Education department sells children’s artwork

Parents, faculty and children ranging from preschool to fourth grade came to conduct their classes about service dogs and the auctioning of the children’s paintings in Mashburn Hall room 103.
Each child created his or her own pieces of art as a part of the unit of instruction taught by teacher education candidates.
The junior block P-4 teacher education candidates, in coordination with the Mashburn Center for Learning’s newly founded Institute for Social and Emotional and Service Learning, hosted the art gallery presented by children form the UCA Child Study Center.
All proceeds earned from selling of the paintings went toward the Conway Police Department K-9 unit.
Rene Crow, assistant professor for early childhood and special education, said students were responsible for conducting the art show for the children.
“The children created all of the artwork shown today. They also participated in a lab study,” she said. “Teachers taught a class using the service learning method.”
The art show opened with a slideshow of pictures of the children throughout the program.
During the gallery showing, the children were able to walk around to view their work along with the other children’s artwork.
Candidates in EDUC 4309 (classroom management with Crow) are learning about the authentic teaching strategy of service learning.
“As a class, it was decided upon to partner with the UCA Child Study and the Conway Police Department K-9 unit to teach the students a thematic unit about service animals,” Crow said.
Junior Kaitln Corwsin, who helped with the art gallery, said the children enjoyed seeing an actual service dog.
The service dog, Sky, assists his owner in being safe.
Through the unit, children have practiced academic, cognitive, physical, social and emotional skills as they have explored the content in developmentally appropriate ways.
Freshman Kaylan Norton said the children were so nice and sweet.
“I came with a friend to see how well the children did. The kids were very social and polite,” she said.
Corwsin said the kids had been working on their artwork all week long.
“The kids started on Monday,” Corwsin said. “They painted their hands brown and made dogs out of them.”
The children practiced searching for someone or something that was lost, finding out that search and rescue dogs have hard jobs.
They also learned that service dogs can go anywhere the owner goes. Service dogs help people who are hearing impaired or blind.
As long as service dogs are attached to a harness, no one is supposed to touch them because they are at work, according to a program guide.
The students viewed a video of a Corgi dog that helped his owner by opening and closing the door and picking up objects for its owner.