I love seeing playdough play in action! I have been making individual playdough for students each month, and having that individual, accessible play option has been particularly helpful this year! Benefits Develops fine motor skills, and strengthens fingers and hands Fantastic tool for creative play For some more on the importance of play, check outContinue reading “Playdough Play”
Tag Archives: art
Name Activities for Kindergarten
Our names are important. They are part of our identities and our stories. They are generally one of the first words we learn to say, read, and write. Last week I read the book Mon nom est Tonnerre (“Thunder Boy Jr.” in English) with my class. After having a conversation about why our names areContinue reading “Name Activities for Kindergarten”
Monthly Self-Portrait Printable in French for 2020-2021
As I wrote in my earlier post about self-portraits, they are one of my favourite things about teaching Kindergarten. I love seeing them throughout the year, and as I learned March-June of this year, it works for remote learning as well as in-person. Here is a set of monthly printable pages I made for drawingContinue reading “Monthly Self-Portrait Printable in French for 2020-2021”
Self-Portraits in the Early Years
One of the first things that I (and many of my colleagues) invite Kindergarten students to do at the beginning of the school year is to draw themselves. These first-day drawings are such a special piece of developmental evidence, and they become even more remarkable when seen alongside subsequent drawings from that school year andContinue reading “Self-Portraits in the Early Years”
Connecting with “Why?”
I’ve been thinking a lot of this idea of my “Why?” – raison d’être as we say in the French Immersion biz – this week because I took part in a fantastic webinar on Saturday with Dr. Jody Carrington. I made this Sketchnote because I LOVE making and sharing Sketchnotes, and I was thrilled with the positiveContinue reading “Connecting with “Why?””
Fraction-Packed Update!
Practicum I am already 1/3 of the way through my 6-week K/1 practicum! I feel a lot more à l’aise speaking in French now than I did two weeks ago, and I am so happy about that. So far I have been leading the morning calendar routine and teaching a unit on shapes and solids. TheseContinue reading “Fraction-Packed Update!”
#100DaysofMixedMedia: Day 1
This is my first piece for #The100DayProject. I will be sharing my project through the tags #BallenMixedMedia, and sharing the #100DaysofMixMedia with a few other artists. I love mixed media art, but I have not spent much time creating it. This project is a way of challenging myself to stretch my artistic range. I willContinue reading “#100DaysofMixedMedia: Day 1”
Cosmic Comic
Schwarzschild of Mine I created this comic as part of my Science Education Aesthetics assignment. I got to choose a question to explore, and then create an art piece to represent it. I decided to explore a cosmic question: how do black holes work? During the course of my research, I wondered: how do you makeContinue reading “Cosmic Comic”
Madame I Am 