The Art of Chinese Writing

Art Inquiry Continued

Our Art Inquiry took an unexpected turn.  While focusing on watercolour painting, one of our students painted an image that reminded us of traditional Chinese writing.  The students were intrigued by this style of writing, which was the inspiration for our new table. 

The original art piece that inspired our new learning table.

   

The intention of this table was for students to explore, through their play, a variety of textures, colours and scents, while they strengthened and improved their fine motor development. Writing was also a focus at this table.  We provided students with an English alphabet sheet and a Chinese character sheet (which included matching pictures and English translations).  

Our table has been a huge hit with our students.  When we originally planned for our Art Inquiry, we never imaged a Chinese writing table.  It was the creation and interest of our students, and our own reflections about this inquiry, that led us in this direction.    

  

Our First Few Experiences With Skype

Recently, I introduced Skype in our classroom.  Though I was a bit hesitant at first, the overall experience has been absolutely amazing!  We have connected with Howard Binkow, author of the Howard B. Wigglebottom books, and my sister Laura’s class, our official Skype Buddies.  

Using Skype in our classroom has added another layer to our thinking and learning.   First and foremost it has been great to see our students get excited and make a connection with other children in the city.  Our experiences with Skype require students to actively listen, reflect and speak to each other in order to successfully communicate.  An example of this was when we read the book Sky Color, by Peter H. Reynolds with our Skype Buddies.  We challenged each other to paint the sky without using blue paint.  This task required the children to first listen to the story, then critically think about how to solve this problem, and finally present their images of the sky to their Skype Buddies. 

Using Skype has been a real learning experience for us.  We have learned that when speaking to others over Skype, a loud and clear voice is a must.  During our Skype chat with Howard Binkow, we had some technical difficulties accessing the animated books.  This ended up being a positive experience as it gave students the opportunity to see their teacher and Mr. Binkow calmly communicate to work through a problem and find a solution.

So far, we have used Skype to connect with children in our own city.  We look forward to using Skype to connect with other children around the world. 

Winter Inquiry

Our first day back to school after Christmas break was full of snowy fun!  After morning recess Ms. Marrella and I noticed a few new structures around the school yard (including inside the kindergarten yard).  We decided to take a closer look at these amazing structures with our students.

While the students were outside, their conversations focused on what the structures looked like, and how the snow and ice felt and sounded.   Later on that day we projected onto the wall a few images of our outdoor exploration, and asked the students to reflect on what they had discovered.

Our reflection prompted some students to ask a few questions about snow and ice.  We added these questions to our Wonder Wall.

The next day, we tried to answer these questions with an experiment. 

First, we filled an ice cube tray with toys. 

 

Then, we added water and placed
the tray outside for a few hours.

 

We predicted what would happen
to the water and toys.

Finally, our tray was ready to explore!

We couldn’t wait to touch the ice and toys.  As we were touching the ice-cubes, we noticed that the ice was quickly melting, but why?  One student realized that our hands were warmer than the ice, and caused the ice to melt.  What a brilliant observation! The students also observed that some pieces of ice broke into little pieces when they tossed it on the floor.   

Our observations.

After our experiment, one of our students wondered if all pieces of ice weighed the same.  This wonder led us to another experiment.  In order to find out if all pieces of ice weighed the same, we decided to fill and freeze an ice cube tray, gloves, a sponge (we had to soak it with water first), and an ice pack. We then make some predictions. 

It took a few hours, and two freezers to finally freeze the all that ice (the first freezer didn’t work!).  We decided to use our pan balance to weigh and compare all these pieces of ice.  We observed that not all pieces of ice weigh the same.  Some pieces of ice are heavier, some pieces of ice are lighter, and some pieces of ice are the SAME!  

Our Winter Inquiry has just begun.  We can’t wait to see where our curiosity will take us. 

The Art Studio

Dramatic Play Centre Transformation

Prior to the Christmas break, one of our students brought to school a piece of art that he created at home.  Ms. Marrella and I decided to display the art piece by the wall next to the classroom door.  As soon as we did this, we made two observations; the boy who created the art piece was very excited to have his creation on display, and students in the class were very curious about the art work (they questioned what it was, and the materials that were used to create it).   

Image of the boy's art piece.

Based on the interest the students showed towards this art piece, Ms. Marrella and I thought it would be a great idea to begin an Art Inquiry. We surprised our students by transforming their Dramatic Play Centre into an Art Studio. 

Our students were so excited to explore this new play area.  We have included some materials for our students to use and explore, and plan on introducing more materials/tools as the inquiry progresses.   Below are some images of our students exploring The Art Studio for the first time.

Our Art Inquiry has just begun.  We look forward to sharing our wonders and discoveries with you throughout this inquiry.