The Disucator: Mickey Writing Prompt

Since tomorrow, November 18th is what is reserved as Mickey Mouse's Birthday, I thought it would be fun to put up a prompt and template I have been working on for a bit. The idea is to take the shape of Mickey Mouse's head and use it as a template for a writing prompt.  The face part of his head would be where the children would write their letter, essay, answer to a question, or whatever the teacher poses to the students.  The ears would be for pictures; the left being a picture of the student, whether hand drawn or a photograph and the right ear would be for a drawing of what the student wrote about.

Mickey Mouse Prompt

Subject: Writing

Grade: Primary grades, but easily adaptable

For this lesson, you will need a template of the classic Mickey Mouse shape, a piece of paper (I use white, but almost any light colored paper could work), pencil, ruler and crayons or markers.

Google "Mickey Mouse Head Outline" to get a shape that you would like.  To get your outline the right size, just put the picture on a Microsoft Word document or similar application and stretch it out to the size you would like. Once you print off your template, you may want to glue it to a piece of cardboard or a manila folder so that it is sturdy, then cut it out so that it could be used as a tracer by the children.

Have the children trace the Mickey head onto the piece of paper. 

After the Mickey is traced, use the ruler to draw lines in the head part of Mickey.  Do not draw lines in the ears.  It is the teacher's discretion how many lines the children should draw depending on the age of the students and how much they are expected to write. 

Now for Mickey's Birthday, the children could write about what they would buy Mickey for his birthday, how they would throw him a surprise party, what their favorite Mickey movie is, or any other topic you would like them to write about.

When they are finished writing, have the children draw a picture about the prompt in the right ear of Mickey and in the left, have them either draw a picture of themselves, place a photo of themselves or just sign their name.  Depending how you want to display this writing piece, you can decide if you want the children to cut out the Mickey head or not.

This lesson plan is specifically designed for Mickey's birthday, it not only celebrates in a Disney way, but allows the children to practice their writing. I have a few more more ideas with this Mickey prompt which I will be posting soon, including a bulletin board idea.

Until next time: Class Dismissed!

The Disucator: Circle of Life

While we go to Walt Disney World for fun and entertainment, we may not always realize that we are learning as well.  One of the places that I am able to learn the most is at Epcot…maybe that’s why it is my second favorite park, only just behind Magic Kingdom.  A lot of places in Epcot can be used as a classroom; learning about energy and forces in Ellen’s Energy Adventure, the science behind car tests at Test Track, marine life at The Seas with Nemo and Friends and so much more! I have some lesson ideas for these, but those are for a later time, the lesson I have in mind for today actually comes from The Land pavilion.

I know, we all wish we could just take our classroom on a field trip to Disney to teach them things, and those of you who live in the Orlando area may be able to do just that.  For the rest of us though who are not so close, we have to find ways to bring aspect of the park that we want to share into the classrooms.  This has become so much easier with the invention of Youtube.  We are now able to bring attractions and movies straight to our classrooms and teach the meanings from there.  The lesson I have in mind today comes from just such a video, the Circle of Life film from The Land.

Subject: Science

Grade: Adaptable for any grade, but lets say 2^nd to 4^th for this specific lesson

Unit Title: Environment

Lesson: Human’s Impact and How to reduce it

Estimated time period: 45 minutes

By the end of this lesson, students should be familiar with the different impact humans have had on the Earth and different ways to solve them.

Materials: Youtube Video of The Circle of Life 

Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IAInVJja-yA&feature=related

Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTS2igFMpIM&feature=related

Procedure:

1. Write the words pollution, extinct, and smog on the board.

2. Ask the children to write down what they know about these words.

3. Go over these words with them, what they mean and how they can affect them and the Earth.

4. Play The Circle of Life and let the movie further explain the concepts to the children.

5. After watching the film, ask the students what they learned from the video. Talk about the different ways humans are working towards making the Earth a better, healthier place to live.

6. Have the students write down ways that they can help their environment

Extension ideas:

- Grow a Garden with your class

- Plant some trees

- Begin a recycling program in your class or school

- Go on a nature hike

- Study ways your town is helping the environment and ways they could improve it, have them write letters to your town council about their ideas on helping the environment

Making our students conscious about the problems in our environment and ways that they can make a difference is important for our future.   If we are to continue to improve the Earth’s condition, we must make it an everyday part of our children’s lives now.

Until our next lesson, Class Dismissed!

The Disucator Returns!: Multilingual Disney

With a new school year starting, it is time to bring back The Disucator; ideas and information on how to bring a little Disney to your classroom!

Today's idea is for Foreign Language teachers of all grade levels and languages. One activity that is seen frequently in foreign language classes is listening activities, this helps the students to practice listening to conversations and comprehending them.  Why not give your students a treat after a hard test and yet still have them engaged in a class activity? Have them watch a Disney movie in the language they are taking! Letting them watch the movie will keep them engaged in the activity and, since it is a storyline they probably know, they will be better able to keep up with the dialogue than if it was a everyday conversation with no visuals. Also, because they know what the dialogues are generally about, they may be able to learn new vocabulary words used in the conversations.

Another idea is to keep Disney storybooks in the language you are teaching in your classroom and allow the students on some downtime to page through them.  This also may help expand their vocabulary and allow them to see where words are used in familiar contexts. 

While this sounds like something you would do for younger children, this really can be done with all grade levels and language levels! My sister watched children's movies in her Spanish class and said she really found it enjoyable, they were still learning and yet they were relaxing and having fun.  Even in college this could work! I know that if I walked into my language class and the teacher told me I was going to be watching a Disney movie in Spanish, I would be so excited! And for those teachers who may be worried about their students falling asleep or not paying attention to the film, you can make up a worksheet to give the students.  Have them listen for certain verbs or have them write down vocabulary words they do not know, just a simple exercise to keep them engaged. 

I hope that these ideas can help you bring a little Disney fun to your language class! Until our next lesson: Class Dismissed!

Expectations of the The True Disney Fan

Here we are, a new year starting and I just thought I would share some of the ideas and future posts you can be looking fore here on The True Disney Fan.

• The Disucator: You can definitely expect the Disucator to have a few more lesson ideas, including an idea for a year-round bulletin board and montly writing samples!
• School News: This semester of school I have my honors class, where I have to write a research paper on a topic of my choice. It is not completely narrowed down yet, but I know it will be Disney related, so I will write now and again about that.
• Trip Planning: With Chris and my Disney trip a mere 5 months away, we have lots of planning to do! I will be posting occasional trip planning blogs but along with those, I will be reviewing a lot of different planning books and websites and letting you know what the book/site is about and how helpful it is in planning a Disney vacation. Look for those reviews to start very soon!

These are just some of the planned posts I will be doing, but this isnt by far close to all I will be writing about! You never know what you will see here, so make sure to check back frequently! I will have random polls on the side and I will always be updating the Pin Pictures and the awesome Disney Haiku's from Mouse of Zen!

If you have anything you would like to see me write about here, just leave me a comment with the idea or you can email me at lady_aurora_yensid@hotmail.com

The Disucator: Creepy Creeps with Eerie Eyes- A Descriptive Writing Lesson

Do your students need to practice writing descriptively? Why not use the holiday to your advantage? Follow this fun lesson plan to have the children talk about their own Haunted Mansion.

Subject: Language Arts
Grade: Can be adapted from Kindergarten through 5th Grade
Estimated Time: 40 to 50 Minutes

Learning Objectives:
At the end of this lesson, students will be able to

• learn describing words
• be able to describe a haunted house
• write a paragraph about haunted houses

Materials:

• Haunted Mansion book and audio (can be found at http://www.mousevinyl.com/content/haunted-mansion-disneyland-records)
  
• Access to a computer and projector (if this is not available, the children can take turns watching it on the computer or the teacher can just read it out loud to them without showing them the pictures)

Procedure

1. Ask the students what they think a haunted house looks like. Ask them what a haunted house has in it and what makes it a haunted house.
2. Write the descriptive and key words the children say on the board
3. Show them the Haunted Mansion book
   
4. Have the children write for 15 to 20 minutes about a haunted house they visited or a haunted house they would make. Make sure they use some descriptive words that are on the board and were in the Haunted Mansion story. (For the younger grades, you can have them draw a picture of their haunted house instead of writing about it and the writing samples can be from a couple sentences to a paragraph or story. Allow the children to be creative, let the ones writing even draw a picture of their haunted mansion if there is time for them to do so.)
5. When they are done, allow the children time to share their writing/picture with the other students

This is a fun activity to work on children's writing skills and descriptive thinking, plus it gets them in the holiday spirit! Feel free to use the descriptive words that are given in other fun holiday ways, including a word search, crossword or even a Halloween themed Hangman game!

Thank you to www.mousevinyl.com for the awesome Haunted Mansion book and audio used in this lesson.

Check out www.teach-nology.com/web_tools for an excellent Word Search maker among other great teacher tools.

Until our next lesson, class dismissed! (And a Happy Halloween!)

The Disucator: Decorating Disney Style

Before the lessons are planned, before the students even walk through the door, there is one thing that a teacher must do: Set up their classroom!!

Decorating a classroom is a time consuming but fun task, and even though there are some things that teachers must have in their rooms, there is plenty of opportunities to make it your own and show off your passions. If your passion is Disney, here are some ideas to create a Disucator's classroom:

• Collect the small stuffed animals and put them on your desk, bookshelves, and window ledges around the room. Swap them out throughout the year for the holiday stuffies to get your classroom in the holiday spirit.

• Have Disney pictures on your bulletin boards to add some thematic fun! Look for specific bulletin board ideas in future posts of The Disucator.

• Small snowglobes, statues or action figures can be placed almost anywhere in the room. The new sensation, Vinalmation, is good to place around the room as well.

• Need some cubby or locker name tags? Try using the Mickey Mouse paint samples you can get at Home Depot. You can also get a paper punch at your local craft store or scrapbooking store that makes Mickey Heads and glue the Mickey head to index cards for name tags.

Do you have any more ideas? Send me an email at lady_aurora_yensid@hotmail.com with your idea or just leave a comment on the blog!

Until our next lesson, class dismissed!

The Disucator: Incorporating Disney into your Classroom

So, as you may or may not know (depending on how far you have read into my blog), I am an education major at Neumann University in Pennsylvania. I have wanted to be a teacher for many many years and I am so excited that my dream is less than 2 years away!

Ever since my love of Disney has grown, I have been thinking of ways to incorporate Disney into the classroom. I want to be able to share my passion with all of my students. I was not able to really think of many ways until this semester. My field experience has me out every Thursday for 8 weeks, all day, teaching and interacting in classrooms. The classroom I am in, a 4th grade room at a nearby catholic school, could not have been better picked for me! My mentor teacher is a huge Disney fan and is helping to give me ideas of how to incorporate Disney into the classroom! Learning from her has been so much fun and has given me a lot of ideas on my own! With having all of these ideas, I have decided to spread the knowledge and share with all of you the ideas of how to turn your classroom into a Disney fun-filled environment; how you can become a Disney Educator, or a Disucator!

I will be posting all the different ideas that I come up with here on my blog under the heading and tag of "The Disucator". I will have everything, from behavioral tactics, to decorating ideas and even some actual lesson plans that are filled with Disney fun while still fitting in with the general educational standards (I will be looking at the Pennsylvania State Standards as a base for educational guidelines, individual state and country standards may be different, but I will try to give a general category where you can find which one of your standards the lesson falls under.)

I really hope that everyone will enjoy this new series of my blog and if you have any feedback about the lessons, please let me know! Send me comments, let me know if you try the lesson, if you like it or not, if you would use it in your classroom, if you would enjoy the lesson or even if you have any ideas about lessons that you would like me to post about! I would love any and all feedback! And not just feedback from you "Disucators", I would love to know what parents and kids think of these ideas as well! Leave a comment on the post or send me an email at lady_aurora_yensid@hotmail.com.

Until our next lesson, class dismissed!