Month: November 2015

The Three Bears … and a Few of their Friends

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We did a directed drawing lesson on ‘bears’ this week.  The next day the students did a much larger version of this bear’s portrait.  The lines were then traced over with China markers.  Students had used these markers to outline their Remembrance Day poppy art.  Today students had the opportunity of working with oil pastels.  They were given guidelines on colour choices available for the different sections.  The background needed to be one of the varieties (shades or tints) of either green or blue. They were also instructed in the ‘smudge-iness’ of working with oil pastels and were supposed to work from the inside to the outside in order to not rub the colours into each other.

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I think the students should be very proud of their hard work.  Many said that their hands were sore afterwards but they were troupers and I think that they did a great job.

Goldilocks and the Three Bears

This week we began our fairy tale unit with the story, ‘Goldilocks and the Three Bears’.  We read the traditional version and a few ‘fractured’ or ‘twisted’ versions. One of these was ‘Goldilocks and the Three Dinosaurs’, and another was ‘You and Me’.  The students debated on whether Goldilocks was ‘naughty or nice’.  On the ‘naughty’ side they decided that she: didn’t listen to her mother to stay out of the woods, and therefore got lost there; she broke into the Bears’ house; ‘stole’ their food (porridge); broke Baby Bear’s chair; and then ‘trespassed’ in their beds.  On the ‘nice’ side they decided that she was a good girl who just made some wrong choices and that she didn’t ‘intend’ to do anything illegal or harmful.  It was a good group discussion and was meant to show the students that there are usually two – and sometimes more – sides to any issue.

Students then had fun creating WANTED posters about Goldilocks.

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They especially enjoyed deciding how much of a reward should be set for capturing this notorious criminal 🙂

Complementary Colours

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As part of our exploration of the elements of art (colour) students created complementary colour patterns.  We read the book, “Hello, Green Fox”, by Eric Carle, which shows how the colour opposites can trick our eyes.  Students learned which colours are the opposites of each other: red/green; purple/yellow; and blue/orange.  They learned that opposites, when placed next to each other, make each other seem brighter and almost appear to glow.  They also got a chance to get ready for making winter snowflakes through the cutting technique. Check them out on the bulletin board outside our classroom, if you are in the building.

Fairy Tales

We are beginning a unit on Fairy Tales.  We will be reading and doing many activities with a variety of different stories.  A letter will be coming home this week asking for your child’s favourite recipe for our Fairy Tale Cookbook.  Please send it back (renamed with a fairy tale name) by the due date so that I can get them put together before the holidays.

Magnet Play

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We have spent the last few weeks learning and playing with magnets.  Students have done experiments learning about attraction and what things are ‘magnetic’ and which ones are not.  They have also learned about the two ‘poles’ – north and south – and how the opposites will attract each other but the same one will push apart from the same one.

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We also experimented with the different magnets to see which ones were the strongest by seeing how many paper clips they could hold in a line hanging down. Originally most students had the same number of paper clips hanging off each type of magnets.  Through experimenting one student discovered how to magnetize the paper clips to have more paper clips hanging.  Then we all went back and re-tried all the different magnets and managed to get better results by magnetizing the clips as we pushed them over the magnet to join the line.

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The students had a lot of fun and also learned a lot.  We also spoke about how our earth is one huge magnet – with a north pole an a south pole.

Poppies, poppies, everywhere …

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We have spent the past week getting ready for Remembrance Day.  This has involved stories, poems, and discussions about war, peace, and the reasons that we recognize this important day each year.  Student learned about John McCrae, a Canadian army physician, who wrote the famous poem “In Flanders Fields”.  They made their own poppies out of heart shaped construction paper which they arranged around a copy of the poem.  These are displayed on bulletin boards in the corridor outside of our classroom.

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We also had a directed drawing lesson on the shape of a poppy.  Students then re-created these poppies onto large cartridge paper which they then outlined with black china marker.  These were then coloured with red painted petals and green centres. After these had dried the students went over the black lines with the china markers again, cut out the poppies, and mounted these onto green construction paper. These are also displayed on the large bulletin board board in the corridor.

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The poppies that we made for our wreath are displayed (intact as a wreath) in the centre of this bulletin board.

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Each poppy demonstrates the students’ individual interpretation and creativity. They all look great!

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Pumpkin Carving With Our Buddies

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On Thursday, October 29th we met our Division 2 buddies in the gym and had fun carving our pumpkins.  Some of us got more into it than others.

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In the end they all looked great.

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The pumpkins were all lined up on the stage and made for a very nice surprise when we came into the darkened gym for our Hallowe’en Assembly the next morning. They were all well lit from within with flame-less candles!

We had a good Hallowe’en day with the assembly/parade and all the great goodies that were brought into the classroom.  Thank you to those who sent in treats.