Working on Game Boards and Class Discussion about Drawing

At the beginning of class, everyone was given an hour to work on their game boards with their groups. My group used the time efficiently to work out the final details of our game. We also used the time to start the actual construction of the game board. Our game was originally called, "Kids On Stage." We decided we are going to change the name of the game to, "Lions On Stage." We thought this would be a good idea because we could keep the basic idea and rules of the game the same, but change the theme to fit Penn State and change other details of the game board. We decided we were going to change the cover for the game, as well as the actual game board. We thought it would be a good idea if we made the colors black and pink. This is because Penn State's colors, before blue and white, were black and pink. We also decided that we were going to act out the pictures that were already on the board so that the pictures on the cover would match the new game board inside.

Throughout the hour, my group was able to accomplish many parts to the game board project. We were able to get a good head start on the new cover. We were able to cut out small circles in different colors to replace the board spaces on the game board. We were able to finish about half of the game cards. My group was also able to talk through the rest of the game board project and decide what else needs to be done.

The picture below is a picture of the layout we want for our game board. Our game board spaces are complete, but we still need to construct the rest of the board. We put post it notes over the spaces that we still need pictures for. As you can see, we still need pictures for the Bryce Jordan Center, the Palmer Art Museum, Chambers building, the Library, The Corner Room, the Lion Shrine, and Rec Hall.

 For the remaining class time, we had a full class discussion about the importance of children's drawings. The title of the powerpoint presentation was, "Children's Drawing as a Representational Resource." Kris Sunday told us to think of drawing as a verb, not a piece of finished art that a child has drawn. During this discussion, we talked about how in elementary schools, art is pre-planned activities. This means that the teacher tells you what to make, shows you an example, then you do it, and you take it home. We, as future teachers, want to stretch that more and make a stronger connection in the art class and the regular curriculum classes. Regular academic teachers and art teachers should be working together because art is a way to learn better and more easily in other academic areas.

Why do we do art with children?
-They like it.
-It allows them to be creative.
-They get recognition from peers.
-They are able to learn from those peers that are good at art.

Drawing is a place where children are able to communicate and represent ideas. Often children find it difficult to find words to explain how they are feeling or often do not want to talk about it. Drawing gives them an outlet to draw out what they are feeling inside. In class, we talked about how a children's drawing is always more than just "cute." Although the drawings may be cute, they are always much more meaningful than that.

The picture below explains the four types of drawings there are. Each one of these is important and serve a purpose. These four types can also all work together to help a child learn more.

In class, we also spoke about Wilson and how he broke drawing down into four categories. Two of the categories that we had examples for were Common Reality and Prophetic. We read two conversations aloud that gave good examples of these two categories. In the prophetic category, the children develop models for their future selves. This may involve big issues such as love, death, and romance.

The last thing we did in class was worked in our groups to talk about information from our readings that were about using drawing as a representation. Below is a picture of the findings that my group came up with. One of the things we wrote down was how if a child draws something from memorization, it will be a good representation but they will be missing fine details of the object. The child could then have the object in front of them and they have to draw it. This representation would have been better than the drawing that the child did from memorization. However, there would still be details missing that are a part of the actual object.