Evaluation and reflection for visual arts lesson plan

We decided to Choose Collage as a medium of art for children for various purposes. It’s a good place to start with, specially for children of 3 to 4 years since it supports the fondness to explore the world through their sense of touch when provided opportunity to work with different texture or shapes. It also gives them flexibility and brings out their creativity and imagination while creating a collage. They can decide for them self about what to use amongst the choice given and then they can manipulate the shapes given to them until they are satisfied with their work or arrangement.

Our intention is that the children can feel so comfortable and confident with the materials provided to them and that they are ready to use. Later they can be asked talk about the thoughts and feelings related to their artwork. Also if we provide the same materials again to them at later point of then they will gain mastery in manipulating them. The theme we assumed to be “ Modes of transportation” for the term and before conducting the art activity the class was read ‘ The Bus is for Us’ book written by Michael R and in order to further scaffold the learning of different Modes of transportation. Then the children were introduced to different modes of transportation chart and asked to identify their favourite mode of transportation. Flannel board was also planned to be used for sorting, and helps in teaching spatial relationship. For Eg. sky is on top and aeroplane flies in the sky etc., Following this the children will proceed with the art activity as an extension of their previous knowledge based on the Nel framework that children construct on their previous knowledge.

Through this collage work its evident how observant they are and that they could imagine way ahead. For music and movement activity we chose 5 piggy bank songs related to our theme “ transportation”. We played the background song while they are entering the music room so it piques their eagerness and it also helps lower anxiety and improves performances and decreases behavioural incidents (Paul, 2011). We chose an upbeat guitar music as background music. For Initial tune in song we chose Circle time songs with familiar tune so they will be able to follow the beats. Then the children were introduced percussions. Music is one thing children will love from a very young age. It is also set to be innate. While experiencing mother’s heartbeat when they were in the womb, a child is said have a natural rhythm. We wished to nurture it and that’s the reason we chose rhythm as an element of music.

By using the percussions it’s also fun way to explore music and at the same time a learning process. In the lyrics we used repetitive phrases as it helps the child to develop language skills. Because saying the phrase once can give the child an idea of what they mean but only with repetition it will reinforce the child’s understanding of them. For one of the song we chose to move around the room to make it more fun and engaging to the children. The reason we chose rhythm as an element is because we found it to be Developmentally age appropriate. According to NEL framework Art activities should be designed and sequenced to show growth in complexity, building on children’s earlier experiences and skills acquired (Nel. sg, 2018). So our lesson plan was based on children’s early learning about transportation each with unique movement, varying tempo and repetitive rhymes.

Reflection is turning a topic over in various aspects and in various lights so that nothing significant about it shall be overlooked-almost as one might turn a stone over to see what its hidden side is like or what is covered by it (Dewey, 1910). Observation and Documentation is a tool teachers can use to evaluate children’s learning and also to reflect on their lesson plan if it has the learning objective. It helps to monitor their progress and to ensure that each child’s needs are being met. Learning goal here was to create their own 2d art using imagination. Since the children were in pre-schematic stage we assumed that it would be developmentally age appropriate. Through our observation and evaluation we found that:

• Children were able to create an art in response to a stimulus ( after listening to story related to transportation)
• Children were able to make connection between daily arts and other discipline
• Flexibility and adaptability the material delivered
• Collaboration of arts with other domains was possible
• Was able to bring out the Creativity
• Enhance language skills.