Theater Article

Summary of Theater Article

The Impact of Arts Education on Workforce Preparation : http://www.nga.org/Files/pdf/050102ARTSED.pdf

• Arts provide the choice of growing in popularity and esteem.

• Arts provide effective learning opportunities to the student population, by increasing academic performance, reducing absenteeism, and building skills.

• Arts contribute, to at-risk youths, lower recidivism rates, increase of self-esteem, and acquisition of job skills.

• They also help in the development of creative thinking, problem solving, and communication skills.

• Arts-based education provide money saving and time saving options for schools to build skills, increase success, heighten test scores and lower crime rate.

• The basic skills needed in school are oral communication, reading and comprehension, basic arithmetic, and writing.

• The higher thinking skills involve problem solving, learning strategies, creative thinking, and decision thinking.

• Affective skills include responsibility, positive attitude, following instructions, motivation, self-discipline, etc.

• Young people who study the arts heighten academic standing, a strong capacity for self-assessment, and a secure sense of their own ability to plan for the future.

• Children who study the arts are four times more likely to be recognized for achievement

• Children are elected to class office within their schools

• Children are four times more likely to participate in a math or science fair

• Children are more like to achieve perfect attendance

• Children are more likely to win for writing a poem or essay

• Programs in California show higher test scores, increase in academic achievement, and soft skills development.

Model Theatre Program

Model Theatre Program: Buckner Magnet Elementary Teaching the Arts; Performing School

School Site: http://buckner.usd259.org/PerformingArts.html

• Mission Statement: “To insure each child's educational needs will be met through the use of grade level standards and interventions that include integration and exploration of dance, drama, visual arts and music.”
  
• Believe in students’ multiple intelligences and activating and strengthening them
  “Buckner Performing Arts School is a student-centered program that combines traditional academics with performance education.”
  
• Believe in educating the whole child
  
• Looping: 1st and 4th grade teachers continue on with their classes into 2nd and 5th grade. 2nd and 5th teachers go back to 1st and 4th to pick up their next class

Their arguments are that arts:

• Are primary tools of human perception.
  
• Prepare our children to survive in a changing world
  
• Enables children to be problem solvers
  
• Fosters creativity rather than bureaucracy
  
• Uses senses and thoughts to arrive at new concepts and fresh understanding

Their program uses the same adopted textbooks, required tests and district standards as all other schools in their district.

In addition to their dance, visual arts and music, their drama component consists of:

• Weekly meetings
  
• Many opportunities to perceive, imagine, communicate, and respond to sensory stimuli by using their mind, feelings, body and voice
  
• Movement, pantomime, improvisation, character analysis, dramatizations, role play, puppetry, play-making and play writing
  
• Time spent on story elements such as plot, character, setting, theme, conflict, and resolution
• One session a week doing Reader’s Theatre as part of their Reading Enrichment

PE Article

Goal: Fitter kids
District trying out different tactics to get students to be more active, eat healthier
By Chris Moran
Found at: http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20080207/news_1sz7fitkids.html

This article examined the lack of physical education taking place throughout San Diego County and what is being done about it. The article focuses more on health and how to reverse the current obesity numbers found in our schools today. Healthy eating, exercising, and education on both seem to be the suggested preventative measures. Students should be taught how to live healthy lives by learning about the correct foods to eat and nutrition, as well as the required amount of exercise.
The state of California decided that students should be receiving 100 minutes of physical education a week. The article stresses that it is a difficult task to achieve with the pressures and strain already in place with classroom subjects of math and language arts and the shortage of time in the year. By visiting schools in San Ysidro, the author of the article made a few suggestions on how to achieve the desired physical education without having to disrupt class time. Some schools offer intramural sports for students to participate in. They offer medals for the winning teams as an incentive to play and exercise. One school developed Olympic Games for the entire school to participate in during the year. Another suggestion was having after school programs which incorporated more physical education.
The author seemed to focus in on especially one school’s way of getting students active without direct instruction in physical education. At San Ysidro Middle School, the assistant principal plays appropriate music at lunch twice a week. After filtering and editing popular songs, Elena De La Rosa DJ’s for students, encouraging them to get up and dance. The article features a picture to illustrate the success of this program. Students seem to enjoy having an administrator play their favorite music for them during school and without having to pay to attend a school dance or function. The students receive extra physical activity that is fun for them to do in addition to their physical education program.

Shari
Summary of “Top 10 Reasons for Quality Physical Education”
Article by Guy Le Masurier and Charles B. Corbin*


This article was written to provide teachers with information to use in communicating the importance of physical education in school. The authors stress that it needs to be a quality physical education program, based on standards and following appropriate instructional guidelines. They provide ten reasons why children need physical education in school. They are as follows:

1. Regular Physical Activity Helps Prevent Disease
-helps students develop healthy habits that will last their entire life
-gives students the skills and knowledge they need to remain physically active
-students develop positive attitudes toward physical activity which continue
throughout their lives

2. Regular Physical Activity Promotes Lifetime Wellness
-children who are physically active have better self-esteem
-there is a positive relationship between physical activity and self-concept

3. Quality Physical Education Can Help Fight Obesity

4. Quality Physical Education Can Help Promote Lifelong Physical Fitness
-children with low activity levels are more likely to have low activity levels as
adults
-physical education classes are a good place to expose students to physical
activity in a fun, healthy atmosphere

5. Quality Physical Education Provides Unique Opportunities for Activity
-students who are active in physical education class are more likely to be active
outside of school

6. Quality Physical Education Teaches Self-Management and Motor Skills
-through physical education, students learn the skills they need to manage their
own daily activities and healthy living practices
-if students are taught motor skills, they are more likely to participate in physical
activities as adults because they will have the skills they need to participate

7. Physical Activity and Physical Education Promote Learning
-results of a recent study in California found that there was a positive relationship
between overall fitness and academic achievement
-other studies have found that physical education has either a positive or neutral
effect on academic performance
-studies have not found lower test scores as a result of taking time for physical
education in the curriculum

8. Regular Physical Activity Participation Makes Economic Sense
-physical inactivity and poor nutrition are the second leading cause of death in
our society
-chronic diseases caused by inactivity and poor nutrition increase health care
expenses
-physical education can be thought of as a method of disease prevention because
it addresses these problems

9. Physical Education is Widely Endorsed
-Professional, government, and private groups support physical education in
schools
-A recent survey of parents found that 91% of parents felt there should be more
physical education in schools

10. Quality Physical Education Helps to Educate the Total Child
-there is a relationship between the health of the body and the health of the mind
-both the body and the mind must be addressed when educating a child



*This article can be found at: http://www.aahperd.org/naspe/pdf_files/top10reasonsforQualityPE.pdf

Art Sites

Dennae Lovell
Visual Arts Lesson Sites

http://www.princetonol.com/groups/iad/lessons/elem/elemlessons.html

This site was I really enjoyed, it has different art projects for all grades. My favorite part of website was the pictures it had so that you could see what the final product is going to look like. My favorite art project that I saw was the sea turtle that was made by using oil pastels. This past week in my kindergarten class we used oil pastels and the students loved it. Each art lesson includes a lesson plan and lists all the items you will need for the lesson. It makes the lessons very straight forward for the teacher. Most lessons can also be adapted for other grades.

http://www.lessonplanspage.com/Art.htm

On this page you put in a grade that you are teaching and you can look at all different art lessons and pick the one you want to do in your class. The site makes it very easy to navigate and it lays out lesson plans for you it does not show examples of the final product but it does give you enough information to create a lesson. When you click on the grade you want it is broken up into different categories such as Art History and Artists, Collage, Crafts, Sculpture, 3-Dimensional Art, Cultural / World Art, Drawing and Painting the list goes on but I think you get the idea.

http://www.crayola.com/lesson-plans/

This site is so neat, I loved it! When you go to look for a lesson you put in the grade you want, the subject and a theme and then it gives all kinds of projects you can do. It also has a list of holiday crafts that you can click on and it shows all kinds of art and crafts you can do with your class. I looked at art for St. Patrick’s Day since it is coming up and one lesson was making leprechaun hats. This site has so many different ideas that you can use and they make it so easy to navigate and find what you need.

http://www.creativespotlite.com/

This site I liked because it shows you how to paint with water colors or how to use pastels. I do not think it would be good to use for k-2nd but it could if you did not go into as much detail as the site does. Each type of medium has step by step instruction that you can click on, this is an example Acrylic Painting Lessons & Techniques - Step by step acrylic painting demos, articles, and other great resources for beginners. When you look at the pictures they look really hard to do and I think are done by artists. As a teacher you could look at the steps and use them in your class.

http://www.teachnet.com/lesson/art/index.html

This site is very basic but it has some really neat links on it. One link that I liked was a play dough link and it tells you how to make all different types of play dough. I think it is something good to look at but as far as art lessons you could get a few good ideas but it does not have that many to choose from.

Katie McIntosh- Model PE Program

Model Physical Education Program: Pacific Beach Middle School

• Parent Comments Taken from http://www.greatschools.net-

- “Lastly, the PE dept. is OUTSTANDING! They are the most energetic, cutting edge group that puts in many hours of overtime with lunchtime and after school athletics for all.”
- “The P.E. Department is incredible! PE Teachers from around the county come to our site to train. Our school has a Charger Fitness room with mountain bike simulators, testing equipment, Dance Revolution and more. We have girls & boys intramural sports teams for Futsal, Soccer, Flag football and Basketball.”

• Pacific Beach Middle School offers a comprehensive Physical Education program. The Physical Education department focuses on cardiovascular fitness and motor coordination.
• They have a state-of-the-art fitness room that enhances the students’ fitness program.
• Due to funding constraints, most middle schools in the San Diego Unified School District do not offer athletic programs.
• Teacher Dennis Gildehaus says, “Students today lead sedentary lives which contributes to numerous health problems.” However, according to Gildehaus, “PB Middle School is working to provide a model program for other schools to incorporate exciting new extracurricular athletic programs.”
• Pacific Beach Middle School has one of the best physical education programs in the city, and is the only middle school in the San Diego Unified School District that has a comprehensive intramural program. The intramural program offers flag football, futsal, soccer and baseball during the lunchtime break.
• After school programs consist of flag football, soccer, track, basketball, futsal, field hockey, Leave a Legacy Club, and the Surf Club.
• PB Middle also hosts the district-wide basketball, flag football and soccer tournaments where up to fifteen other schools participate, depending on the sport.
• The school offers trendy activities which interest teens such as “Dance, Dance Revolution”, stationary bikes and waveboarding.
• PB Middle recently was awarded a grant from the San Diego Chargers to enhance the physical education program to include new equipment which will interest teens.
• Incorporating International Studies into their program brings in the education of various nationalities and their folk-dancing styles, thus building upon their knowledge and appreciation of various cultures while improving fitness and coordination.
• The school hosted a CAHPERD conference (California Association of Health and Physical Education Recreation and Dance) on October 27th. The conference was offered to professional PE teachers and students looking forward to becoming PE teachers.

Resources:

• http://members.cox.net/pefun/index.shtml
• http://moodle.sandi.net/course/view.php?id=1308_m=10_y=2007

Susan ~ Theater/Readers Theater

http://www.proteacher.com/070173.shtml
This website was helpful because it had other resources on it to explain and help create Readers Theater. The main resource off this page was under the Aaron Shepard’s link. Under this link he has also made a list of resources to check out. They include FREE SCRIPTS from his three books; Readers Theater, Story plays, and Folktale plays. He also has a link with helpful tips for the teacher when starting their Readers Theater project. Once back on the main page the other links help you compose a script with their outlined format. The main page also has another tip for teachers’ link that will take the teacher step by step in planning process. The best part is the link for an already made assessment/ Evaluation form for grading. Basically, there is a lot of great information and resources for a teacher trying to put together their own Reader’s Theater.

http://www.creativedrama.com/plays.htm
After looking at this website the top four links to look at are Classroom ideas, Theater games, Plays for Performance, and Books. Classroom ideas, is actually only one idea but it’s pretty good. It is an activity to use whenever there is free moment inside the classroom to help the students’ creativity. Theater games, are to help increase performance and creativity skills with a list of different games. It’s great because all the games have the grade level written on them. Plays for Performance, is a long list of different plays that can be used for performances. The tope of the list states the author, performance rights, ages, characters, format, censorship warnings, cultural indication, time period, and synopsis. Books, is a teacher resource listing all the different books that will be helpful in creating performances inside the classroom.

http://www.storyarts.org/lessonplans/lessonideas/index.html#hunt
I liked this website because it was simple and easy to follow. The whole site was a bunch of different theater activities to help students continue their development in Theater. My three favorite activities are Story Circle, Family Stories, and Puzzle Tale. Story Circle has everyone participating with the creations of a class story. This activity is helpful because it makes the students think about the different phases inside a play; the beginning, middle, and end. Family Stories connects to social studies because the students has to research about a certain time period and then create a skit to explain what they discovered. Puzzle Tale has the teacher pre-read a Folktale and then have different cards spread around the room. Each student will have a card and will have to listen to know when their card needs to be read. After reading their card the student then has to summarize the story up to their card. This helps the students with comprehension and order/sequencing.

http://pirate.shu.edu/~depierjo/dramatics_and_role_playing.htm
The goal of this website is help students get into the mind and heart of their characters along with developing a sense of empathy. These activities are not to help students memorize lines, work on sets, and think about costumes. They are to help with role playing to create an energetic and lively experience that will completely engages the viewers. Basically, it will help the students stay in character when performing.

http://teachers.net/lessons/posts/400.html
There is nothing really special about this website only that it shows how simple it can be to create Readers Theater inside the classroom. With this script it gave me hope in being able to create scripts that cross over into other subjects to help students better understand the material at hand.

Jill Bennett, Save the Music

VH1 Save the Music

I know it sounds cheesy, VH1 Save the music but it’s not. This is actually a really great program that has impacted many schools. There are seven schools in San Diego that have been helped and impacted by Save the Music. This program raises money to restore musical programs that are part of daily curriculum in schools. The programs range from stringed instruments, pianos, and band. The money is raised through special events, promotions and donations. This program believes every student can benefit from music. On the VH1 Save the music website there is a handbook that describes the music programs. This handbook is an outline for how the program can be run, what standards they cover, success stories, maintenance of instruments, and how to select students for the program. I suggest anyone interested in helping save music in schools check out this website.
http://www.vh1.com/partners/save_the_music/index.html.

Schools helped San Diego: 175,000 dollars worth of musical instruments have been donated to these seven San Diego Schools.

Keiller Middle School 2002
Wilson Academy Middle School 2002
Muir School of Humanistic Studies 2004
Pacific Beach Middle School 2004
Creative, Performing & Media Arts Middle School CPMA 2005
O'Farrell Community School 2006
John J. Montgomery Middle School 2006

Overall helpful site

This website is helpful for every type of lesson and classroom issue from job hunting to designing a bullitn board:
www.TheApple.com
Check it out and lets all be friends so next year we can help each other out!
Less than 3 months left of school and helping in another person's classroom Woo Hoo

Model PE Program

from Traci Wetzel:

http://www.silvergateschool.com/apps/pages/index.jsp?uREC_ID=41819&type=u
Silver Gate Elementary School, Point Loma
Model Physical Education Program (Coach- Geoff McCloud)
I observed the P.E. program at this school site.
An important part of the program is inclusion = included (demonstration- students acted out inclusion).
I observed three different 1st grade classes in physical education activities (lesson focus- “underhand throw”).
Each 50 minute class period included a warm-up (crunches, push-ups, and jumping jacks- coach picks a student to spin the wheel to determine the amount of jumping jacks to do); stretching; cardiovascular activity (running), and skill drills.
In the beginning of the period, each student walks into the classroom and the coach says “Good morning, [name].” Students reply, “Good morning, coach.” (personalizes)
Activity- “Can You Find”- mini figurines were hidden around the classroom (helps improve observation skills).
Running activity- “Everybody’s It”- a running game where everyone is it; anyone can tag anyone else (kneel down when tagged).
Skill- the coach/teacher taught students the “underhand throw” (under the shoulder). Cues: feet together, eyes on target, arm back, step forward with opposite foot, step and throw at the same time.
Practice activity- students used underhand throw to play catch with a partner (throwing bean bags back and forth to each other).
Drills (six stations set-up on blacktop: hula hoops, buckets, cardboard box, bike tires, bases, and bowling pins) to practice throwing a bean bag at various targets; the coach walked the students around to each station and explained what to do. Two to three students were assigned to each station; each student threw three bean bags at the designated target a few times. When told by the coach, the students rotated to the next station (all students went to all the stations).
I liked that the coach integrated Math into this lesson by making each target have specific points that could be earned; it was the students’ job to use their math skills to add up their points at each station.
At the end, the coach had the students regroup in order to review the skill. Students helped to collect equipment into a pile (clean-up).
During recess, I observed 3rd and 4th graders riding unicycles. I talked to many of these students about unicycle riding (how they learned; how long they have been riding- anywhere from a week to three months, different skill levels; do they like it; etc.). They all said it is a lot of fun; practice to get better. Helmets are worn for safety; appropriate footwear must be worn for any physical activities.
Climbing wall (used for building upper body strength) - I looked at it, but did not see students using it. I talked to the coach about what kinds of activities he does with it (holding on, traversing, etc.). He uses it every couple of weeks, so that the kids do not get bored with it.
This school has a before school running program (students can run laps around the field for 20-25 minutes before school; over 50 students currently participate). The mileage that the students run is recorded by parent volunteers (rewards given); plotted on a map to show distance ran over the school year. Student record- 300 miles in the school year.

PE Lesson Sites

from Lea Hallinan:
Physical Education Web-Bibliography
http://www.aahperd.org/NASPE/
The National Association for Sport and Physical Education’s mission is to enhance knowledge, improve professional practice, and increase support for high quality physical education, sport, and physical activity programs through research, development of standards, and distribution of information. One neat resource on this site is the Teacher Toolbox. It’s a way to share ideas for promoting physical education, physical activity, or youth sports programs. The toolbox has different features each month that meet the national standards, provide elementary and secondary fitness calendars that can be sent home with students, bulletin board ideas, puzzles and games, information about the nation’s health observances, and the newest resource materials. This month’s focus is on national nutrition month: food/energy balance. It lists a variety of activities and provides suggestions for modifications depending on your grade level.
http://www.sports-media.org/
This website has sports media and physical education lesson plans, tips, drills, activities and other teaching aids for the physical education teacher. Under the P.E. teacher option, it has a database of over 900 lesson plans and activities as well as optional quizzes. If you don’t find what you’re looking for, there is also a link to their database of additional P.E. related sites that allows you to search by activity (ie. field day activities, disc golf, handball).
http://www.teachingideas.co.uk/pe/contents01games.htm
This site lists different game ideas for physical education. You can share ideas with other people and the useful thing is that each game has a user review and comment section. In addition to games, you can find ideas for warm-ups and cool-downs, ideas for specific topics (gymnastic, swimming, dance), and ideas for developing bulletin boards in class.
http://www.peuniverse.com
I really liked this website because it provides you with video footage of different P.E. activities. I found it useful because even though I’m provided with the steps of an activity, I’m sometimes not sure what it’s supposed to look like and having a visual to go with the lesson is really helpful. Specifically, I have been wanting to teach some line dances to my class and I couldn’t picture some of the moves as they were written on paper. There is a variety of videos on this site and you can search by key word in either the video or blog section.
http://www.movingandlearning.com
On this website you’ll find a variety of activities under the 7 things you can do to save recess section. It divides the activities up into categories which makes it a little easier to find particular games. Some of the categories are fitness fun, circle games and movement activities that teach. The section that caught my attention is called noncompetitive games. They provide you with four games (the snake, sticky popcorn, beanbag freeze and three-legged creatures) that could be used with students of any age and require little to no equipment to play. I thought Sticky Popcorn was pretty cute for younger students and here’s how to play: Sticky Popcorn. Talk to the children about the process of cooking popcorn – from kernels in the oil, through heating up, to becoming full-fledged pieces of popcorn. What would happen if something sticky, like butter or caramel, was poured all over the popcorn? Invite the children to lie on the floor, in the smallest shape possible, imagining they’re tiny uncooked kernels of popcorn. Then the “oil” they’re lying in starts to heat up, and they start popping. They keep popping – all over the room! You then “pour” butter or caramel over them, making them very sticky. When that happens, every time they come near another kernel, they stick to it – until there’s just one big, stuck bunch of popcorn!
http://www.hccanet.org/patricks/index.htm
This site is for educators looking for creative ideas to use in their classroom. It’s very easy to navigate and you can search by the following categories: resources, activities, kids’ stuff, field day, P.E. sites and sports. I liked the field day section because they lay out four days worth of planned activities that are either groups of activities or based on themes such as the Olympics.

PE Lesson Sites

from Jessica Terrell:

Web-Bibliography
http://www.pecentral.org/lessonideas/pelessonplans.html
Interesting website because you can search for specific activities. Not all the searches come back with good responses, but it is helpful if you need a specific type of lesson, such as, Valentine Volley, Earth Day Conservation, or specific idea on teaching food labels and hydration.
http://www.teachingideas.co.uk/pe/contents.htm
Lesson ideas are focuses more for younger students, but can easily be changed to accommodate older children as well. There are different sections for warm-up, cool-down, and game which makes the site easy to move around and understand. It also has great reviews from previous users which is helpful to read if the lesson has worked in the past.
http://www.pittschools.org/aes/physed8.htm
This was a great site with many different aspects of helpful information pertaining to physical education. It had a section for classroom management outside the classroom and it also provided good activities to integrate the physical education within the classroom curriculum.
http://www.flaghouse.com/activityGuides.asp
This website has a lot of really good and inventive activities. There are many activities I have never seen before. The lesson plans do seem to be pretty lengthy though. Even thought the lessons are long they can be for both primary and intermediate levels. Most of the lesson plans go with equipment that needs to be purchased through them but I think it would be easy to substitute materials for ones the school already has.
http://www.internet4classrooms.com/health.htm
Great site for intermediate to middle school grades. It is a site with links on to child friendly sites with information they can explore on topics such as: mind and body, nutrition, drugs and alcohol, first aid, disease, and so much more. These are all good topics when talking about the wellness of our body.
http://worknotes.com/IL/Chicago/Fit4FunKidsFitness/ap14.stm
One lesson that caught my eye on this site was animal yoga. This site has activities that provide lessons in all aspects of physical education including the importance of stretching and flexibility.
Lesson:
Animal Yoga



Lion

Sit up with your back straight and clench your fists. Close your eyes and mouth. Stick out your tongue as you inhale and exhale through your mouth as your open your eyes and mouth as open as possible. Stretch your face muscles as far as you can. Take a deep breath and return to the closed eyes and closed mouth position. Completely relax the face and let go of any tension. This exercise energies the mind, body, builds self-confidence, improves communication skills and lessens physical tension.

Cat

Start on all fours then inhale and exhale as you round the back like a cat. Press in your hands to the floor. Lower the head and press the chin against the chest. Take a deep breath as you lift your head and push the spine down until it curves or arches and then look up. The cat increases flexibility of the spine and is a great warm-up movement to wake up and straighten the core.

Butterfly

Butterfly is a sitting pose. Get down onto the floor and bring in your feet so that the soles of both feet are touching. Make sure that your knees are touching the floor and that your back stays as straight as possible. This exercises strengthens the back and teaches balance and coordination of the upper and lower body.

Up Dog

To start the exercise get down on the floor and keep your legs straight behind you and lay your palms in the floor. Prop yourself slightly off the floor and keep your stomach from completely touching the floor. From there, you push yourself up with your arms, and stretch your back.

Down Dog

In down dog, you get down on your hands and feet again. However, rather than going down on your stomach, you raise your posterior in the air, with your head down. Try to have your hands and lay feet flat on the ground.

The dogs energies, strengthens and the hands, wrists and inner thighs. It also helps keeps posture straight when you are sitting.

Star Fish
Lie on your back, arms and legs comfortably stretched. Raise one arm at a time toward ceiling and lower. Next, lift one leg at a time toward ceiling. Later, try lifting one arm and the opposite leg at the same time. The star fish encourages deep breathing and relief from mild symptoms of asthmas and bronchitis.

Turtle
Lie on back, legs touching, knees flexed up toward the chest, arms resting on floor above head. Keeping lower back pressed to floor throughout extend legs towards sky while pointing toes. Lower legs as far as possible without releasing back from floor. Raise legs, flex in and repeat. The turtle is good for calming and relaxing.

Snakes

Lie on back, legs touching, knees bent, bottom of feet on floor, arms along side of body on floor. Lower spine below waist presses to floor, upper back is relaxed. Breathe in and contract abdominal muscles and hold for three seconds. Relax. This exercise keeps the spine healthy and improves communicate between the brain and the body. So when you feel stress and need to have a break let the animal out in you and try some Animal Yoga! Yoga is a great way to relax and these exercises have no age limit.

Visual Art Lesson Sites

Web Bibliography

http://www.geocities.com/theartkids/artlessons.html The layout of the website is easy, clean, and functional. The lessons are divided up by grade and also by topic to help with navigating around if you have specific unit planned. I was also impressed with the idea that each lesson had a picture to go with it, this way you know what the students will be creating before you assign the lesson. My only issue is that only the lesson titles are given so you need to do a lot of clicking to find the perfect lesson.

http://www.kinderart.com/ The site is a little overwhelming with all of the ads popping around and multiple colors, but once you focus on the art lessons they have great ideas! I loved the kitchen art section which talks about making things from kitchen supplies as well as making art you can eat. This site is helpful because not only does it have the title of the lesson, but it also has a description so you don’t have to click on a bunch of random titles.

http://www.lessonplanspage.com/Art45.htm These lessons range from art history, to cultural art, and computer art. With the variety of lessons its easy to locate one which will work for you. Another thing that makes find the lessons easy is they don’t use creative lesson titles, they have names such as : “A very interesting Art lesson involving creating art on computers,” “Here is a great painting with sand art lesson for all ages,” and “This art lesson deals with Vincent van Gogh.”

http://www.princetonol.com/groups/iad/lessons/lessons.html Interesting site with various links to activities of all kinds. I really liked the idea of “free-time art” and how the list on the web page has various grades, then lesson topics to narrow the selection. Something I found interesting was the Sub Plans and Time Fillers sections, this is helpful to have laying around incase another lesson is faster than you planned or if a last minute sub is needed it will give them something to do.

http://www.theapple.com/training/category/72-art- This site is wonderful because it has 5 pages of art lessons which state grade levels, title, and a description before you even click on the lesson. Then when you find a lesson which works for you the lesson page has reviews and stars which other users have given it. I love the collaboration between teachers to help promote effective art lessons.

http://www.pittschools.org/aes/PHYSED8.HTM Great ideas for lessons on everything from active classroom management to indoor PE activities. Easy to move around because you search specific activities and titles until you find a tag game, dance lesson, or gymnastics idea that would work in your classroom.

http://www.pecentral.org/lessonideas/pelessonplans.html Interesting website because you can search for specific activities. Not all the searches come back with good responses, but it is helpful if you need a specific type of lesson, such as Valentine Volley, Earth Day Conservation, or specific ideas on teaching food labels and hydration.

http://www.teachingideas.co.uk/pe/contents.htm Lesson Ideas are focused more for younger students, but can easily be changed to accommodate older children as well. There are different sections for warm-up, cool-down, and games which makes the site is easy to move around and understand. It also has great reviews from previous users which is helpful to read if the lesson has worked in the past.