3QyCLnL7Sw4&feature=youtu.be
- 20. The activity has been great, children liked it although there have been some things that could have been improved. Firstly, I am happy because children were very motivated experimenting with the jars of glass and the lights. Children liked the work of Keiko Mukaide, they were impressed by her pieces of art. Some of them even asked me if she would come to class. Moreover, in general the work in group was very good, in almost all the groups all the students participated in the experiment and the colouring of their painting. On the other hand, this class is very active, mostly of time they can’t be calm. For this reason, they were many times distracted in the activity. Also, they are very curious and sometimes they went to the others groups to see what they were doing and comment on their work but very loudly. Reflections
- 21. The explanations were a little bit difficult to do them in English for a second grade. Therefore, I couldn’t avoid explaining some specific things in Catalan. Besides, it was difficult to make them express their opinions and likes and dislikes in English, they talked a lot in their first language. However, I encouraged them a lot to express the colours and likes in English and I gave them some models to use the language. After doing the activity, I really believe that it would have been very helpful to practise these structures before doing the activity. We should have practised many times in different days these structures and the shape vocabulary too. At the end of the class, the 5 last minutes when we had everything tidied up, they wanted to keep the colouring water and mix the colours to create new ones. I think that with more time, this could be a very good activity to continue practising the colours. Reflections