Construction begins

In our 4th workshop with Donnely this morning, we began construction of a wood sculpture that we will work on for the rest of our workshops. We began with some safety tips and we all wore goggles and gloves to protect hands and faces while we sanded down the rough edges of our wood pieces.

Next, we talked about balance and experimenting with different arrangements of the wood. We used carpenter's glue to attach all the pieces the way we wanted to. Our sculptures are now drying so that we can add smaller details next week. You can see the beginnings of the sculptures on our cupboards when you come for your interview.

  After recess, we had time to look back on our pastel and watercolour projects from last week. Each artist explained a little about their creation and we all got to appreciate each other's work. Donnely was very good at asking specific questions about each piece, and it was interesting how looking at our work brought up memories of other life experiences...

Today we also took some time to complete our November social skills challenge. This time, we worked in groups to complete a newspaper scavenger hunt. Each team had a reader, a timer and two more searchers. We used the newspapers provided for Remembrance day and found specific words, pictures, coins and dates. Every searcher is bringing home their own copy of this newspaper and would be able to point out some of the things they searched for.
During this task, students focused on working as a team, helping others or asking for help nicely and staying on task. Many children did well and were excited to get started. I did notice several students giving up easily when they felt the task was challenging. This might be something to talk about if you notice I've checked "usually" for Teamwork. The rubrics are on their way home tonight.

See you tomorrow or Friday!