Artist In Residence Part 2

We seek to ‘engage’ children whenever teaching a new concept, reviewing old ones, or simply ensuring they are ‘with us’ while the instruction is going on.

Activities such as the ‘hands on’ approach taken when you are working with clay products really seems to ‘engage’ the students as many of them have never had the opportunity to do something like this.  To say that having our Artist in Residence has been a resounding success would be an understatement.  This has been a RESOUNDING success.

The first visit with our artist is to get your design into order.  From butterflies to masks and everything in between, ‘variety’ has been the watchword over the course of this week. If there was a testament to the importance of Fine Arts in our schools, this exercise is one that truly demonstrates the need to expose students to more of the same.  Mrs. Ellis provides a risk free environment where it’s okay to make mistakes, fix them up, ask for help, try something totally different and then start all over again.  The finished products, once painted, decorated and ready for showing, will be the topic of another entry but I’ll let Danica’s piece below speak for itself.  I think she had a pretty good time.

“Today we went to the Multi-Purpose Room and did clay.  Mrs. Ellis, from the Fine Arts School, was here to show how to do clay.  I had so much fun that my head nearly exploded!  Everywhere there were whatchamacallits, doodads, and clay.  It was a mess!  I think that you could think that a bomb went off in there!  Anyways, we’re back to our class and today is a library day so we will be featuring new books!”

Now THAT sounds like this kid was engaged.  Another great benefit of this program was the involvement of our parents.  So many of the classes benefited from having their moms or dads there to help them out.  It was a great ‘family time’ for many of the kids and we even had buddy classes helping each other out.

I’m looking forward to the finished products in the very near future.  Hmm, who could we bring in next?

What Happened At School Today?

As parents, we’ve all asked this question and, more often than not, received the ‘Nothing’ answer.  Well, I’m here to tell you that there are literally hundreds of things going on every day, all the time.  Below is a written ‘snapshot’ of what I saw when I walked around the school this morning. It truly is amazing how diverse things are at any given time.

In the gym, the gymnastics equipment is set up including, but not limited to, mats, vaulting box, climbing ropes, climbing wall, balance beam, and cargo net.

In the Multi-Purpose Room, the earlier reported on Artist in Residence continues her clay work with incredibly enthusiastic students from all classrooms.

A grade three class is listing off the many different signs of spring.  An amazing array of descriptive words and ‘child view’ observations.

Another primary class is finding words to replace ‘said’ in their writing, turning their journals, creative writing, and other activities in to a ‘NO SAID’ zone.  Remarked, whispered, yelled, screamed, muttered….

The library was buzzing with students reading, exchanging, and searching for books.

A kindergarten class was listing the many different ways numbers can add up to 10 and making some pretty astute observations about the patterns involved.  2 + 8 = 10 AND 8 + 2 also equals 10.  Amazing!

A grade two class stumped the principal with their riddles about Canadian animals.  ‘I have white stripes, live in trees, and eat nuts’.  Hint:  It’s not a zebra (bad guess, Mr. Village).

Another primary class was enjoying centres time, reading, computers, kitchen centre, lego blocks, writing, painting, drawing, counting, ….

A grade four class was journaling about their favourite thing.  From poutine to water skiing, the writing activity was in full gear with some focussed work being done.

A grade three class was also journalling but this time, it was about their clay creations  done the day before.  Lots of descriptive words graced the whiteboard and some of them had a TONNE of writing!

The grade fives were heading off to PE but had just completed a lesson on Alliteration. What wise and wonderful workers were writing without worry.

Finally, I popped into a room that, at first, I thought was empty.  Lights out, quiet.  Only when I saw a fireplace blazing away on the SmartBoard did I notice students sitting, lying down quietly, totally absorbed in the book that was being read to them by the teacher.

‘What happened at school today?’  Plenty.

Artist In Residence This Week

We are lucky to have Bev Ellis in our building for this week, working with all the age groups and developing creations in clay.

It’s quite fascinating to watch the students work with their hands, trying new ideas, reflecting on their work, and then starting all over again.  Not unlike true artists!

What’s also kind of neat is to see the teachers and parent helpers get into the mix and get their hands dirty helping to facilitate the creative process.

Once the art is all done and ‘fired’, I’ll take some pictures and share with you the creative wonders spurred on by the creative minds of young children.

Happy New Year

As we head into 2013, there are always things to think about, plans to make, and resolutions to create.  Mine was to get back to a routine of writing each day, reflecting on the events of the past 24 hours, and sharing things that happen in our building.

Sadly, this is being written on January 15th, so I’m already two weeks behind in my writing, reflecting, and sharing.  Happily, I’m very good at catching up on things and determined to stick by this resolution.  Even more happily, I am also determined to do my ‘other’ blog, ‘It Takes A Village’, and also get it up to date.

‘From The Principal’s Desk’ is more about the school stuff, what happens here and why we do what we do.  Truly, there is no shortage of things to write about.  From the kindergarten ‘cute’ factor to the entertaining antics of our grade five students, the material is out there, it’s just a matter of going out to find it and making the time to write about it.  Like exercise, developing habits and ensuring there is time to write are the keys to successful writing.  I made a promise to Mrs. Hiebert’s class to write more every day.  Let the writing begin!

Best wishes to everyone for a happy, successful and safe New Year.

The View From Up Here

     October has appeared and is in full bloom all around us.  The crunch of crisp, new fallen leaves echo through our playground at lunch and recess.  The drive along Old Yale Road looks a little like a snowplow has moved the leaves off to the side, clearing a path for vehicles.

With the weather changing from minute to minute, downpour to sunglasses weather, the warmth of the ‘Pineapple Express’ to the chilly reminder that we are nearer to November than to July, it’s a great time of year.  It’s fantastic that the kids get to play outside, sometimes in shirtsleeves, sometimes with umbrellas.  Our great view from the playground is a constant reminder of what a wonderful time of year it is and how lucky we are to live in such a great place.

 

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