Saturday Art School
Penn State offers a notable pre-service teaching experience called Saturday Art School. The semester prior to student teaching, I was placed in a third through fifth grade classroom where I developed and taught a seven week curriculum on my own. This program is different from student teaching and allowed me to gain a unique set teaching experiences such as; planning lessons, collecting materials, balancing a budget, collecting documentation, and preparing student work for a gallery exhibition.
The seven week unit I developed was called "Creature Creature Creations."
The big idea of the unit was to use a variety of mediums to create a creature (or character) and then to explore the concept of storytelling utilizing their creature (or character) through both historical and contemporary art forms.
Students will learned how to tell a story using various art forms while also learning about character development as they designed a character and then continued to develop it more thoroughly each week. Students also gained experience collaborating as they worked with other students to create stories with their peers using the creatures or characters they all created.
Below you will find photos from the gallery exhibition, a summary of the big idea of each lesson, photos of the lesson, and a PDF file of each lesson plan (including photos of my teacher sample in the appendix), and any PowerPoints or additional worksheets from each lesson.
Lesson 1:
Creating your Creature & Storytelling Through Comics
In this lesson, I introduced the idea of character development by reading a description of a creature and having everyone draw what they thought it looked like. Then, students were given the opportunity to create their own creature through writing a description of it and drawing a picture of it. Then students created a comic strip to tell a story centered around their character. You can find photos from this lesson below (click on photos to enlarge them).
Lesson 2:
Storytelling with Puppets
In this lesson, students used the creature they designed in lesson one and construct a three-dimensional puppet version of their creature. Once their puppet was completed, they had the opportunity to discuss their creatures or characters with their classmates and selected a creature they wanted to collaborate with. Once the students divided up into groups, they worked together to write a script and then record and perform their puppet show. Most students spent the entire time constructing their puppets, and were highly engaged in the assignment. You can find photos from this lesson below (click on photos to enlarge them).
Lesson 3:
Storytelling with Puppets (Continued)
In this lesson, students will use the first part of class to continue to work on the three dimensional puppet version of their creatures that they began in lesson two and construct parts of their backdrop for their performance. After their puppet is completed, they will have the opportunity to discuss their creatures or characters with their classmates and select a creature they would like to collaborate with. Once the students are divided into groups, they will work together to write a script and then record and perform their puppet show. At the beginning of class, we had a group discussion about the three parts if a story (introduction, climax, and conclusion) to generate ideas for their scrips. Below you will find photos from the lesson (click on photos to enlarge them) as well as a short video that captures clips from several of the puppet shows, footage of students practicing before their performance, and video clips students took interviewing each other about their puppets.
Lesson 4:
Creating a Habitat
Every living thing has a habitat. Students spent the last three weeks designing and developing their creature. It is essential that they also consider other aspects of their creature's life, such as where it lives. In this lesson, we explored the idea of a habitat. Students will participate in a class discussion centered around the idea of a habitat. Than students wrote about their creature's habitat on a worksheet, sketched it, and then painted a habitat on canvas board for their creature. Below you will find photos from the lesson (click on photos to enlarge them).
Lesson 5:
Claymation
In this lesson, we begun the first of three lessons centered on Claymation. Students participated in a class discussion about Claymation and stop motion photography and then selected groups to work with. Each group worked collaboratively on the set design and then made their creatures out of plastalina clay. This lesson teaches students Claymation and stop motion photography techniques, technology skills, and teaches students about collaborative art.
Lesson 6:
Claymation (Continued)
In this lesson, we begun the second of three lessons centered on Claymation. Students participated in a class discussion on how to set up their scene and take the photographs necessary. Then they broke up into the groups they selected during the previous class and began working. Several groups were ready to begin taking photographs immediately, while several of the other groups still had work to do on their background scene. This week students continue to develop the Claymation and stop motion photography techniques they began exploring during the first Claymation lesson.
Lesson 7:
Claymation (Continued)
In this lesson, we finished the third part of three lessons centered on Claymation. Students participated in a class discussion on how to use the video editing software and then broke up into their groups. Some groups were ready to begin editing immediately, while others still needed to finish taking photos first.Students advanced their technological knowledge and vocabulary through the editing portion of this lesson.
