Teacher Discussion Forums

I tried including arts and crafts in my lessons this year and I can say we all had a good time although I need to refine my methods a little and plan ahead very carefully for the coming school year. Class teachers here become ... arty and crafty when it's absolutely needed - that is, around Christmas and Easter time- because they feel too pushed by the language, maths and science curriculum. So what I saw this year was children who either had learnt to scorn arts and crafts activities or went mad with excitement. My younger ones, 3rd and 4th grade, were very cooperative and willing and created some really nice things, calendars, posters etc, all relevant to lessons we had. I did have a kind of problem with the 5th and 6th graders, 10-12 year-olds, who saw the whole thing as either childish or a good way to avoid our "traditional lesson". I cannot say they weren't any pupils who worked and came out with very interesting and imaginative things. On the contrary, I was surprised to see "naughty" pupils calm down and become willing, good-humoured and really nice to work with.
Anyway, the question is: Any ideas about arts and crafts for older pupils? It could be an internet site to look at, suggestions, a book to order (although this might be slightly difficult), etc.
Thanks,
Liana

I used to combine my arts and crafts with a story - the story of the children who were flying kites in Afghanistan and then we made kites. I developed a theme for each craft idea or developed the craft idea from the theme. I got a lot of things directly from Google because you can type in the theme and get a load of stuff. Woman's Day was a favourite with finding things about the women of the country who had done interesting things and then making posters of them or making a collage of pictures of women doing interesting things besides just posing for fashion. There are many pictures these days of women kayaking, climbing, working in business suits and so on in the newpapers and magazines. I remember one poster made by a grade 12 boy who wrote "Don't hit women hard" under one picture and eventually changed it to "Don't hit women" with the help of an eraser pen and good arguments from his female classmates. We learned body parts with the use playdough and so on. It helps to have a theme because you can develop the topic in many ways, having books on the subject, posters, pictures, several different things to read at different levels and some kind of summing up activity so they get the vocabulary and ideas over and over.

I have also used art activities with my group and have seen a great improvement in their overall concentration and ability to work as a class. When doing the activity you are not necessarily giving up on your "traditional lesson" as you can use that for the idea behind the art activity. Having a preschool background has helped me, as I taught at home for 7years before heading east to teach english. There we used to do 3/4 different art activities to start the day.
Here are some websites you can try out for activities, which can be adapted for different ages:
www.crayola.com
www.perpetualpreschool.com
www.kinderart.com
www.preschooleducation.com
www.everythingpreschool.com
www.enchantedlearning.com
a4esl.org
http://atozteacherstuff.com

Hope this helps you!
Megs