Real World Experience

In the past I had the pleasure of going back to my second grade teacher and using her class for one of my humane education projects. I did an art lesson where the students made mosaic pictures by gluing colored paper squares to a white sheet of paper. The theme for the pictures was "What lives in a garden?" Before we got started I had the students tell me about the things that live in gardens. Some students said bugs, others talked about the plants like flowers or even corn, and others thought about animals like their dog or rabbits. The approach helped each student share ideas and make their own unique picture. Most of the pictures were very abstract which was nice but as they worked I went around the room assisting with glue spills, finding more colored paper, and hearing about what it is like to live in a garden. The students were able to show that they understood some of the everyday situations plants and animals go through and how they could help the plants and animals. Overall this lesson was one of the first ones I ever did that was more focused toward humane education and I feel it was very successful.