Mask Making Time

This was the first time for me to teach a lesson to the exciting group of six and seven year olds. We transitioned from learning about relations
hips with others into learning about relationships with ourselves. The lesson was on masks and how different cultures utilize mask as well as how masks can represent an individual. The students were actively participating in a discussion about what masks are used for and who the different cultures that use them. I was glad that I showed several different cultures and a range of photos because that seemed to translate into the kids having a wide range of masks that represented themselves. Some kids picked their favorite color to paint the mask while others were more into the overall idea of creating a character such as the nittany lion, an Indian, a monster, and a ninja. It was fun to see the students share their masks with each other at the end of class.

There were two main things I noticed during the class time that I wanted to pick out. One is that I have observed one student mimicking another student’s work. I’m thinking that this might be a result of the student seeing the individual she mimics receiving praise and attention with her work. It also might be correlated to the fact that she sat at the same table as this other student. To resolve this mimicking perhaps it would be best to separate these two individuals next time and make sure all of the students are receiving compliments and attention. Another thing I realized during class was that we should have saved the hot gluing of the feathers for the mask for more towards the end of class. Students wanted to get their feathers glue pretty quickly after receiving materials to decorate their masks. However, at the same time I wonder if that would have caused the students to have to wait even longer and would have caused a backup with saving the gluing for last.