Week 1 How We Express Ourselves 26 Feb - 2nd March

We have started our new unit of Inquiry 'How We Express Ourselves'. We will inquire into how

'People find artistic inspiration by discovering and interpreting nature'

Lines of Inquiry: Nature in the world around us, Ways our observations and inquiries our action/art making

Key Concepts:

Form: What is it like?

Connection: How is it connected to other things?

Reflection: How do we know?

Related Concepts:

Interpretation, Self Expression

Learner Profile:

Communicator, Open-minded, Reflective

Attitudes:

Appreciation, Creativity, Confidence

To start the unit, we had a grade 2 provocation (an experience designed to capture the students imaginations and ideas). They arrived into class to see a variety of items from nature on display. They wandered through the classes silently, exploring, touching, and smelling the items on display. They then chose one display or item that they connected with, and responded to it through art. They used their senses to reflect on the experience.

We learned about how during this unit we will be keeping an art journal as an ongoing record of our thinking, wonderings, reflections and inspirations. In this journal, we will respond through writing and art, try a variety of art forms and express ourselves creatively. This week, we began our journals. 

Our journal entries this week were:

*Developing our understanding of the central idea, and writing it in our own language

*Responding through paper craft and collage to this stunning video of snow forming.

*Responding using paint to flowers we had on display in class

*Pressing flowers

*Responding through poetry to a natural item of their choice

*Creating an inspiration board in lab...finding images from nature and reflecting on our connection to them.

We met as a grade level to come up with the success criteria for our unit. We ordered statements on a continuum of 'less important to more important'. We then put the statements into our own language to come up with our agreed 'I can' statements.                                                                                                                                                                                We will refer back to these success criteria regularly throughout the unit. They are set out on the 'creative cycle'. The I can statements towards the outside of each section is what 'expanding' will look like in this unit.

During the week, we began looking at ways artists use and connect with nature. We worked on verbalizing our understanding using sentence starters to guide us.

In Mathematics...we have been continuing to develop our understanding of the concept of multiplication.

In writing, we completed our narratives and had the opportunity to share these with the EY students on Thursday. They loved hearing our stories...and we loved sharing with them.

Wacky Wednesday - Come dressed crazily next Wednesday for this fun event planned by student council. Children do not need fancy costumes. They can wear their clothes backwards, odd patterns, funny hairstyle ... whatever!