Teacher Extraordinaire - Portfolio of a Teacher and Lifelong Learner

What better way to celebrate the week before Christmas vacation than with a fun and educational activity? Grade 2 students recently read "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" and designed set pieces for the story's various locations.  From Mount Krumpet to Whoville, students collaborated on creating visual representations of the story's world. Through this process, students also honed their problem-solving skills, considering how characters and props changed throughout the story and how to accommodate those changes in their designs.  The day of the performance allowed each group to showcase their work and practice their storytelling abilities.   This activity provided valuable opportunities for collaboration, planning, and problem-solving, while also allowing students to flex their creative muscles in visual arts and drama. In addition, students practiced important literacy skills such as story sequencing, reading, speaking, listening, and writing. What a wonderful lead...

Earlier in the year, students had an opportunity to create their own setting from Dr. Seuss' The Lorax.  We were studying setting at that time, and at literacy centres they had one period to finish their diorammas. This was an opportunity for students to transfer their knowledge of the book, the story and the colors into a beautiful piece of art. Not to mention, students were given a certain amount of play dough and one piece of cardboard to mount it on per group, so they had to talk about what they wanted to do and compromise. All of them chose to do the more pretty/colorful settings, as opposed to The Onceler's House , which I think just speaks to the settings that appeal to them as young learners. If there was more time, we could have done paper theatre plays within the settings where the trees were upright. Of course the book also ties in beautifully to themes of environmentalism, and thus could be used in science or social studies units about the planet and impa...

At the end of my past two years of teaching, I've done fairy tale drama projects with the students. They are in grade two, and for some it's their first real exposure to acting by moving their bodies and manipulating props. They have however worked on voice projection, expression and eye contact before both in reading and during oral presentations. This project is always fun for the students, as they see how various oral and presentation skills can come together in a different way. Not to mention, the video is burned to a CD and it's a good memento for students at the end of the year. This year, we performed The Snow Queen . Last year it was Aladdin, Rapunzel and Jack and the Beanstalk. Students themselves get to choose the story they'd like to do, so they have a very vested interest. We will first brainstorm ideas, then choose one or several ideas. Afterwards they are put into groups, then cast into parts (with their input) and we brainstorm a list of props they can...