The Learners of Division 13

Ms K Shellard and Ms A Clouston - Grade 2/3 Class

Category: Arts Education

Pink Shirt Day

March 5, 2026 / / 0 Comments

Last week Gilmore Community School learned about Pink Shirt Day.  Here is a picture of Division 13 in our sea of pink!

We read a book that focused on the concepts of love, being our true selves, tolerance and kindness. It was called They Are So Flamboyant by Michael Genhart.  I am attaching the link of the story (read by him!) if you would like to share it at home with your child. 

On Wednesday afternoon, Gilmore came together to celebrate Pink Shirt Day at our assembly. It was a very moving and heart felt assembly that showed what a loving and caring community Gilmore is! Ask your child what part of the assembly they enjoyed most.

I am also including the link for the true story about how Pink Shirt Day started in Nova Scotia.  Please feel free to share it as a family to increase understanding of what we have been learning about here at school. 

Big Ideas:

  • Healthy communities recognize and respect the diversity of individuals (Social Studies).

First Peoples Principles of Learning:

  • Learning ultimately supports the well-being of the self, the family, the community, the land, the spirits, and the ancestors

Curricular Competencies:

  • Explore personal experience, community, and culture through arts activities

Content:

  • Personal and collective responsibility associated with creating, experiencing, or sharing in a safe learning environment

Core Competency: Social Awareness and Responsibility

  • I can build relationships and be a thoughtful and supportive friend. I can identify ways my actions and the actions of others affect my community.

Snowman Art Collage

January 8, 2026 / / 0 Comments

Before the break, the students completed a snowman art collage project. We are hoping for some snow soon! First, we learned to draw a snowman facing to the side using backward “c”‘s. We then learned how to mix paint from lightest (white) to darkest (dark blue) on a plate. We were trying to make our snowmen resemble the snowmen in the book we shared called, Snowmen at Night. The students loved mixing and creating their paint colours. Once the snowmen were dried we used many types of paper to create noses, hats, and scarves. We then used real buttons to make the snowman’s buttons. What amazing artists we have in Div. 13! Ask your child what they like best about their snowman!

Big Idea: Inquiry through the arts creates opportunities for risk taking

First Peoples Principles of Learning:

  • Learning takes patience and time

Curricular Competencies:

  • Explore elements, processes, materials, movements, technologies, tools, and techniques of the arts
  • Develop processes and technical skills in a variety of art forms to refine artistic abilities

Content:

  • elements of design: line, shape, texture, colour, form
  • principles of design: pattern, rhythm, colour and contrast

Core Competency: Creative Thinking

  • Creative growth requires patience, readiness to take risks, and willingness to try new approaches

Learning involved:

  • Students learned the significance of following step-by-step instructions in drawing the sideways facing snowman
  • Students learned how to paint the background using progressively darker colours
  • Students learned how to outline their snowman to make it “pop”
  • Students learned how to add paper  and buttons to finish their snowman designs

Gratitude Mobiles

November 21, 2025 / / 0 Comments

As a continuation of our learning about Orange Shirt Day, the students of Division 13 have been learning about what they are all grateful for with Ms Paulich during Indigenous Education lessons. She shared the story The Grateful Book by Angela Kohler and the students had a discussion about all of the things that they are personally grateful for. After brainstorming their huge list together, students then chose the words that meant the most to them. This lesson took place over many days, with the leaves being drawn, the “grateful” words being placed in the leaves, the leaves being painted with watercolour paint, the words being outlined and then the leaves hung on their sticks using pipe cleaners.  Ask your child which mobile is theirs and talk to them about all of the things you are grateful for. In addition, I am including the story that was shared, so that you can share it as a family.

Curricular Competencies:

Big Ideas:

  • Creative expression develops our unique identity and voice

Social Studies:

  • Use Social Studies inquiry processes and skills to ask questions; gather, interpret and analyze ideas; and communicate findings and decisions
  • Recognize the causes and consequences of events, decisions, or developments
  • Make value judgments about events, decisions, or actions and suggest lessons that can be learned

Arts Education:

  • Develop processes and technical skills in a variety of art forms to refine artistic abilities
  • Explore personal experience, community, and culture through arts activities

First Peoples Principles of Learning:

Learning ultimately supports the well-being of the self, the family, the community, the land, the spirits, and the ancestors

  • Learning is holistic, reflexive, reflective, experiential, and relational

Arts Umbrella Inservice Lesson

October 23, 2025 / / 0 Comments

On Tuesday, Division 13 had an amazing experience with the artists from Arts Umbrella. The theme for our art was Creatures in the Ocean.  Arts Umbrella had massive poster boards covered with real pictures of creatures from the sea. Sarah, the Emily Carr trained artist, taught us how to sketch the creatures using shapes. She spoke about filling our papers up with a variety of sea creatures. She also suggested that some creatures could be in the foreground and others in the background. She also taught us not to worry too much about exactly “perfecting” our sketches, as we could change them once we coloured them in. Like last week’s lesson in class for our art cards, we used pastels, but this time we used oil pastels.  Sarah also spoke about layering colours on top of each other and trying to colour in the entire creature, as we were eventually going to be painting over everything with watercolour (resist). We look forward to sending home the gigantic art next week once all of our paintings have dried (some students finished their watercolour painting today.) Our art turned out amazing and we were so lucky to have had this in-school art experience!

Van Go Arts Umbrella Learning Outcomes:

• Students will make connections between art as a medium to express self, feelings, ideas and experiences, and art as a vehicle for relationship-building with self, others and the world

• Students will create individualized art compositions on paper utilizing oil pastel and watercolour resist, symmetry and balance, and blending

Division 13’s Self Portraits

October 19, 2025 / / 0 Comments

Families: Posting photos has not been working for two weeks, so I am just now able to send you this post.

Our first art lesson involved learning how to draw our faces anatomically. We talked about different shapes of faces, eyes, noses and mouths. We did lots of practice and learning on white boards first. This allowed the students to have a growth mindset, to erase as much as they wanted and to try again. When they were finally given their large piece of paper to complete their final project, the students were much more prepared. Many of the students even fooled their parents with which one was theirs! Well done Division 13! Your self portraits look so realistic!

Big Idea: Inquiry through the arts creates opportunities for risk taking

First Peoples Principles of Learning:

  • Learning takes patience and time

Curricular Competencies:

  • Explore elements, processes, materials, movements, technologies, tools, and techniques of the arts
  • Develop processes and technical skills in a variety of art forms to refine artistic abilities

Content:

  • elements of design: line, shape, texture, colour, form

Core Competency: Creative Thinking

  • Creative growth requires patience, readiness to take risks, and willingness to try new approaches

 

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