Friday, May 26, 2006

Everything you do is useful, however useless



This afternoon I taught art. I had been preparing for English and Maths til 2am last night so art never got planned. I managed to borrow a lesson plan from another student at lunch time and winged it like a migratory bird.

The art lesson was on Henri Rousseau.



We talked about the tiger patterns and how the stripes are replicated through the painting, and the camoflage colours.


Then I showed them pictures of wild animals, starting with a lion. "How would you camoflage a lion in it's natural environment, children?".
Slight panic as I realise I don't really know details about where lions live or the difference between an African and Indian elephant or the natural habitat of a hippopotamus. The children have to pick an animal and draw it camoflaged in it's natural environment.
The children start arguing about whether lions live in the desert. Somebody starts telling them about long savannah grass and rocks umbrella thorn acacia trees and huge baobabs and perhaps a small pool to drink and bathe from . . .


A panda? They're endangered, by the way children (how does this person know this? they must be a blue-peter fan) and they'll like elevated terrain, with lots of bamboo, a mixture of grasses, grey stone, and deciduous environments.

A Black bear? They love the trembling aspen tree, and would appreciate a mixture of coniferous and deciduous terrain, with lots of rocks and a cave to shelter in - you will probably want to put water near by as well.

Miss, what can you can you camoflage a penguin with?

What can I put with my aligators, Miss?

This person doing the explaining, much to my suprise, was me. Where did all this knowledge of animal habitats come from?
My computer came with a free version of Zoo Tycoon - you get to build zoos and have to keep the animals and visitors happy. I have spent many hours "wasting" my life away building exhibits for animals to live in. This afternoon I learnt that time wasting might one day help you to wing it like a particularly confident migratory bird winging its way accross the African savannah, Amazon rainforest or Antartic desert.

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