The Arts Lesson Addressing Benchmark 26.B.ECa

Introduction

Snow had fallen on the playground and the children in Ms. Jones’s and Ms. Hernández’s classroom ran to the window to see the snow falling on the trees. The children were excitedly talking about how the snow on the branches covered the tress. When the sun came out, the children were excited to see the glittery, sparkly branches. Ms. Jones and Ms. Hernández reflected upon this excitement when they were planning and decided to set up the art center so the children could make representations of the wintery trees.

Ms. Jones and her teaching assistant (TA), Ms. Hernández, are responsible for developing learning activities that meet the needs of diverse learners and address the Illinois Early Learning and Development Standards (IELDS). Ms. Jones knows most children in her class will meet the standards and benchmarks. However, she will have to make adaptations for those children who need more individualized instruction.

Ms. Jones is the state-licensed head teacher in a monolingual classroom of 15 children with diverse ages (3–5 years old) and learning needs. There are 10 typically developing children with age-appropriate skills and behaviors in the class. These children act as peer models for the remaining children in the class.

Three children, Raúl, Luis, and Esther, are dual language learners whose home language is Spanish. They started school with little understanding of English. Ms. Jones’ TA, Ms. Hernández, is bilingual and uses both Spanish and English in the classroom. Two children, Joey and Hailey, have special needs requiring an individual education program (IEP). Joey has significant speech delays and is learning to use an adaptive and augmentative communication (AAC) device. Hailey has cerebral palsy (CP) resulting in significant motor delays, especially on the left side of her body. She uses a walker and wheelchair for mobility. On occasion, some children exhibit challenging behavior during small group lessons. Ms. Jones would like to implement strategies to address challenging behavior in the classroom.

Ms. Jones’ district uses a state-approved developmentally appropriate curriculum. Ms. Jones and Ms. Hernández perform universal screenings three times per school year (fall, winter, spring) for preschool children.

This lesson addresses a primary benchmark. A secondary benchmark is included to offer ideas for addressing an additional benchmark within one lesson. Teachers are encouraged to be creative in thinking of ways to address multiple benchmarks within one lesson.

Materials

• Construction paper for background
• Strips of construction paper for branches
• Glue sticks
• Glue bottles
• Glitter shakers
• Chalk
• White crayons

The teachers use the children’s winter tree artwork and their comments about the artwork to assess their use of art materials and language to express ideas. They also take anecdotal notes about how the children are sharing the materials at the table.

Some of the children express interest in drawing other items they have seen outdoors to be covered with “snow,” or glitter. The teachers allow the children to make drawings of houses, cars, and other things they have seen. The children then use glue and glitter to make them sparkle with snow.

The reminder cue cards used in this lesson plan to help children share come from the Center on the Social and Emotional Foundations for Early Learning Solution Kit (PDF). More classroom resources to support children’s socioemotional development can be found on the center’s teacher resources page.

This lesson was written in the context of Ms. Jones’s and Ms. Hernández’s classroom. We now offer some general suggestions of adaptations you can use in your classroom.