Category: Language Arts

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Aaron Nelson- Moody led students through a guided session on indigenous art and storytelling.  Students learned about the significance of a house post and learned about the symbols commonly used in First Nations art and carvings.  They then had an opportunity to create a drawing of a salmon using the techniques demonstrated by Aaron Nelson- Moody.

Big Idea

Exploring stories and other texts helps us understand ourselves and make connections to others and to the world

Works of art influence and are influenced by the world around us

Engaging in creative expression and experiences expands people’s sense of identity and belonging

Curricular Competencies

Identify how story in First Peoples cultures connects people to the land

Explore a range of cultures, and the relationships among cultures, societies, and the arts

Parents/Guardians: When you have a moment please log on to your child’s blogfolio and provide your feedback on your child’s Remembrance Day poetry.

Lesson Overview

Big Idea:

Using language in creative and playful ways helps us understand how language works.

Curricular Competencies:

Recognize how literary elements, techniques, and devices enhance meaning in texts.

Use writing and design processes to plan, develop, and create texts for a variety of
purposes and audiences.

Transform ideas and information to create original texts.

Make ethical judgments about events, decisions, or actions that consider the conditions of a particular time and place, and assess appropriate ways
to respond (ethical judgment).

Lesson Overview:

For this project,students of Division 4 used Micrography (a Greek art technique using small writing) to form a self-portrait.

Big Ideas:

Artists experiment in a variety of ways to discover new possibilities.

Creative expression is a means to explore and share ones identity within a community.

Engaging in creative expression and experiences expands people’s sense of identity and belonging.

Curricular Competencies:

Choose artistic elements, processes, materials, movements, technologies, tools, and environments using combinations and selections for specific purposes in art making.

Interpret and communicate ideas using symbols and elements to express meaning through the arts.

During our first week back to school the Grade 5’s created this amazing mural to remind us all to be kind to one another.  The mural also showcases that positive actions no matter how big or how small do make a difference.

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Students of Division 9 recently harvested 342 potatoes that they’ve been growing and tending to since March.  They also prepared detailed presentations for our Strong Start students and their parents to explain the potato lifecycle and how to grow them. Students thoroughly enjoyed digging in the dirt and discovering different insects that decided to call our potato plants home. Once the potatoes were harvested each student took their own bag of potatoes home to enjoy with their family members.

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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.

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.

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.

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.