Maddie Hanson Arts Bridge

I have really loved coordinating these past couple lessons to revolve around a single book - Tacky the Penguin. It has not only given me direction as I plan lessons, but also provided continuity for the students as they build upon their knowledge of this book. I see how the students are getting excited about the characters and plot as they get to know them better. It also allows them to feel really successful because we're not switching around what we're talking about every week, so they can feel more prepared. Today, we did activities with the same book as last week, Tacky the Penguin. But instead of focusing on the movement of characters, we did games and activities that focused on voice. Through these activities and exercises, the students didn't know it, but they were actually preparing for a performance we will be putting on in a couple of weeks. One piece of advice I got from my faculty mentor was to prepare the students for difficult tasks by showing a lot of

Tacky the Penguin was one of my absolute favorite books growing up. It tells the story of a penguin named Tacky who was different from the rest of the penguins. He didn't talk or sing beautifully like the rest of them. He didn't dive gracefully or march like the rest of them. But one day, hunters came along to hunt the penguins. And while the rest of the penguins hid, Tacky fearlessly stood up to them, confusing them with the way he moved and sang; that wasn't the way they thought the penguins they were hunting acted! So the hunters left and Tacky saved himself and his companions! Not only is it a fun story with a nice message, but it also has wonderful unique characters students can enjoy exploring. For these last few weeks I'll be visiting my first grade classroom, we're going to be working with this book, Tacky the Penguin, in order to prepare for a small performance we'll do for another class in the school. How the performance will end up will depend on

This was my fourth time in my first grade classroom, and it has been exciting to see the students progress. Today, I noticed the students' willingness to participate and get involved has grown! They feel free to ask questions and explore different, unique ideas more. However, the main lesson I learned from this particular visit was the importance of clear instructions. We started off our lesson by each drawing a certain locomotive movement from a hat, and then doing that movement as if we were in different environments, like moving through honey or along a sandy beach. I thought it would be fun for the students to each have their own movement, such as marching or skipping or jumping. However, I think for first graders, it may have confused them to have the people around them doing different movements. In the future, I may stick to having them all do the same locomotor movement in order to reduce confusion. I read with them the book "We're Going on a Bear Hunt" by

For this last lesson, my teacher let me know that the students would be learning about Johnny Appleseed the day of my visit. And so, we were able to continue to work on the concept of taking on characters by taking on the character of growing trees! The kids were able to be creative, come up with character traits for their trees, and I was able to experience quite a bit in relation to teaching and understanding how these first graders learn. We began the lesson with a game of character rock, paper, scissors. (see the attached lesson plan for details on how to play) During this warm up, we were practicing taking on one of the characters in the game, supermodel, when I noticed a boy who had crouched under one of the tables and wasn't participating. I started worrying about what I could say to convince him to join us, but I was at a loss because I don't know these children very well yet. But instead of drawing attention to his lack of participation, I decided to invite him to p

This week was my first visit to my first grade classroom and it was a BLAST! There are so many wonderful things about working with first graders that I'm going to talk about, but first I want to give an overview of the visit. I chose to start out by reading the picture book Is Your Mama a Llama by Deborah Guardino. This is an adorable book about a young llama that goes around asking other animals if their mama is a llama. The students were able to do a couple things to get them introduced to the idea of taking on different characters, such as mooing like the cow in the book or hopping like the kangaroo. After the story, I explained to them that right before I got to their class, I received a phonecall from a local zoo-owner, Mr. Hoot. Mr. Hoot recently had to hire all new zookeepers to take care of his animals. Unfortunately, none of the zookeepers have any experience with the animals they will be working with and he was wondering if we could help him by making a training video

Hi! I'm Maddie Hanson. I am a student studying Elementary Education at Brigham Young University I am from a city called Morgan Hill in the Bay Area in California. Ever since I was little, I have loved drama and theatre! Along with my family, I've grown up participating in plays and musicals at school and in the community. One of my earliest memories is singing and dancing onstage as Lucy alongside my dad playing Aslan (wearing a lion costume) in our community's production of Narnia the musical. Drama brought me joy, helped me develop confidence, and find friendships. As I've learned more about teaching in the elementary classroom and specifically about how invaluable drama can be to students of all ages, I've developed a great passion and excitement for incorporating drama into my future classroom. Throughout these upcoming 3 months, I'll be visiting a small classroom of first graders in Cedar Fort Utah about 10 times to teach drama lessons and in