Category: Art

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In this activity, students designed their own superheroes using only fruits and vegetables. Throughout the lesson students were required to use their knowledge of vegetables and fruits, as well as their imagination to describe their superhero’s physical characteristics and superpowers.

Students also learned that they need to eat five or six servings of vegetables and fruit every day and that vegetables and fruit provide us with the vitamins, minerals and fibre we need to stay healthy.

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On February 28, 2018, students from Div 8 along with their big buddies from Div 2 wore pink in support of Pink Shirt Day.  They also came up with these messages to encourage everyone to practice kindness and that together we can make a difference to help combat bullying.

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.

“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.

It is said that before globalization, these instruments could only be found in Africa and where African descendants lived. Therefore, the thumb piano or kalimba as we know it in the West, is a modernized version of its African ancestors.  Just like the xylophone, it is deeply rooted in the continent’s culture.

Many tribes, all across the continent, have developed their own unique thumb pianos over the centuries. Because the languages and cultures of these tribes vary so much, so do the names and traditions of their instruments.

Using wood, bobby pins and craft supplies Div 9 students along with other students of Twelfth Avenue Elementary created their very own versions of the African thumb piano.  Check it out.

Have you ever blown up a balloon and let it go? The air rapidly escapes the balloon making it fly away.

Students were challenged to harness this energy and design their very own car that could be propelled forward using a single balloon.

Engineering Design Constraints

1. The car must be propelled forward by the air escaping the balloon.

2. The car must be sturdy and not fall apart when in use.

3. The car must travel at least five feet.

4. The car must travel in approximately a straight line.

Materials Suggested

 Power: One latex balloon

 Car body: Plastic bottle, plastic cup, or cardboard

 Wheels: CDs, bottle caps, empty rolls of tape

 Axles: Wooden dowels, wooden skewers, plastic straws

 Other materials: plastic straws, hot glue, tape, paper clips, scissors, rubber bands

Math Connection

During the testing phase students were asked to calculate the average speed of their balloon cars. The equation they used to calculate the average speed of their car

was:

𝑎𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑔𝑒 𝑠𝑝𝑒𝑒𝑑 = 𝑡𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝑑𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒/𝑡𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒

Students in Div 9 have been learning to enhance their writing, making it more descriptive by adding adjectives. They did an excellent job using adjectives to describe their monster’s personality. They also did a pretty amazing job turning blown paint into some monsterous masterpieces.