PROJECT: LOUISIANA AND MARDI GRAS

TEACHER: AMANDA ROGERS

SCHOOL: NONE LISTED

CONTENT: Social Living

GRADE LEVELS: Kindergarten

OBJECTIVES:
The student should be able to:

• Recognize Louisiana and the states cultures. H-1C-E1; identify customs associated with national holidays

• Recognize the shape of Louisiana. G-1A-E2; recognize the shape of Louisiana and the United States on maps and globes

• Identify and recognize the colors of Mardi Gras. VA-CA-E2 Identify images, colors, and other art elements that have specific meanings in cultural contexts

• Understand and create curvilinear lines, rectilinear lines, textures, and shapes.  VA-CE-E3 Use art vocabulary and the elements and principle of design to convey the language of art (create and discuss owns artwork)

TIME: 75 minutes

MATERIALS
Markers
Crayons
Paint
Paint brushes
Glue
glitter
Colored paper
TV/ slideshow
White paper
King cake game
Plastic babies
Confetti
Mardi Gras foam shapes
Mardi Gras mask
Foam bracelets

INTRODUCTION/PREPARATION/ANTICIPATORY SET:
The teacher will turn on Mardi Gras music and start dancing around the classroom with a Mardi Gras mask. The teacher will ask the students if they have ever heard the music before. The teacher will ask the students where they have heard the music before.

ACTIVITY:
Teach / Model: The teacher will talk about Louisiana using a slide show. The teacher will explain each slide to the students. The slides will include information on the state of Louisiana such as, the state bird, the state flower and the state dog.

Guided Practice: The teacher and the learner will explain their independent practice for small group time. The teacher will explain what small group is expected to do.

Independent Practice: The learner (first group) will make patterns using Mardi Gras shapes. The learner will use purple, green, and yellow foam bracelets to make the patterns. The students will pick the pattern they want to make. The students will glue the pieces on the bracelet. The second group will decorate foam mask for Mardi Grad parade on Friday. The students are encouraged to use curvilinear lines.  The learners are allowed to use markers, glitter, and Mardi Gras stickers to decorate their mask. The third group will paint and create a float of their own using paint, markers, glitter and Mardi Gras foam cut outs. The students will use curvilinear and rectilinear when decorating their floats.

Closure: The teacher will review what the children learned today. The students will share what patterns they have made on their bracelets.  The teacher has the students decorate the state of Louisiana with pictures that are provided by the teacher.

EVALUATION/ASSESSMENT:
The teacher will give the students a pretest at the being of the week, and a protest once he students have learned all the material.

ART CONTENT/CONCEPTS:
ELA-4-E2 (GLE 35) Give and follow one- and two- step verbal and nonverbal directions without interrupting
 ELA-2-E3 (GLE 23) Use classroom resources (e.g., words walls, picture dictionaries, teachers, peers) to support a writing process

COMPREHENSIVE CURRICULUM, GRADE LEVEL EXPECTATIONS AND STANDARDS/BENCHMARKS:
H-1C-E1 Identify customs associated with national holidays
G-1A-E2 Recognize the shape of Louisiana and the United States on maps and             globes
C-1A-E1 Identify home and class rules, and the persons responsible for enforcement
H-1C-E1 Identify customs associated with national holidays

MODIFICATIONS | ACCOMODATIONS:
Developmentally delayed children will receive help from the teacher in any area that is needed. Advanced learners will be asked to help other students and take pictures of the groups. The teacher will relate diversity of each child by emphasizing everyone is different. S/he will explain that even though we are different we are capable of doing the same things.

TEACHER'S REFLECTION:
After taking a couple of days to reflect on my lesson I have realized some things that I will change next year and some that will stay the same. When planning for this lesson I was excited to actually be able to teach a lesson on Louisiana and it’s cultures. I put a lot of effort towards this lesson. I knew this could be a lesson that I could express my artistic side. I was very anxious to see how my students would express their creativity. I really thought that the students would enjoy making their own floats and the other activities I had planned.

Starting my lesson I enjoyed dancing and singing with my students. They did guess correctly where they heard the music from. I knew from year to year I would not change my opener because every child loves to sing and dance.  During my PowerPoint some of my student’s were not interested in my presentation. I know that this was not my fault. My students were off routine once the day started. A parent came into my classroom wanted to do an art activity with the students, and then our schools Positive behavior Party time was changed to before my observation. I have realized that once their routine is broken the day is going to be rough. I have also realized as a teacher, that I have to be open to many changes that my school brings onto me. I did not realize until my post test that my students did learn more than I thought they would have. They all made 100s on the protest what is a huge improvement from the pretest. 

I know that I will change my small groups in this lesson next year. I am defiantly not going to have the students make their own float. Next year I will get a huge box to make the one float. I would like to work on the float as a whole group. I had too many art projects going on at one time. I felt the students did not give their full potential in working on their floats. There were too many projects going on in the class for them to concentrate on only one. I do believe this lesson would take two days to complete. I was not able to talk as much as I wanted to about textures, and shapes. I did more talking to them in small groups then whole groups. I believe if we worked on the float in whole group then I would have been able to teach more about textures, shapes, and lines.

RESOURCES:
none listed

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