Having sourced, evaluated and selected data on the Internet concerning Roman Mosaics I was pleased with the lesson today.  The first "Roman Mosaic" lesson I was supposed to deliver was cancelled as the class teacher decided to call a rehearsal for the school year 4 group production.  Fortunately the next Year 4 class went ahead (although the lesson was 45 mins instead of an hour.)  The introduction to mosaics and symmetry focussed on the School mosaic in the payground opened up the arena for ideas, rather a brain storming session actually, and being outside felt very friendly and informal.  The second part of the lesson in the ICT lab held the attention "grabbed" outside by the school mosaic and wove in with the theme of the Roman mosaics, purpose, position, design and age.  The children were excited atthe prospect of making their own mosaic online.  The PowerPoint worked well and the website links in each childs folder saved the time of problems often incurred inputting a URL. 

As the children finished their mosaic, they copied and pasted it into MS Word, added their name, saved and printed the document.  On the flipchart board were 2 questions:

1. Is my mosaic symmetrical?
2. Have I used Roman colours?

The children paired up as they finished on the carpet and discussed each others mosaics.  In the plenary children talked about features of mosaics and their partners efforts and shared these thoughts with the class.  The childe "every child matters" came to mind as I encouraged children to appraise their work with a partner.

The printed mosaics did not print exactly as was seen on the screen in some cases, there was some difference in colour and some mosaics gained a grey line.  All in all the experience was a positive one and printing problems were minimised while fantastic results celebrated. (Pending photo)

The mosaic site and the extension mosaic puzzle can now be accesssed through the school website, passworded area for the school community.  The children have homework from the class teacher, but I have asked them to draw a mosaic if they have time.  This idea was well received.  Hopefully we will have drawn and computer generated symettrical Roman Mosaics to put up for display.

I am now constructing a lesson evaluation on the school website using our survey tool and will ask the children to fill this on online.  The class teacher has been asked for her comments on the lesson.