And a couple of photos of their gorgeous masks...
And I have my Art Extension Group on Thursdays from now until the end of the term, yay, but that means our Mantle has not been happening as well as it should. However, I have used some of the things we have learnt to make other areas more exciting and it is working well, for example...
Our shared novel that we are currently reading, Hunter, by Joy Cowley, has heaps of cool things in it, and it is very easy to make up reading response activities to match each chapter. We had finished a chapter which included the medicinal properties of kawakawa, and I decided we should go into role as an advertising agency, promoting a product that is made from the kawakawa plant. The children had to be as they would be in "Whatif" world, but beforehand had to research kawakawa plants and then create a product. They could choose their method of presentation and I was pleasantly surprised by the variety of ideas they came up with. I was also surprised at the range of products, from toothache curing toothpaste through to kawakawa berry jam. They all behaved exactly as they do when in role, and even though this was not Mantle of the Expert (we didn't even build belief) it was seriously so easy to do and the end results were of such a high quality, I was pretty impressed.
They voted on their favourite which they will post on the class blog - it just so happened to be video, although we did have a very cool radio ad, and some carefully thought out posters. One team even shared theirs as they would at a show, with the product created by using a container of textile ink, and relabeled as kawakawa cream. They got up on the imaginary stage and did their sales pitch. Treating the children as adults sure does improve their behaviour and the quality of their work.
Yep I agree, teaching them how to go into role is really powerful and a great way to link into our curriculum areas really quickly.
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