Learning Plan (Bachelor of Education –Early childhood)

Topic: / Art / Date:21 May 2015 / Age group: / 3-5
Title of experience: / “This is me”
Links to the Early Years Learning Framework: / Outcome 1: Children have a strong sense of identity(Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations and Council of Australian Governments [DEEWR & CAG], 2009, p. 21)
Outcome 3: Children have a strong sense of wellbeing (DEEWR & CAG, 2009, p. 30) / Content/ concepts being explored: / Children develop knowledgeable and confident self-identities (DEEWR & CAG, 2009, p.23)
Children become strong in their social and emotional wellbeing (DEEWR & CAG, 2009, p. 31)
Rationale:
Observed that many of the children include people in their drawings and often they include themselves. To extend the images of themselves, a self-portrait would enable the children to demonstrate a range of concepts including identity, concentration, reflection and sense of achievement.
Child/Children’s Background Knowledge:
Children have demonstrated an understanding of their own image, which includes eyes, nose, mouth, ears and hair. This exercise will extend their belief of themselves and have them include eye colour, hair colour. Lips, teeth and other significant facial features. They will also be able to explore a range of various mediums such as texta, crayon, pencil, chalk and even include textiles such as wool for hair.
Learning Objectives:
The diversity, similarities and differences between each other will be explored. Exploration of creativity and understanding their own features.Express their own uniqueness and personality. Children to create one face each to their own ability and using their own creativity. The experience will be offered during the week and children are free to come and go and there is no time constraints on how long it takes to create a self-portrait.
Teacher Focus/ Intentionality:
The focus will be around the child and be supporting their decisions on their use of textiles and materials. A responsive teaching practice will be used and this will allow the “children’s strengths, skills and knowledge to ensure their motivation and engagement in learning” occurs (DEEWR, 2009).
Environment and Resources:
Paper plates, crayons, pencils, textas, paint, materials for hair, teeth.
Smocks, glue, art tables, scissors,
Assessment Strategies:
Observation – documenting what the children are saying as they are creating their self-portrait. Co-construction brings the children’s voice and perspectives to the forefront of the exercise (MacNaughton & Williams, 2009). It is the process not the product that is important in this exercise. This will then be written into a story to share with the community as well as individual stories for their portfolio.
Stage / Approx.
Time / Pre-Service Teacher’s Actions / Child Actions /Tasks
Stage 1
Introduction / Introduce the day before the concept of self-portraits. Show the children an image I have created of myself. Tell children that the art centre will be ready for children to use on the next day.
As children enter the centre, invite them to participate in the creative arts table and create a self-portrait. Introduce the range of materials for them to use, a mirror for them to look at themselves. Supporting the children in their choices. / Create an image of themselves and explore the different mediums available.
Stage 2
Main Body / Why have you chosen that material for your hair?
Look into the mirror, what other features do you have?
Why have you placed that item there?
Recording their voices, supporting the children in their choices, holding the mirror and asking questions. / Children to choose material and apply the material to their paper plate. Children to use the mirror to study their face and features and discuss what they notice. Talk about the differences and similarities of their features against the ones already posted on the wall and talk about makes a face.
Stage 3: Conclusion / Show all artwork at a group time and discuss what the children see and see if they can identify each of the faces.
Have children wash their hands for the next meal time. / Sitting on mat, answering questions, listening respectfully.
Evaluation and Self Reflection:
The older children were quite inventive and thoughtful about their self-portraits and included other items such as hair clips and bows in their hair. They were able to accurately place their features in the correct location and use the correct matching materials and colours without any assistance. The younger children were able to use the materials confidently and although they recognised their features in the mirror, they sometimes placed the items randomly on the plate. The resources were well received by the children and provided them with opportunities to be creative. The documentation of the process worked well and I was able to capture their voice and accurately document this in a learning story for each of the individuals. After the first session, I undertook a group time where the children all participated in creating a face of the Bandi room where they chose a feature of a face and then drew it on the paper after looking in the mirror. Even one of the educators participated as the children mentioned they wanted a beard and he happened to have a beard. The children valued this experience as this gave an opportunity for the whole community to be represented in the image. This ‘Face of the Bandi Room’ also provided an opportunity for the younger children to connect with the exercise.
Follow-up:
Extend the activity by children decorating a jigsaw puzzle of a body that represents themselves.
Mentor Teacher Comments:
“Fiona introduced the experience to the children to establish interest. Many of the children participated in drawing segments of the face at group time to make the ‘Bandi Room Face’. The experience offered over the week to children who were interested. The individual stories were great. The identical introduction for each story and the uniqueness of the individual experience provides insight into the journey. Having decorated each child’s voice along the way is a great way to include them and make the story truly relevant.” / Pre-service Teacher final reflection:
This experience was truly enjoyable. It gave me an opportunity to learn more about each child, their strengths, the personalities as well as their abilities. By sharing the faces with the families, it has provided me with opportunities to engage with the families and open discussion about their children’s capabilities, dispositions and learning preferences (DEEWR & CAG, 2009).
The experience was positive for all children as we both learnt about themselves, respected their choices and by placing the faces up on the wall, a sense of belonging. This helps them identify ‘who I am’ and ‘how I belong’ (DEEWR & CAG, 2009, p, 20).