Finding the Fine Arts in the Generalist Teaching World

This was a project brought on by a recent artist in residency helping the school with a fundraiser - Martinis and Masterpieces - and art auction organized by the school. During the residency, the grade 1/2 class collaborated to create this piece of art for the auction: In the classroom, students made curricular connections to the grade 2 Social Studies: Different Communities. Their personal art was meant to reflect a particular part of Canada (a prairie view, an ocean view or a city view), while echoing the style of art from the large fundraiser piece. The process included sketching different "views", playing with materials such as chalk pastel, tempera paint and watercolor pencil, brainstorming different views and engaging in a final composition. From an art perspective, students are learning about horizon line as well as foreground, middle ground and background. The pattern effect is created by using chalk pastel for the big sky, and tempera paint for the view. St...

This was a project brought on by a recent artist in residency helping the school with a fundraiser - Martinis and Masterpieces - and art auction organized by the school. During the residency, the grade 3/4 class collaborated to create this piece of art for the auction: In the classroom, students made curricular connections to the grade 4 Social Studies: Regions of Alberta. Their personal art was meant to reflect a particular animal from our beautiful province, while echoing the style of art from the large fundraiser piece. The process included research, sketching, playing with materials such as watercolor and tissue paper, sharing different techniques, and engaging in a final composition. From an art perspective, students are learning about contour, light and shadow as well as using multiple mediums for emphasis and symbolism. Students were encouraged to find a bust portrait of an Alberta animal and make several sketches, applying lessons from a group animal sketch. As ...

This was a project brought on by a recent artist in residency helping the school with a fundraiser - Martinis and Masterpieces - and art auction organized by the school. During the residency, the grade 3/4 class collaborated to create this piece of art for the auction: In the classroom, students made curricular connections to the grade 4 Social Studies: Regions of Alberta. Their personal art was meant to reflect a particular part of our beautiful province, while echoing the style of art from the large fundraiser piece. This was an example I looked at heavily with the students to see work from their age level: The process included research, sketching, playing with materials such as pastel and pencil crayon, brainstorming appropriate patterns and engaging in a final composition. From an art perspective, students are learning about contour, pattern as well as foreground, middle ground and background. The pattern effect is created by using a lighter color as a ...

Would you like to know more about the Fine Arts Council right here in the Calgary region? The Calgary and Regional Fine Arts Council (currently known as CARFAC) is looking for people interested in the following future events right in Calgary: Vertigo Theatre Wine and Cheese Night, March 21st, 2018 Gallery Walks in Calgary, TBA Mini Art workshops at the Esker Gallery in Inglewood, TBA Come join Calgary and area Fine Arts teachers to talk art or just have an awesome night out!  If any of the above events tickle your artistic fancy, please contact Aisha Ward for more information at: atacarfac@gmail.com

An easy lesson to use with Math, Communications, Science, Patterns….        I have used this to reinforce multiplication, addition and problem solving. I most often use it in my coding club to teach a bit more about how computers work and communicate. A student in grade five made the observation that, “because they are electric, they can only have open and closed switches, right? So the zeroes and ones are like open and closed?” For math, they have to solve the problem of: If your bracelet is __cm long,   how many letters can they have if the beads are _mm thick and there are 8 characters in a letter and there must be a spacer between each one? Consider the age of your students when deciding the size of beads you buy. Choose the colours that will represent your zero’s and   ones as well as a spacer. Write out the code you want to write. Use some Elmer’s spray adhesive to hold beads in place. Place ...