North of Ordinary

I really enjoyed the North of Ordiary assignment that we did in class. I have always enjoyed using my imagination and I loved the chance to use stretch my artistic skills. I had actually been planning on doing some artwork with pastels so that assignment came at the perfect time. I know that I used to love art and drawing when I was in elementary school, but when you get out of the habit it is easy to lose the passion for them. I have really enjoyed getting back into the habit of being artistic! I also really like how we had to join our north of ordinary drawing with someone else's and create a new picture. My picture consisted of a princess and prince in a castle. I partnered with Carly and she had drawn and map that had a desert in it so we combined our worlds by drawing my princess and prince riding on a camel in her desert. I think that this would be a great activity for children because it teaches them to compromise and collaborate with each other. Art shouldn't always be an individual effort because it can get students to interact with each other in new ways. I will definately take this lesson with my when I go into the elementary schools. (I also plan on getting the drawings on here soon)

"Canada in my Pocket" by Michael Mitchell

I thought that this song would be a great way to integrate music in with the social studies and language art curriculum. In grade 5 students talk about Canadian symbols such as the maple leaf or the queen and this song talks about a lot of that. You can also get the words so the students can sing along. This could be followed up with a lesson and numerous activities. I think that the song actually corresponds with a newer literacy unit that is available to teachers. Using this video would also be a great way to use technology in the classroom. I am not much of a singer and I think that this would be a great way to get the students singing in the class. It is interactive and it could be a lot of fun!

Emily Carr Website

Follow this link for the webiste:

http://www.virtualmuseum.ca/Exhibitions/EmilyCarr/en/index.php


I found this wesite on Emily Carr when I was doing research for my unit. It is a great resource for teachers, as it has lesson plans, biographical information and pictures of her work and life. I am planning on doing a lesson about her work and I found this site very helpful, so I recommend it! She does a lot of great paintings of landscapes and it is also a good way to integrate aboriginal content as she uses a lot of totem poles and similar themes. I think it would be great for teaching brush stroke techniques in painting as well.

Bollywood Dance

I thought that I would include this clip as well because it shows a form of dance from another culture. Some students may be familiar with Bollywood and some may not. All types of dance should be encouraged and in order to do that students must first become familiar with those differnt types.

So you think you can dance, No Air

This is a video clip from one of my favorite shows. I am not a very talented dancer, but I absolutely love to watch dancing. These two dancers, Katee and Joshua were actually my favorites from the season. I think that this show is inspiring to many dancers out there and it gives many of them a shot at getting seen. I think that this could be something that students would connect with because it is familiar and it shows how amazing dance can really be. Introducing Joshua or one of the other guys from the competition might even give that extra motivational push to boys who might not be as enthusiastic about dancing. It shows that there are lots of different types of dancing and no one form is better than the others. I hope you enjoy the clip.

French Bullentin Board for Animal Habitats

This bulletin board was created by myself, Allison, Rod and Meg. It was for our French class and it depicts four different animal habitats and the animals that live in each. I found this project very fun to make even though it was a lot of work. Everything was made from hand so there was a lot of colouring and cutting and pasteing. All of the animals are removable as they are attached with velcro. The bulleting board is interactive as there are worksheets to go with it. Overall, it was a great way for me to explore my artistic abilities and to see the results when my I apply my creativity!