Art, Science, Social Studies: A Post in Pictures

Dear Parents,

The Getting to Know You Self Portraits are down and went home today in Zippies. The Picasso-Frankenstein self portraits are up. Students layered profiles on top of face outlines and added details like eyes, hair, ears, mouths, and teeth to create these. I love how individual they are. 

I have been impressed by the students interest and engagement in science. About half of the energy presentations got to go today. Here are some of the toys that use energy that students made with their parents:

Airplane

Guitar

Drums

Wind turbine car

Bongos

Wind up elastic car

A butterfly

A kite

A windmill

A guitar

A cork boat

The Good Ship Yebin

Finally, I posted on Friday about some of the books we've been reading in class. This one asks children to imagine a world where anything is possible. We're using it as inspiration to make our Canadian flags for Remembrance Day.

 These books are stories based on Native myths and legends. Storm Boy and Frog Girl have particularly beautiful illustrations and are based on Haida stories and art (though not by a Haida artist).

This book is about a Native Canadian's residential school experience and was brought to us by Mr. Eloi. We're discussng some of the differences between the roles and responsibilities of teachers and students at Residential Schools versus our own school.

Ella-Jane's dad touched base with me today regarding books on the residential school experience --I think this is the list he was talking about: 10-books-about-residential-schools-to-read-with-your-kids. 

There's some really great middle grades books on there that I've used in Grade 5 and 6 to really get into these issues with students, but Grade 1 is a whole new world for me. Do you know of a great resource dealing with the viewpoints of Aboriginal peoples? Please do let me know. 

We've been talking about Native experiences and perspectives in particular as part of our Social Studies unit on Roles and Responsibilities. It's so important to give students a sense not only of the history (the treaties are mentioned every day on announcements) but also of the contemporary issues and perspectives that different groups deal with in an ongoing basis. 

Sincerely,

Lisa Goegan