Dr. Seuss's Mixed Up Pets

On Thursday, March 25th my teacher had to leave school early for an appointment. She said I was able to do an activity of my choice, so I spoke with her about a few things I have noticed in the classroom. One thing in particular that caught my attention was the students' lack of critical thinking skills. The one child was too scared to answer questions that were opened ended, for she was afraid of getting the wrong answer.

I asked the teacher about this notion of critical thinking, and she agreed that it is not a main component of the schools. Students are instructed the information, and then they are to recall the material for grades. In Belize teaching is done through more of a teacher-directed approach. Students are not often advised to think "outside the box" on their own. Taking this into consideration, I asked if I could do an activity which would allow the students to be creative and think critically.

I started the activity off by talking about what it means to be an artist and what imagination is. The students were able to make the connection about using their imagination in the world around them. Then I read the book "One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish," by Dr. Seuss to the class. The book talks about a variety of different pets that people have in their homes. An example is a Zen to help open the cans. While reading the book, as a group we talked about the differences in all the animals, and how no one pet was alike. After we finished reading the book, we made our own pet, and wrote about that particular animal.

Some students were hesitant with the activity and needed more scaffolding than others. For being use to being given the information that they will need to know, I think the activity went very well. The students used their imagination to put two different animals together to make a new animal, and they seemed to enjoy it as well.