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'The Art' in our Grades 4-6 Fine Arts Academy

 Our Fine Arts Academy is off to a great start. The schedule is sometimes a little different, but at this time the students have music twice a week with art and drama once a week. The teachers are flexible during this rotation so sometimes the students have 2 classes of drama or art instead of music, depending on what they are working on. 

This post will focus on Art. Specifically, on a mask making project. 

Step 1: the messy task of making the mask. It was an interesting, yet strange scene to come upon - students lying on desks, prepared to be 'masked'!


And the messy process ...









Step 2: Sketching the design of the mask. 




Step 3: Based on the design sketch the students recreated their ideas onto their masks. 





Step 4: Students reflecting on the process - 3 things I learned, 2 things I like about my work and 1 thing I would like to do differently.
The work was displayed for all of the school to enjoy!





I had a chance to talk to a couple of the students.

Ben said he thought the process was rewarding because it took some work to get his mask completed. He told me he learned how to use plaster, "you know, the stuff they make casts out of".

Hally learned that it doesn't matter what the shape was to begin with and, upon reflection decided her design was way too hard and she didn't like the colours she used.

Abby realized that not everything has to be perfect and she can try again to make it better. 

Nixon liked the detail he put into his mask. The inspiration of the design was from an example Mrs. Dion showed of a Chinese mask - he liked the yellow and red colours along with the weird shapes like dots and swirls. He's decided he does not like painting very much because "you can't erase it like pencil"!

What a great project and students were engaged and developed some skills of design and learned how to reflect on their learning. 

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