Finding the Fine Arts in the Generalist Teaching World

Join us in Kananaskis! The annual Fine Arts Council Conference is being held in beautiful Kananaskis Alberta from October 20-22, 2016. This is a great opportunity to take advantage of ATA PD funding in the Fall! Out theme this year is "Journey With The Fine Arts: Creating Your Story". We have another great line up of sessions in all subjects areas, including Greek Theatre, Viking Knit, Voicestra and Story Through Dance just to name a few! As well, we are honored to hear stories and song from this year's keynote speaker, Jeff Stockton, award winning recording artist and accomplished celtic harp musician, storyteller and speaker. Please make your hotel booking at the Delta Lodge At Kananaskis through ATA code ATAFAC16. Registration for sessions will be up and running within the next week. Stay tuned on the Fine Arts Council website for more information to come! CLICK HERE TO BE TAKEN TO REGISTRATION SITE.

Well what a year! Things are wrapping up around Elbow Park School with a plethora of celebrations of learning. I was privileged to help the grade 5/6s with their parent evening and museum exhibits, as they shared their garage band spoken word songs, bird of flight art and macro photography. Please let me know if you are interested in a sample of these Garage Band compositions and I will fire a few out to you as well as complete lesson plans! Any advice you need on using the Garage Band program, and I am happy to help! Grade 3/4 had a lively afternoon as parents strolled the hallways looking at photo journals, plaster cast petroglyphs and listening to a variety of interesting sound compositions, such as "In The Attic", "Medieval Battle" and "A Day At The Beach". These sound compositions are also available to anyone interested in hearing more about this project and complete lesson plans. Grade 1/2 just had their celebration of learning this afte...

Have you every noticed those wooden fish lashed to a chain link fence? Well, the project comes from a very environmentally aware program called Stream of Dreams. Stream of Dreams Program is one in which schools can bring watershed awareness to their school community. Stream of Dreams is an environmental art project that aims to change behavior and teach how we affect our watersheds. Children attend a 45 minute science workshop, followed by a 45 minute art workshop. The Science portion talks about rivers and streams and their connection to storm drains. The art portion is woodworking and painting colorful 'dream' fish to contribute to a mural. The fee is $10 per student and free for staff, with materials you need to get organize and started, though some volunteers will be required to prepare the fish for painting and mounting. You will need a woodworking volunteer for this project! They recommend a minimum of 100 fish in order for the mural to resemble a stream. For m...