I love Gallery Day. Student work has been loaded on the Student Gallery Page; to see the mind-blowing creations visit the Student Gallery page. Here is just a sampling of the outstanding work from the past week:
I will add all to the work to the Student Gallery page by 3 pm today. If your child has work they would like to submit, please know I will accept work at any time, there is no deadline. The only reason I post at 3 on Fridays is to have as much work as possible revealed at once. I will however, add student work anytime after.
Please see the “Submitting Student Work” Page for more information.
Un grand merci to all those taking part. I love your work so much!
Today, let’s #getoutside and take a walk in the forest! Besides going for a walk, we are also going to hunt for insect fort supplies.
The insect fort built by friends in “Du Iz Tak” by Carson Elliis.
I’ve written an ebook for you to read together as a family, both in English and in French! The book will let you know what you need and what to hunt for on your walk. I would like to thank our wonderful EA, Mme Nathalie, for helping with the French translation.
One fabulous feature of Book Creator is that you can have a book read to you in any language. To have the French read to your child, follow the steps in the short video below:
Once you are home, organize your supplies into categories:
“Rup Furt” supplies gathered in the forest.
and start sketching out some fort ideas!
Think/Empathy/Question: What do insects need in a fort?
Design sketches help guide your ideas:
All great designs start with a plan! From “The Most Magnificent Thing” by Ashley Spires.
Iggy drew a bridge plan to help save his class in “Iggy Peck Architect” by Andrea Beaty.
Tomorrow we will gather recyclables from our recycling box and together with our forest finds, build something fun!
*Please note: All my ideas are merely suggestions. If a student would prefer building a fort from Lego, or from blankets and pillows, or Keva planks, or blocks, or just draw a fort on paper, it’s all wonderful and just as important.
If you would like to send me a picture of your forest finds and/or your design sketches, please do! Please see the “Student Submissions” tab a the top of the main page for more information.
The weather has been so beautiful over the last couple of weeks! Mother nature is begging us to go outside. Today, why not go outside and practice drawing the wildflowers on the sidewalk?
Image source: Coopet Photography
Don’t have any sidewalk chalk? No problem! How fun would it be to make your own with items you can find in the kitchen? Check out this DIY recipe here from Books and Giggles. All you need is cornstarch, food colouring and water!
I made my own sidewalk chalk paint from old chalk I had lying around the house. I followed the instructions from Rhythms of Play:
Mme Zibin’s old IKEA chalk
Following the instructions, I crushed my chalk in a Ziploc bag with a mallet and made some brilliant coloured chalk powder:
I turned old chalk into chalk powder!
I then slowly added water and mixed the powder to create lovely sidewalk chalk paint. It was really interesting to see how the chalk powder changed colours. The bright pink turned into a true red when I added the water.
My homemade sidewalk chalk paint!
I then loaded up my supplies and headed outside!
My tray of sidewalk chalk supplies is ready to go!
Sidewalk Chalk Fun
I found so many beautiful ideas online for sidewalk chalk art featuring flowers:
Image source: Coopet Photography
I love the idea of interactive chalk art!
Why not incorporate an inspirational message into your artwork?
I love the chalk message from some of our students at École Mount Prevost:
Notes of encouragement from our ESW students.
In my neighbourhood, today is garbage and recycling day. To continue with my theme of gratitude and thanks, I left a special chalk message for our North Cowichan sanitation workers:
Mme Zibin’s thank you made with her very own homemade chalk paint!
I had to work quickly because I knew my garbage would be picked up soon. When the chalk dries, I will go back outside and add some detail to my flowers. I also have two grocery deliveries today so the “thank you” will go a long way!
Today, get outside and leave something special for others on the pavement. I would love to see what you create! If you would like to share your pictures, please see the “Submitting Student Work” tab on the blog main page. Email me your submissions to me at dzibin@sd79.bc.ca. Gallery Day is tomorrow – I’d love to share your creativity!
I’ve posted three videos today: How to draw a forget-me-not flower (introduced species), a daisy flower (introduced species) and a dandelion flower (introduced species). You can follow along with one video or you can try them all! At the end of the post, I share how we can help spread kindness to others with our flower doodle art.
1. The Forget-me-not (le myosotis)
Mme Zibin found a Wood Forget-me-not in her neighbourhood.
In the first video, I show you how to draw a forget-me-not wildflower in doodle form. Bear with me — it’s the first how-to video I have ever made in my entire life and I made mistakes. However, mistakes are good; they are First Attempts In Learning (FAIL) and are natural when you try something new.
Click on the picture below to access the first how-to video:
In the second video, I show you how to draw a common daisy wildflower in doodle form. I found that my second video went a bit smoother for me and was easier to film than my first one. Yay to progress!
Click on the picture below to access the second how-to video:
In the third video, I will show you how to draw a dandelion wildflower (or weed, as some adults call it) in doodle form. I found that my third video was the easiest to make. However, I made a French mistake in the video and called a dandelion “le dent de lion” when it is actually called “le pissenlit”.
Click on the picture below to access the third how-to video:
Now that we have drawn all these doodles, what can we do with them?
Make Somebody’s Day Brighter – with Art!
In the story we read on Monday, Sidewalk Flowers, Tally gives little gifts of wildflowers to the people around her. Right now we can’t give as easily with proper social distancing, but we can still spread joy and happiness.
Signs I made of flower doodles to show kindness to others.
Using my flower doodles, I made a thank you sign for my mail delivery person:
My community mailbox with my floral doodle sign for the mail delivery person.
I made another sign for the people who delivers my groceries:
My grocery delivery cooler is a little more cheerful now with my flower doodle thank you sign.
Who’s day can you make a little brighter with your flower doodles? I’d love to hear who you shared your art with. I’d also love to see your art! If you would like to share your pictures, please see the “Submitting Student Work Tab” on the blog main page. Email your submissions to me at dzibin@sd79.bc.ca
I hope you enjoyed drawing with me! I will see you here tomorrow for sidewalk drawing.
Grab a camera or a some paper and a pencil and take a walk around your neighbourhood! Like the little girl Tally in our read aloud yesterday, see where you can find pops of colour and beauty in your community. If you can, document your finds with a camera or take some time to sketch what you see with paper and a pencil.*
Be Considerate
Picking flowers are a lot of fun, however when you are out walking, know your flowers before picking them. Refrain from picking any flowers native to our Island as many are endangered and a fragile part of our ecosystem. That’s why taking pictures of your finds is such a great idea! Picking dandelions, daisies and other introduced wild flowers is fine. In consideration of your neighbours, never pick flowers from someone’s property.
Mme Zibin’s teeny bouquet of introduced wildflowers.
Mme Zibin’s Scavenger Hunt Finds
With more time, I have been walking a minimum of 6 kilometres every day. I have found lots of unique flowers all around my neighbourhood and took lots of pictures. Do you know any of the flowers pictured below?
Now when it comes to actual sidewalk flowers, I only found dandelions and that’s alright! I am sad to say that I have lived in my neighbourhood for over 10 years and other than the daisies and the dandelions, I never noticed the other beautiful flowers in my community. Many of the flowers I found are introduced, meaning they are not from or native to Vancouver Island. However, many flowers I did find come from our beautiful island. Can you guess which flowers are native flowersand which flowers are introduced?
I learned the names of the flowers I found using the app Seek:
Here are the flowers I found all around my neighbourhood:
Common Stork’s Bill: Introduced; Native to the Mediterranean
Common Grape Hyacinth: Introduced; Native to Europe
Red Dead Nettle: Introduced; Native to Europe and Asia
Common Daisy: Introduced; Native to Europe
Oregon Grape: Native to Vancouver Island
Skunk Cabbage: Native to Vancouver Island
Wood Forget-me-not: Introduced; Native to Europe
Redwood Violet: Native to Vancouver Island
Henderson’s Shooting Star: Native to Vancouver Island
Dandelion: Introduced; Native to Europe
French: Dandelion comes from the French term, “dent de lion“. What does “dent de lion” mean in English?
I can’t wait to see what you and your family find on your scavenger hunt! I hope you had fun and were inspired to get out more to see what else you may find on your walks in the future. Flowers, just like everything else, change with the seasons!
*If you would like to share your pictures, please see the “Submitting Student Work Tab” on the blog main page. Email your submissions to me at dzibin@sd79.bc.ca
Welcome to our very first library lesson! Before we begin, I just wanted to explain two important points:
The password for Monday read alouds — or any read alouds for that matter – will always be the same. The password was emailed to parents by our school principal in a newsletter home Friday, April 10th. The password is also available on our school Library Learning Commons Facebook page. If you are still having trouble locating the password, please feel free to email Mme Zibin at dzibin@sd79.bc.ca.
If you would like to skip the daily lesson preamble or find the weekly lessons quickly, please visit the “Weekly Library Lessons” tab in the top right hand side of the main page. If you are on your iPad, you will have to turn the iPad to landscape to see the tabs.
How to locate the Weekly Library Lessons tab
Now let’s begin!
This week’s read aloud is the lovely story “Sidewalk Flowers” by author and award-winning poet JonArno Lawson. “Sidewalk Flowers” is a wordless picture book beautifully illustrated by artist Sydney Smith. Wordless? Don’t worry; I added my own story to share with you all!
Designed like a graphic novel, the story appears in panels. I had to read the illustrations really carefully to come up with the story! I also had the help of Melissa Rabbe, a student who did a project on the book and published her version on YouTube. I want to thank her for giving me direction for my version of the story.
From the back of the picture book:
“A little girl collects wildflowers while on a walk with her distracted father. Each flower becomes a gift, and whether the gift is noticed or ignored, both giver and recipient are transformed by their encounter. [Beautifully] brought to life by illustrator Sydney Smith, Sidewalk Flowers is an ode to the importance of small things, small people and small gestures.”
Questions to think about before, during and after the story:
How do Tally’s gestures of kindness make the recipient feel afterwards? Why do you think this?
How do Tally’s gestures of kindness make her feel afterwards? Why do you think this?
Making Connections: Have you ever surprised someone with a kind gesture? Why? Explain.
Find my reading of the story here:
Epic Books
If you would like to read “Sidewalk Flowers” on your own, there is a copy available on the reading platform Epic Books. If you would like your child to have a free Epic Books account until the end of June, please email me and I will send you an invite and add your child to my class. Epic Books also has a ton of French at different reading levels!
Mme Zibin’s page on Epic Books
Tomorrow’s Activity
Tomorrow join me for a Neighbourhood Scavenger Hunt! What flowers will you find around you? How can we share the colour and beauty with others?
We miss our students. We miss their smiles, their funny anecdotes, their brilliant ideas and the laughs we share together. To show our students and their families how much we miss them, our staff created a video message to offer encouragement during this time.
We hope our students know that their social and emotional needs are most important to their teachers. We hope we make them smile.
