ByME

Arts & Crafts

PROJECT

Area: Arts & Crafts

Stage: Primary Education

1

School

Address

Town / CityProvincePost code

Arts and Crafts department

1.

2.

3.

4.

Distribution of students

Year / Number of students / Number of groups
1 Primary
2 Primary
3 Primary
4 Primary
5 Primary
6 Primary

Needs of the different groups

GroupA

______

GroupB

______

GroupC

______

Specific individual needs

Group A

Student ______

Student ______

Student ______

GroupB

Student ______

Student ______

Student ______

GroupC

Alumno ______

Alumno ______

Alumno ______

Organisation of resources

Available resources at the school

(delete as appropriate)

  • Video and TV
  • CD / Cassette player
  • Video camera
  • Computers
  • IWBs (Interactive Whiteboards)

Notes:

Available rooms / workingspaces at the school

(delete as appropriate)

  • Foreign language rooms
  • Language laboratory
  • Computer room
  • Playground
  • Gymnasium
  • Main hall
  • Library

Notes:

Classroom organisation

(delete as appropriate)

  • Arrangement of desks in rows
  • Arrangement of desks in groups
  • Arrangement of desks in a U shape
  • Specific areas: class library, cross-curricular topics, games, handicrafts, computer, etc.
  • Others

Class timetables

Teacher:

Monday / Tuesday / Wednesday / Thursday / Friday

Teacher:

Monday / Tuesday / Wednesday / Thursday / Friday

Teacher:

Monday / Tuesday / Wednesday / Thursday / Friday

Methodological justification of Arts and Crafts

Today we live in a dynamic and multicultural society in which visual communication (advertising, television, cinema, Internet, etc.) plays an important role. From Year 1 Primary, when children study Arts and Crafts for the first time, we are compelled to give an educational response to complement their comprehensive education. The aim of the subject is that students learn to interpretvisual messages present in our current society, as well as the different artistic statements that coexist. This learning will help themunderstand the society they live in.

To the extent that students learn to value the different artistic statements taking place in their environment, Arts and Crafts will help them develop their creativity, that is, their distinguishing capacity that enables, in turn, the development of their intellectual, sensory, emotional, affective, social and aesthetic aptitudes.

In order to facilitate this learning, and throughout the six years of Primary, we use a wide range of materials, from the most conventional (felt-tip pens, tempera paints, coloured pencils, scissors, glue, etc.) to the new information and communication technologies (searching on websites, digital activities, photo retouching, word processors, etc.), including disposable material to recycle. All the suggested materials are present in the environment and easy to obtain, providing feelings to different textures. Students become responsible for organising, maintaining and respecting these materials.

It should be noted that the degree of difficulty of the activities depend on the evolution of the students, helping them to develop their eye-hand skills. The definitions of the theoretical concepts are alsosuitable to the level of comprehension of the students.

The subject will encourage them to respect and value the works of art ofcultural heritage, promoting their interest to spend their free time visiting exhibitions, museums and other artistic events. Moreover, we value and make students value their effort and dedication to their ownartistic creation and that of others.

Years 1 and 2 Primary

We will now look at the subject from the perspective of its two main blocks of contents:

1.Artistic observation

  • All the units begin with the observation of apicture so that students can interpret the message,comment on the materials that have been used, analyse the different elements, compareit toa situation they know of, etc.
  • At the end of each term, they analise an artworkso that they can start to learn and study the work, as well as to encourage them to visit museums and search for more information.
  • The work or the picture may inspire emotions or feelings through observation. Therefore, it is vital to create an environment where students can express themselves easily and freely.

2.Artistic expression and creativity

  • Throughout all the units, different procedures are suggested to develop the artistic expression and creativity, promoting respect and value towards their own creations and those of others.
  • Expression and creativity will be encouraged through experimenting and exploring:
  • techniques:sketching, colouring (colours and mixtures), collage, etc.
  • materials:different recycled materials, tempera paints, hard and soft wax crayons, graphite and coloured pencils, felt-tip pens, plasticine, photography, clay, etc.

Years 3 and 4 Primary

We will now look at the subject from the perspective of its two main blocks of contents:

  1. Artistic observation
  • All the units begin with the guided observation of the artworkchosen by the school and which helps students to understand some of the basic contents that they will study in the unit.
  • The observationof the artwork will inspire feelings, ideas and emotions that will determine the artistic expression of each individual.
  1. Artistic expression and creativity
  • Individually,throughout all the units, students will experiment and learn drawing, collage, stamping, stencilling, modelling and shading techniques, as well as makingthree-dimensional objects. These techniques will develop their artistic expression and help them obtain aesthetic criteria.
  • In groups,they will work in small groups at the end of the first term and in the second and third terms they will work with the rest of their classmates.Each student will provide their individual work to create a group project.

Years 5 and 6 Primary

The methodology revolves around three essential elements: creativity,trainingandaesthetics.

  • Creativity.Their creative capacity is developed through different activities, encouraging their expression and personal autonomy. In this way, the diversity of materials plays a key role: along with traditional materials (wax crayons, coloured pencils, etc.), students experiment with elements from the environment to adapt their qualities to artistic purposes (dry leaves, semolina, containers, etc.).
  • Training.Artistic techniques that have been used in previous years are revised and reinforced. Other new techniques that consolidate and develop the attention and visual perception in a fun and attractive wayare also included. Motivation is produced by observing the natural and artificial environment, with elements that aim at attracting the attention of students.

It is important to stress the increase of theoretical concepts. This helps to widen their specific vocabulary of the area, enabling a better understanding of practical work. Besides, technical items are included to support certain activities.

  • Aesthetics.Sensitivity is boosted viaobservation and knowledge of works of art, which enables a balancedand critical analysis of beauty. In the same way, different cultural and artistic statements that appear in the media and cover a great part of the sensory activity of students (press, television, cinema, Internet, etc.) are taken into consideration.

Their aestheticcriteria are built by understanding theoretical and technical concepts which help to value awork of art for its quality in aspects that previously went unnoticed. Besides, these criteriagenerate the ability to choose andto make decisions in a reflexive and reasonable way.

Methodological justification of our project

The contents of this stage have been organised in a globalised and comprehensive way, continuously providing activities, methods and processes which are relevant to students in order to deal withtheir problems, situations and events of their interest.

The constructive activity of students is the key factor to learning in general. As a result, the programming of objectives, contents and activities has been designed so that students, eventually and duly orientated, change and readapt their learning schemes and their closest references to build their own knowledge.

Our materials offer students opportunities to put into practice their new knowledge so that they can test if what they have learnt is interesting and useful. They can also consolidatetheir learning in different contexts.

The educational process we suggest ensureseffective learning, which is not only putting into practice what students have learnt, but making sure the contents are necessary and useful to carry on learning and successfully acquiring other contents. It also implies the development of abilities and skills in order to adjust their learning process, that is, learning to learn.

With the methodology we suggest in our project, we enhance the interest of students inmastering the handling of tools and we encourage peer relations, providing guidelines which enable the comparison and modification of points of view. We also promote coordination of interests, group decision-making, organisation of group works, distribution of responsibilities and tasks, helping others, conflict resolution through dialogue and cooperation in group tasks.

This methodology is based on the following assumptions:

Psychologically:In the first years of Primary Education, students go from prelogical thinking to logical and specific thinking. During this process, they reach basic conclusions from the specific and controllable. In these first years, students are able to look for explanations and verify what they observe. However, in the final years, students gradually go from logical-specific thinking, which is a common characteristic of childhood, to logical-formal thinking, which is typical ofadulthood.

This evolution does not correspond to a strict or homogenous timing with all students. Therefore, we put forward a wide range of activities with different degrees of difficulty andvariety.

Pedagogically:During the first years of Primary Education, students acquire basic concepts. It is a stage in which students get to know and master tool techniques that will be consolidated in the following years. Therefore, the organisation, programming and methodological approach at this stage is in line with the maturity level of students.

Educationally:The stage revolves around certain basic objectives that are reachable for students under normal circumstances. No syllabus, as correct as it may be, can take into account the infinite variety of individual differences. However, a well-organised education provides a greater flexibility to adapt to the learning pace of each student.

Conceptually:Our project is organised into specific learning objectives through assessable learning standards and certain contents and competences that students must acquire at the end of the stage. These learning standards are included in our project in a simple, specific and functional way so that teachers can have a clear understanding. They are based on the official curriculum and they are therefore reachable, in other words, they include basic objectives that most students can and must achieve at this stage, because they adapt to their average level of maturity and serve as a base to acquire new knowledge.

Finally, our methodology is based on the reality of children, on theirrecentlife experience and on their insatiable curiosity.The aim is that pupilslead their own learning process, becoming aware of its significance and immediate applicability.

When students are between six and eight years old,boys and girls look at themselves in the mirror and discover their own body and personality. Through the relationship with others, they check the limits of their body movements and of their own and almost constant challenges. It is the age when:

In their psychomotor development

  1. They get a clear picture of their own body.
  2. They begin to identify the different parts of their body and their functions.
  3. They understand their ability to control their movements, postures and breathing.
  4. They reinforce the independence of arms and hands, as well as eye-hand coordination which enables a faster progress of the reading and writing process and learning.
  5. They control and consolidate laterality.
  6. They organise their sense of space through the relationship of their body with other people and objects.
  7. They start to internalisethe sense of time and its importance.

In their affective and social development

  1. They gradually stop showingchildishbehaviour, such as egocentrism and instability, and begin to gain more control of their emotions.
  2. They give more importance to their teachers and other children, therefore increasing their social relations.
  3. They still have a close relationship with their families and teachers. This allows them to work with social and cultural contents which promote tolerance, open-mindedness and collaboration with classmates from different cultural backgrounds.
  4. They become aware that certain rules, which are compulsory for everyone, are necessary within the family and at school. This is how they understand behavioural patterns established by society which make coexistence possible.

In their cognitive development

  1. They are in a transitional stage. Their approach to the specific is a need they have to meetvia search and inquiry. Their thinking now begins to organise sequences and relations linked to experience.
  2. They are capable of specifying and organising certain types of operations from their reflections on objects or facts, but they still cannot extrapolate.
  3. They perceive reality in a global way, but they do not have the ability to analyse separate parts individually and extract general conclusions from them.

In their moral development

  1. They need autonomy and protection. They begin to reinforce and internalise certain values and guidelines.
  2. They realise what is good for them and for others. As a result, it is time to promote games, activities and group projects, which encourage attitudes and habits of solidarity, cooperation and commitment to others.
  3. They show special sensibility for all that comes from the outside and, in particular, for what they consider unfair.

In their language development

1.They need to find an explanationfor things.

2.They gradually learn and use more and more complex language structures.

3.During the first cycle, they succeed in pronouncing all the sounds correctly while they learn their graphic representation. They organise their thinking according to this functional development of the language. As a result, they master reading and writing, and oral and written comprehension.

4.They gain confidence, which was non-existent until now, in their oral and writingskills of expression and communication.

5.They understand the organisation and systematisation of statements. They progressively make more complex sentences and they even frequently use coordination and juxtaposition of clauses and, to a lesser extent, subordination.

6.They start to identify gender, singular and plural,pronouns, and to use verb tenses and grammatical moods in a correct way.

7.They increase their vocabulary via social interaction and their interest in discovering new worlds through reading.

When students are between eight and ten years old,children begin to show the need and desire of independencewhich implies the reaffirmation of their own individuality. It is the age when:

In their psychomotor development

  1. They develop new abilities such as balancing on one foot and walking on a balance beam.
  2. They perform different games with precision.
  3. They can see and catch small balls that have been thrown from a certain distance.
  4. They have great physical energy which makes practising some kind of sport advisable.
  5. In the last year of this stage, they are able to jump up to ninety centimetres high.

In their affective and social development

  1. They make clear their need to feel loved.
  2. They feel satisfied when they have the trust, recognition and appraisal of adults.
  3. They enjoy group activities and games.
  4. They begin to discover and acknowledge that common demands come before their own interests.
  5. They start to experience a deeper and longer-lasting friendship.
  6. They have a need to be accepted by their classmates.
  7. They need to perform tasks to develop their self-concept.

In their cognitive development

  1. They extend their thinking from the real to the possible, but their starting point is reality.
  2. They can only reason about things with which they have had direct experience.
  3. They can perform mental operations such as seriation, conservation, combination of classes and associativity.
  4. Their visual memory is more developed than their auditory memory; in other words, it is more difficult for them to retain oral information than written information.
  5. They can count without using their fingers.
  6. They solve mathematical problems which combine different operations.
  7. They understand cause-effect relationship.
  8. They are capable of reasoning, analysing and reaching conclusions, but only about specific facts or things; they still cannot do this with abstract facts or things.

In their moral development

  1. They develop a higher capacity to internalise values and rules so that they can put them into practice in their day-to-day lives.
  2. Their self-authority will become more and more important and will guide them in their actions.
  3. They need to decide by themselves how to act. They do not like adults to react in an excessively authoritative way, applying the law of the strongest.

In their language development

  1. They are able to use simple sentences with correct structures in a coherent way.
  2. As children progress and go through from one year to another, their syntax and pronunciation become normal and they use more and more complex sentences.
  3. Thelanguage development enables them to ask direct questions about what is happening.They can also express their fears, fantasies and feelings.

When students are between ten and twelve years old,theygo throughgreat physical changes that will affect the way they relate to others as, at this stage, they become real social beings. It is the age when:

In their psychomotor development

1.Their coordination and muscular control increase as they improve their fine motor skills.

2.They are very active and need to do strenuous physical activities. Therefore, they need to eat well, especially complex carbohydrates, as a lot of energy is required to perform these activities.