Monday, March 19, 2007

Great website for Discovery Time activities

http://www.enchantedlearning.com/crafts/

If you are working on a particular topic and need some inspiration head for this site! It has a wide range of activities with a very well organised index system that allows you to find what's available very quickly. The instructions are easy to follow with good diagrams. Just print them off!
Andrew's class at Porirua East School made some neat origami butterflies from this site last week. There are several examples that are great for getting students started with simple folding techniques.


Monday, March 05, 2007

Observational Drawing
In many of the classes that I go into the children do 'observational drawings'. An object is placed on the desk in front of them and they carefully draw what they see. Younger children may need some questions to get them started -
"Which way round do you think you should have your paper - landscape or portrait?"
"Where do you think you might start?"
"What shape can you see there?"

Older students, once they have the outline become very adept at noticing light and shade and with a little guidance can begin to shade effectively. Again the questioning guides the process -
"Which direction is the light coming from?"
"Where is the shadow falling?"
"Does it help to hold your pencil a different way?"

Children become quite obsorbed in the process and frequently surprise themselves with the results.