We enjoyed a very artistic morning with Clay for Kids on Thursday! The students made a clay piece depicting sunflowers inspired by the art of Vincent van Gogh, and learned many clay techniques from our art teacher. After spending some time drying and being fired in a kiln, we get to add a colour glaze and bring home the finished products! This week we learned about the famous painting "American Gothic" which was painted by Grant Wood in 1930. We learned from Mrs. Schmaus about his life and the style of art he created called Regionalism wich involved depicting the people and the land in everyday life. Grant Wood drew and painted country life in his own style with smooth, blended brush strokes. In the famous painting "American Gothic," he first found an old farmhouse with an interesting window. Then, he asked his dentist to pose as the father and his sister to pose as the daughter. The class had so much fun with their art, using dog and cat characters to reproduce Grant Wood's art in their own style! Mrs. Schmaus taught us all about Georges Seurat and his most famous painting A Sunday on La Grande Jatte this month. He was well known for a technique called pointillism in which coloured dots are applied in patterns to form an image. The class collaborated to each recreate a piece of this art, and then combine it, exploring colour and pointillism. Their artwork sure turned out magnifique as Georges Seurat would say! Today we celebrated Dot Day in 3SB! Dot Day is based on the book "The Dot" by Peter Reynolds about a girl named Vashti who initially believes she can't draw, but later discovers that everyone can make a mark in the world. 15 million people in 181 countries are celebrating Dot Day this year, and we marked the occasion in 3SB by dressing up in dots, working on a dot art project, and reflecting on how we can all make a mark in the world after reading the book. You can see the book "The Dot" below. We had a meaningful, learning-filled, and fun time celebrating National Indigenous Peoples Day today as we participated in some special activities and games. Students learned about six important symbols or items for many First Nations, Métis, or Inuit people, and we got to make art and challenge ourselves in a scavenger hunt around the school. We also went on a walk to the Participark to spend some time in nature and check on the tree seeds that we planted on the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. We were so lucky to learn about and celebrate Indigenous culture today!
We finished off an amazing week at the Winspear Centre with some math, architecture, construction, and an organ demonstration! This morning we planned a pretend budget for a visit to the Winspear including tickets and concession which made for some great math conversations! Mr. Wiley gave us a very special tour of the Winspear's construction site, and then the students created blueprints for their very own planned Winspear addition! Perhaps the unanimous highlight of the day was an organ demonstration. We learned all about the incredible 6,551 pipes on the Davis Pipe organ, how it was constructed, how it works, and we got to hear "Ode to Joy" on the organ. At the end of the day we created a time capsule of our Sound School memories that we'll open when we're in grade four. It's been an incredible week, and it's definitely left an indelible mark on the students! It was another full day at Sound School! We started the morning off hearing the ESO rehearse a piece called "Torque" by Canadian composer Gary Kulesha which had lots of dynamic range (as Miss Stephanie taught us) and similarities to some of John Williams' Star Wars music. It was so fascinating to watch the symphony practice and refine a piece, and their performance was very impressive! After watching the ESO in the Concert Hall, we became art critics and reflected on the many interesting art pieces around the Winspear Centre. After doing a little tour of the Citadel, Canada Place, and the Edmonton Convention Centre, we competed in a scavenger hunt in the afternoon. We ended the day playing music on a pump organ!
We were all over downtown Edmonton today as part of Sound School! We started off the day exploring different instruments from different orchestra instrument families, and students even got to play the violin and accordion. We saw a graduation taking place in the Concert Hall today, and also had a tour of the incredible Stanley Milner Library from librarian Jasper. We learned all about the art of Alex Janvier and his very special art at Rogers Place, and then we performed a choral reading about his art when we visited the actual mosaic piece at Rogers Place. Of course we had to visit the Wayne Gretzky statue while we were at Rogers Place as well!
We had a day full of learning and fun for our first day of Sound School! We learned a new song, explored the Concert Hall, enjoyed Churchill Square, heard all about Dr. Francis Winspear and his legacy, examined the fossils and building materials in the lobby, worked on some Concert Hall estimation and multiplication, and evaluated different seats at the Winspear (the very tippy top Gallery was perhaps the most popular spot). Miss Stephanie took great care of us as we learned, and we can't wait for Day 2!
In addition to the museum this week, we were lucky enough to visit the Art Gallery of Alberta thanks to the help of our wonderful volunteers! Students investigated some important elements of art, and visited gallery spaces to discover how artists tell stories about places in their artwork. The class was fascinated with the amazing building, and it felt special to see famous and important pieces of art.
We were so lucky this week to watch a special performance of Jack and the Beanstalk by Alberta Opera! There were songs, jokes, and surprise endings, and the set of the musical performance was very impressive too. It was fun to see an interesting twist on a classic story!
Happy Mother’s Day! The students were thrilled to take home their Mother’s Day poems this past week that they had worked so hard on. Thank you to all you fantastic 3B moms, grandmas/nanas/omas, aunts, and other wonderful women who love these children so very well!
A talented band and choir from Weyburn, Saskatchewan visited our school this morning for a very special performance. It's neat to see how far the musical skills we're learning at school with Mrs. Davies can take students a few years down the line!
​This week the students drew invertebrate animals that they then painted with watercolour and tempera paints. We had learned about iridescent insects and used that learning to paint our invertebrates with bright, eye-catching colours. You can even watch below to see some art made by invertebrate animals and check out some more science-inspired art here, here, and here
With our learning about Peru recently, we’ve been talking a lot about the importance of llamas to the culture and economy. This week we made art based on the bright contrasting colours of Peruvian textiles and the llamas that live in the Peruvian mountains. We learned about shepherds and Inca traditions with llamas, and the students did lovely job depicting the llamas and textiles! We Juno Award nominee Mary Lambert visit to sing some songs with us today! Mary Lambert is a family singer, songwriter, performer, author, and outstanding Canadian artist and she has performed well over 3500 shows throughout Canada. The school enjoyed her funny songs and opportunities for active engagement in the concert! Today we made illustrations of snow globes in art class. We learned about the history of snow globes, and the students had fun making creative choices about what to fill their snow globes with. They turned out great! Students had to be extra careful because they drew their outlines in marker, and you can see their excellent focus in the photos below.
Today we got to make some very fun chalk art with Mr. Cherry! The students had a blast drawing themselves on the tarmac, and the results were almost life-like as you can see. We sure have been enjoying all the opportunities that this warm fall has afforded us!
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Mrs. BarkerMrs. Barker is a grade three teacher at Millgrove School. She loves science and reading, and lives in a little brick house with Mr. Barker and her kids Jack and Ellie. Archive
April 2024
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