Chalk Art

One of the expectations for Visual Arts is for the students to “express their feelings and ideas about art works and art experiences”. I wanted to find something really cool to look at and talk about. I figured if I chose a painting that wasn’t important to them, they wouldn’t be engaged for very long.

So with the help of Google, I searched for sidewalk chalk art. Sidewalk chalk art is amazing. I’ve never actually seen it in person, but the pictures online are incredible. It’s amazing how the artist can transform an every day flat surface into a spectacular piece of art that plays with your eyes and your mind.

I showed the Grade Ones five photos one at a time and talked about each one.

As the first image I showed them, they thought it was real for a good 10 minutes. They were shocked when I told them it was all art.

I was really impressed when one little girl shouted out, “Hey! It’s the Beatles!”

They were so into it. We talked about how one piece made some of us feel amazed, and how the same piece made some of us feel scared (I’m talking about the lava one).

I had prepared to have them write out their responses, but we had already done so much writing that day, I thought it would be better to keep up the momentum and assess their reflections and responses orally. I had them determine which piece they liked the best and stand with others in a group. I walked around and listened to them as they told each other why they liked it and what they felt when they saw the art.

As an extension to this activity, I brought them all outside and we made our own art with sidewalk chalk that I brought in. There were fabulous beach scenes, rainbows, sun shines, and of course, a duck.

Just trust me; it’s a duck.

They know me too well.

Pirate Art

As you know, we’ve started a pretty awesome unit on pirates, and the kids are just loving it. As I was engaged in my nightly Pinterest browsing, I came across a really cute pirate themed craft that I just had to try. Click HERE for the original posting.

Here’s how ours turned out.

Still waiting on a few to finish theirs so I can hang them up!

Love all the detail on this little pirate!

Happy Sunday!

Ahoy There, Matey!

Long time no blog, I know. I’m sorry. I’ve been pretty busy lately. My attention has been snagged by house buying and cancer curing, so my blogging had to take the sacrifice and be put on hold for close to a month!

Yes…Rob and I spent Easter weekend running back and forth to the real estate office signing papers. It’s now official. 42 days ‘til move in; but who’s counting?

And what’s this about me curing cancer? Well I haven’t actually cured it, but I’m doing my part! I’ve been running Relay for Life for the past 8 years, but since my dad died of cancer three years ago, I’ve decided to kick it into high gear and raise as much as I can for my team. I organized and threw a dance, invited friends and family, hired a Rolling Stones tribute band, and raised over $4000!

But now that the house buying and cancer curing has settled down, it’s time to regain focus on what’s been going on in Grade One.

We finished our units on heroes, structures, and subtraction, and started super fun units on communities, pirates, probability, and mapping!

The Grade Ones have to learn about the local community, so we started off (as I always like starting off) by brainstorming what we already know.

And we learned about what our community was like when it was first founded, and discussed the idea that communities change over time.

Cute story time:

Me: What do you think Georgina looked like 195 years ago when William Bourchier discovered the area?

Boy: I think everything was in black and white.

Someone’s seen a few old movies.

Anyways. The idea of a community has been the starting point for everything else in the other units. I can’t take any of the credit for these upcoming amazing ideas. Back when I was a student teacher, Melissa and Stacia planned this terrific unit on pirates. We tied in the ideas of community and working together. It was such a fun unit, I decided to do it again with my own kiddos.

The kids now sit in “pirate ships” which is essentially three desk groups of six. They have to work as a community and demonstrate strong teamwork skills.  I, of course, am the captain ;)

Pirate books have become the main texts for our literacy unit.

This week, we have started looking at character and setting. These are some books we’ve read so far:

There are SO many pirate adventure stories out there and they’re fantastic. The kids totally love acting like pirates. Even during morning and afternoon attendance they say, “Arrrgh, Captain Lawrence!” instead of, “Here”.

We all know that pirates need maps to find their buried treasure. So we’ll be learning all about positional language and the relative location of objects. At the same time, we’ll be learning about probability. We’ve had lots of fun with some pirate spinner games that I created. Click HERE for a free copy.

Finally, we have a wonderful CYW (Child and Youth Worker) at our school who comes in each week to teach my onesies about various life skills. Lately, she’s been teaching them about manners and how to be kind to one another. She read them this hit of a book.

Then they made their own buckets, where they can leave  kind comments to one another and fill each other’s buckets. What a great way to build that sense of community.

Well, that’s it from me. I’ll leave you with a picture of our pirate name flags we made in aaaaarght. I mean, art.