Good job everyone on the Christmas singing. I think we really showed everyone what a strong, creative group we are with our stylish, upbeat singing and dancing, our coordinated dressing with hats, glasses and red white and green, plus our overall group support and participation. I think everyone really enjoyed it, including me. Thanks also for all of the great food, what a selection!

We did an excellent job!

No school Christmas Pagents for Me (at least not yet)

So I think I got a good taste today of what it would be like to plan a Christmas pagent at a school, and I think it may not be the kind of thing I'm ready for yet. The stress of school work, the stress of the season and stresses in life are enough for me to handle right now. I couldn't even handle simply practicing with adults for a Christmas luncheon let alone planning practices weeks if not months ahead of time, prepping materials, sending out invitations, organizing many large groups of kids, late nights of setups and all the other things that would be required to put on a Christmas pagent. Kristen , I bet you have had to do a lot of these as a dance instructor, although not necessarily related to Christmas. I have great admiration for those who can put together such an event. Thanks to everyone for your moral support today.

Theme song clips

Another music activity for the class might be guessing different types of music, movie songs, or tv show theme songs to get students to listen closely to music. You could just put a bunch of different, familiar music clips on a cd and develop an activty where they have to identify the show it's from. You could also selectively choose them so students not only guess the show or movie it's from but also what genre and/or mood it is.

Here's a site that had on online game that uses theme songs (although I didn't recognize many of the songs)

http://www.televisiontunes.com/game.html

Loony Tunes Cartoons

The other day when my brain couldn't think anymore (oh wait, that was today too!) I took a break to watch tv and my roomate was watching the Bugs Bunny and Tweety show (nothing like watching mindless cartoons, but are they that mindless?) I didn't realize how much classical music and good sound effects are in those cartoons. This might be a great music and/or drama lesson! You could have students pick out the different instruments used or for drama make connections between the music and how the characters are moving (ie: when a character is bouncing, what does the music sound like). You could also show different genres that way. It even suggested using these cartoons in our ART text.

In connecting this with my previous blog, you could even have students film thier own video and use the sound effects from these cartoons to connect with their actions.

Here are a few links to some of the cartoons. The website they came from is great for looking at different video clips from tv shows, movies etc. I'm not sure if there's an option to download them? or what the legality issues are around the clips, but these will at least gives you and idea of what I'm talking about and it probably wouldn't be hard to get a hold of the cartoons.

http://www.videodouble.com/video/bugs-bunny---case-of-the-missing-hare-24952/

http://www.videodouble.com/video/transylvania-6-5000-760481/

http://www.videodouble.com/video/bad-ol-puddy-tat-1032069/



Here's one to throw in there to see if they notice a difference in the music (although you may need to edit out the rednek part and the ending message)

http://www.videodouble.com/video/bugs-bunny---cotton-eye-joe-24953/

Integrating Music and Drama Through Technology

All of our newly learned technology skills can come in handy while attempting to integrate music, drama and technology into the classroom.

Many students already have cell phones that can take pictures and record videos so you could have a technology day where they get to bring in their phones or digitial cameras and create a group video similar to the ones we did in our tech class, or you could borrow the school digital camera. Another option that works just as well would be to have them simply make a collection of pictures which they will eventually turn into a video.

One of the most important aspects to this though is adding music. Many students are familiar with soundtracks from Star Wars, Harry Potter, the Matrix etc.. Once they have created their mini movie, they can then pick a music soundtrack to put it with, or you could let them choose the music at the beginning and have them work their skit or pictures around it.

The final results end up really good and the students end up with a really neat memory/memento to take home and show their parents, plus it's direct evidence for student assessment!. I've done this for creating skits around rules for the beginning of camp and not only was it really fun but the kids never forgot the rules.

One of my friends is really good with computers and he has collected many video clips and pictures from different hikes and outdoor adventures we've been on and turned them into great little mini movies (something which we all can now do!). Here's an example of his which is from a few years ago when we went on an overnight hike up to grizzly den cabin which is about an hours drive from PG. Do you recognize the music? Hope it makes you smile!

So overall I thought the art show went well, and it's definately something I might try organize in the future. It was really neat to see the variety of art projects that everyone brought. Everything from pencil drawings, mosaics and string art to painting and 3D masks and box scenes (I think we covered the whole visual arts curriculum!). Although I was a little dissapointed as none of my students showed up, which was kindof disheartening. Other than that though it was a good event especially with the great brochures, flowers, candy, cake and drinks.


My contributions:
-Grade 7 art
-carrying chairs
-painting the welcome sign
-serving cake (a little bit)
-handing out brochures

Art Through Science

Here's some ideas on how to integrate art and science.

The first pic is a density tower created by the Grade sevens from my practicum (the ingredients from bottom to top are brown corn syrup, dish soap with red food dye, water with blue food dye, cooking oil and rubbing alcohol with green food dye). Water, dish soap and rubbing alcohol will easily mix if the pouring is too aggresive so you need to pour slowly down the side of the container when adding each liquid.

The next is from the following internet site which also has a good lesson plan written up, although you'll have to adapt the IRP

http://www.life.uiuc.edu/boast1/sciencelessons/chromatography.htm

I've done this with children ages 6-9 and it works great (as long as you're in a well ventilated area ie: outside). I also found it easier to take the drawn on section of the shirt and stretch it over a 1 litre yogurt container with an elastic band rather than putting plastic in between. That way the excess rubbing alcohol collects in the container and there's less risk of the ink spreading to the other side of the shirt. The containors can also be left on until the design dries, which allows for both sides of the shirt to be completed in one go (that is if you have enough yogurt containers).

Sharpie markers work great!