Arts Alive: Activities and Projects

The activities and projects highlighted on this page are only a small representation of the many projects underway in our schools.

 

 

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Living Sky Mural Project

 

                                   

 

This project was conceived and created by Marg Parkinson (NBCHS) as a way to bring us together as a newly amalgamated school division. Schools were asked to create an interpretation on a mural panel which would represent their school community. Each panel is unique and celebrates our diversity; and each panel is connected to represent our strength together. The mural will tour to schools in our division, and then will be permanently displayed at Central Office.

 

 

 

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Don Freed: Metis Singer/Songwriter in Residence

 

                                                

 

Don Freed, award wining Metis singer/songwriter, taught songs, told stories and got to know the community at Connaught School. After speaking with a Metis elder and listening to the stories of the students, they wrote a song together called "The Fiddle and the Sash". The week long residency was exciting to be a part of - especially for the Honor Choir. Don Freed was so impressed with their singing, he has asked them to come to Regina to sing with him at the national conference "Crossing Boundaries" in May 2007. They are even talking about creating a CD together. Some members of the choir worked with the Arts Education consultant to create a video about this project.

 

 

 

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Art on the Air: a Provincial Online Artist in Residency Project

 

Maymont School, grade 7 & Faith Struhan   Maymont was one of only ten schools selected to be a part of the  Online Artist in Residency project with artist Heather Cline. Students follow a curriculum guide for projects, and participate in satellite broadcasts with the artist twice a month for four months. We were able to provide support and materials to assist with this special project.   Other elementary classes are also participating in special online one-time classes with Heather Cline.

 

 

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"Clowning Around: Building Confidence through Collaboration"

 

 

Crystal Gilbert, Unity Comp. and Sherron Burns, Arts Education consultant, collaborated on a Collective Creation project with grade 9 students. They examined"confidence" and how it is fostered through: time, collaboration, building trust and having faith in the skills learned and rehearsed. Students created clown characters and short plays to perform for their peers in the school. Clown masks from mixed media were created following the performance.

        

 

They were accepted to present their project at the "Crossing Boundaries" National Conference in Regina in May, 2007. Click here to see the Crossing Boundaries conference documentation (including an interview with Sherron Burns and photos from the sessions).

 

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Grade 9 Arts Education:   Cariacature portraits in a comic style will be used for a Pointillism painting assignment. This is an example of the photos taken for each student. You can see how comfortable they have become through the process of clowning.

 

 

 

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 Living Sky Art Exhibition

"Crossing Boundaries: Seeing Through New Eyes"

Schools from across the division entered student artwork into the exhibition for May is Student Art Month.  The show was held in the Chapel Gallery in North Battleford for the month of May. It was a lovely exhibit and highlighted the exciting projects and teaching going on in our division.

 

                     

 

 

 

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Mentorship & Team Teaching

 

McKitrick Community School - grade 5 & Megan Fransoo These students learned about drama, and how to create characters for their scenes. Ms. Fransoo is a new teacher and interested in learning more about drama.	Medstead Drama Club - Mr. Schneider wanted to try something new. We got started on a Collective Creation and they took their play to the Regional Drama Festival for the first time. They were awesome!	NBCHS Film Club - we meet once a week and talk about films, learn new skills and share ideas. They are trying out various forms of film and experimenting with techniques.	Connaught Grade 7 We tried out different drama strategies and exercises using my mask collection. New to Arts Education, Mr. Nichol was looking for ideas and support.

 

Grade 7 students from Connaught worked on a collage project after studying the work of artist, Romare Beardon. Students tooks pictures of themselves and their community to prepare for their own masterworks. Here are a few images:

 

 

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Comic Life: a Collaboration Project

Doris Fennig's Grade 2 students at Lawrence School created their own comic books with a program called Comic Life.  Students first wrote their stories (in small groups), brought in props, took digital pictures, downloaded their images and created a comic book on the computer. This was a project collaboration between the Doris Fennig and the Living Sky consultants: Sherron Burns (Arts Education), JoAnne Kasper (Language and Literacy), and Donna DesRoches (Learning Resources).   Click here to see what the students have done with "Comic Life".

 

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 Arts Alive Resource Box

 

The Arts EducationTeacher Leader Committee selected an exciting array of materials to support teachers in their work teaching Arts Education. Each Elementary school will receive a complimentary box of books, CD's and DVD's in Visual Art, Drama, Music and Dance. The boxes will be delivered to each school in the Fall '07.  A series of "Exploration Workshops" will be offered through the year to complement the resources.

 

 

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