Mini-Lessons / Play Doh, Math, Santa, Primary Colors, Recycling and Polymers

Art Arrangement Sami S. and Casey D. / Photography Jorge M.

Today Ariella, Rae, Kelly, Megan, Conrick and Alex taught their mini-lessons. They inundated the classroom with interesting ideas about how to use art to teach a lesson. Ariella taught primary colors using Play Doh. Rae took us through addition and subtraction using bingo. Kelly taught us how to draw a Santa step by step. Megan took us back to primary colors and even added secondary colors using crayons. Conrick reminded us of the value of recycling and Alex demonstrated how to make a polymer by mixing Tide, glue and baking soda.

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LESSON PLAN
Alex K.

Objectives: 
  • Students will understand that a polymer can have the qualities of both a solid and a liquid. 
  • Students will understand that chemical reactions can change the state of certain ingredients when combined.   
  • Students will make a polymer (slime). 

Lesson/Experiment: 

Today we are going to learn about chemical reactions. 

Does anyone know what a polymer is? 

Polymer: large molecules made of small, repeating molecular building blocks called monomers. 
  • Polymers are unique because they have qualities of both a solid and a liquid.  Solids are made of molecules that are bonded tightly together.  Liquid molecules spread out and break apart into pools or drops when they are poured from the container.  Polymers are special because they contain molecules that link together in a chain-like fashion enabling them to bend and stretch without breaking apart.  

We are going to create our own polymer—slime! 

INGREDIENTS: 
  • Tide 
  • Glue 
  • Baking Soda mixed w/ water 
MATERIALS: 
  • Spoon  
  • Bowl 

Students can come up with bowl and teacher will pour ingredients.  
Mix ingredients with spoon until no longer sticky. 
Play with the slime!! 

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Feedback
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Alex K.

Ariella: I liked the use of manipulatives (play doh) 

Rae: Candy is always a great motivator for kids!

Kelly: Christmas is a very happy topic which kids would be engaged in. I liked the step by step coloring. 

Megan: I liked how we got to fill in the color wheel ourselves. 

Conrick: A good way of making kids feel something for the environment is to have them think of their favorite place. 

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Megan

Ariella: I like how she made her presentation hands on and let the class be creative and decide what they wanted to do with the materials. 

Rae: I like how she used candy to engage everyone and it made the class more loose and exciting. 

Kelly: I like how her concept was creative and how she engaged the entire class and created class discussion. 

Conrick: I like how he was very informative in his presentation. 

Alex: I really liked how her presentation was different and required a higher level of education. I thought it was unique and engaging. 

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Drew

Ariella’s use of a visual aid served to help focus on the lesson. 

Rae’s use of candy provided an incentive to participate. 

Kelly’s step by step process helped in drawing the picture. 

Megan’s control of the classroom helped in centered attention. 

Alex’s use of a lab to illustrate a concept helped immensely. 

Conrick’s questions facilitated engagement.

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Nicole

Ariella: I thought Ariella has great energy and presented her lesson very well. She also added the element of play doh which made it more interactive and fun! 

Rae: It was great to see the visuals when learning how to subtract and add. I thought Rae presented it very well. 

Kelly: I thought Kelly was a great teacher and gave the students time to process and draw. She also validated students when they were giving their feedback about Santa.  

Megan: I liked Megan's confidence when presenting and how she explained the primary and secondary colors. Her lesson was easy and enjoyable. 

Conrick: This lesson was short and simple and I enjoyed that! 

Alex: This was a fun lesson that uses science. It was fun to create slime and play with it. 

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Michael

Ariella: I liked how she taught a lesson where you had to use your hands and make something for yourself for the color wheel.

Rae: I liked how the subtraction and addition used candy to keep peoples attention and showed them what addition and subtraction is instead of writing it down. 

Conrick: I liked how we were taught about something important to us can be harmed if we don't recycle.

Megan: i enjoyed how the color wheel was made by coloring and mixing colors.

Alex:  i also enjoyed making the glue because i was able to make something with my hands again.

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Kelly

Ariella- She was creative about primary colors. I wouldn't change anything

Rae- Her lesson was fun and engaging. I would give everyone lollipops and follow what she's doing. 

Megan - Her lesson was easy to understand and enjoyable. I wouldn't change anything

Conrick - I liked how he explained recycling. I wouldn't change anything

Alex- I thought it was a very cool presentation and lesson. I didn't know how to do that before. 
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Rae

Kelly: I liked when Kelly asked the class about what want for the holidays. 

Ariella: I liked playing with the clay during the color lesson. I also liked doing it again with the crayons. 

Alex: I liked Alex’s information about what a polymer is. 

Conrick: I enjoyed talking about how to recycle and what will happen if we don’t take care of the               environment. 
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Alie

Ariella: Primary color lesson 1: I really liked the catchy video she played and the hands on play doh she supplied. 

Rae: having candy makes students more excited about a subject like math. 

Kelly: her step by step instructions and break down of the steps was helpful when teaching 

Megan: she had a positive attitude about teaching a similar lesson which is great when in a teaching position and things can go wrong. 

Recycle lesson: nice video! 

Alex: a fun way of teaching a difficult science subject ! Everyone was really enjoying and communicating with their peers - moving around the classroom as well

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Ideas for Improvement

Some of the teachers could have been more inclusive with answering questions by calling on more than a few people. 

it would have helped if the pictures were darker on the powerpoint. 

Some of the concepts could have been taught for a higher grade. For instance, the video on recycling  was too sophisticated for 2nd grade. 

Directions on how to play with manipulatives (Tide, glue, baking soda) could have been posted on the board for everyone to see.  

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