Month: February 2018

Students were shown a picture of Kandinsky’s concentric circles.  They were then asked to explore concepts of colour and how it relates to emotion. Examples were: What emotion do you associate with red? (anger, embarrassment etc.) What emotions do you associate with blue? (sadness, loneliness, calm) What emotions do you associate with yellow? (happiness, contentment, warmth) etc.  They were then given a sheet that had multiple hearts on it and asked to creatively express using colour how they were feeling. The results are quite stunning.

In celebration of National Literacy Day student from Div 9 along with their big buddies from Div 2 created their very own literacy equations after reading This Plus That written by Amy Krouse Rosenthal.  The book provided inspiration to help students come up with their own fanciful equations on literacy. Some examples they came up with were “book + quiet space = reading”, “writing + music = song writing,” and “reading + writing = literacy”.

After reading The Day the Crayons Quit written by Drew Daywalt and Oliver Jeffers students compiled their own letters to the main character from a crayons perspective.

In this story Poor Duncan just wants to colour. But when he opens his box of crayons, he only finds letters, all saying the same thing: We quit!  Beige is tired of playing second fiddle to Brown, Blue needs a break from colouring water, while Pink just wants to be used. Green has no complaints, but Orange and Yellow are no longer speaking to each other.

Students all came up with their own humorous conversations around why they quit as they expanded their knowledge of writing as a tool to communicate effectively for a variety of purposes and audiences.

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This week Div 8 and 9 students removed the mulch from our garden of daffodils.  Many of them were surprised that the daffodil stems have already pushed through the soil and are preparing to bloom.  Over the coming weeks students will track and document the growth of the daffodils, review the life cycle of daffodils, and investigate factors that can enhance or hinder growth.

“Life is a rainbow road, multicoloured with the most brilliant hues and contrasting with the darkest tones.”  Ted Harrison

For more information on Ted Harrison visit: https://tedharrison.ca/pages/about

During this lesson students acknowledged that we reside on the traditional ancestral shared territory of the Coast Salish Nations of Musqueam, Tsleil-Waututh and Squamish.  Students also learned that there are three main groups of Indigenous people in Canada: First Nations, Inuit, and Métis.

Before reading Little Bears Vision Quest written by Diane Silvey we also discussed the importance of stories and how they are an integral part of Indigenous culture. Students learned that stories are not just for entertainment but they are told to teach lessons and these lessons typically focus on ways to overcome a struggle, how to change attitude or behaviour and how to be the best person possible. In this particular story Little Bear learns to be kind, thoughtful and respectful toward others after being banished to a remote island.

After listening to the story students then created these bear paws to represent the qualities that make a good friend.