St. Francis - PYP 3 Blog: March 2016

Monday, March 28, 2016

PYP 3 - How we express ourselves

Tuning in our new Unit of Inquiry:

How we express ourselves

People express ideas and feelings through
different forms of art.

We will be investigating about:

Different forms of art.
Ways in which nature is interpreted and represented.
Ways in which ideas and feelings are interpreted and represented.

Mrs. Wilson, the Secondary Art teacher visited PYP3 classes to talk about her artwork and how she expresses ideas and feelings through her work.
Following this, children had an opportunity to do an exercise listening to different kinds of songs. Through this exercise, she could provoke thoughts and feelings in the students and have them react to the artwork.

Mrs. Chacra, a mother who is an artist came to talk about Art History through a time line. She exposed to PYP 3 students some characteristics of Art work through different ages. Children were able to grasp an idea of how and when Art started to emerge as well as to change through centuries, influencing our lives until today.

Mrs. Chacra also shared her Art work, techniques she used in some of her pieces as well as her tools such as different kinds of paints, paper, fabric and frames.

“I see, I think and I wonder” routine

Children observed some pictures from famous painters to do their thinking routine.

Some of their question after observing and reflecting:

Is it night time?

Is this the painter that painted the sunflowers?

Is the boy crying because he is poor?

Does the sun shine in this place? Why is it so dark?

Is the boy sad? Why?

Why did the painters use so many different colours?

Did Monet paint in his garden?

Ana Clara's recount about the story "DEGAL AND THE LITTLE DANCER" by Laurence Anholt.

Carolina Park's story recount focusing on sequence of events.

PYP 3 Beta first week reflection:

"We are very excited with this new Unit! This first week was amazing and it made us think and wonder what is ART, the purpose of it an how people use and create art.

During Mrs Chacara's lesson on the history of art some of us questioned "Why did people INVENT art?"

Others answered:

"I think people FEEL something when they do art!"

"I think people are trying to SAY something, but instead of using words they use ART to say it!"

We had so many more questions and wonderings, but we also knew some things about the matter already. So we decided to get to work and organize our ideas and thoughts using the KWHL thinking routine. ...Check it out!

1) What we KNOW:

- We know that painting, drawing, sculptures, embroidery, sculpture, photography and writing are a form of art.

- We know that people use art to make things beautiful, to inspire others and to express feelings.

(how did they know this??? ...You will have to ask them, they just knew!)

2) What we WANT to know:

-We want to know if there are other forms of art beside the ones we know.

- We want to know if people use art for other purposes.

- We want to know why our art doesn't come out so good like the famous artists ...even when we try to copy them! (Even though Mrs Giordano assured us that our art work is beautiful, we are still not convinced, we need to discover by ourselves)

- We want to know what the artists do to create such beautiful work. What techniques do they use? Where do they get their inspiration? HOW do they make these paintings??? We NEED to find out!

3) HOW will we find out:

- We can read books about it.

- We can research in the internet.

- We can research about famous artists.

- We can talk to other artists.

- We can watch videos about the subject.

- We can learn by observing art.

4) What we have LEARNED:
(Stay tuned for future posts for this part! We'll keep you posted on our new discoveries!)

Easter egg hunt was fun!

We hope everyone had a lovely

Easter break!

On going reflection and action!

PYP 3 is still reflecting on ways to help the environment and our community.

Monday, March 14, 2016

PYP 3 Taking action!

It has been a very exciting journey through the road of inquiry for PYP 3!

Now our Unit 4 investigation is coming to an end and is time to put into practice what we have learned!

PYP 3 has begun taking action within their community and beyond!

Check out some of their action plans...

Students decided to start separating the trash in the classroom:

They begun saving used paper for collage and art projects:

They created art pieces and toys out of reusable materials:

PYP 3 Beta Students decided to write a letter to Mrs Hazell asking for the school to buy recyclable paper and get reusable cups for the classroom:

They also wrote a note to their parents asking them to buy recyclable paper for work and home instead of normal paper:

During this process they discovered that there are some renewable forests which are specifically designed for the production of paper and other products, and that using these products is sometimes better than recycled products as they don`t use up so much energy. They then decided decided to investigate if the paper the school uses comes from a renewable forest or not.

To their surprise the school uses paper made from 100% renewable forests!

Hurray for St Francis!!!

Children realized that most of their families were also buying this kind of paper!

Now their message to the rest of the community is:

"When you buy paper please look for this symbol!"

Students also wanted to go to the rainforest and tell people to stop cutting trees. They decided to send their message through the organization SOS Mata Atlantica and wrote a letter to them.