Tag Archives: Creativity

Favourite Things

When you ask people about their favourite things, you hear about more than an object. You begin to understand what they care about, what gives their lives excitement and purpose. Often these objects connect them to other people and their community. These things don’t tell the whole story of someone’s life, but they act as symbols that give you insight into what makes them tick. An object is not someone’s identity, but taking time to notice it can help you appreciate their unique qualities.

Today is Orange Shirt Day. We’ve learned about the consequences of trying to erase the identities of Aboriginal children in Residential School in past decades. Taking a young girl’s treasured orange shirt from her is a symbol of that assimilation.

We conducted short interviews to find out the significance of objects to who we are. Take a look at some of our favourite things and read about their connection to our identity, below.

If you are a visitor to our blog, tell us about your favourite thing, from now or when you were younger, and why it is significant to you.

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A Little Outdoor Art

Take a fence, take some wool, add some creativity and you get… well, a woven fence.

Hands at work.

Symmetrical weaving.

Take a look at Huzzahnians at work:

It was a bit challenging at first to figure out how to work with the wire of the fence. I find it fascinating that students arrived at such different techniques in their weaving. Some incorporated natural elements, too.

Have you ever done any weaving? Would you try a project like this? Thank you for commenting!

Something Old, Something New

Our year is coming to an end. Not old exactly, just complete. Full of satisfying memories and great learning.

One treasured memory of the year is the writing, composing, and making a video/slideshow of our new school song. With the help of our talented music teacher, Jenn Forsland, and local (Juno Award nominated!) musician, Helen Austin, we wrote a song that we leave as a legacy to our school. We are pretty proud of it–please give it a listen. But a warning: it is a bit of an earworm:

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Poem Found in the Woods

(We are really fortunate to have the beautiful Lazo Woods right behind our school. We went out on “solos” to find poetry–record our observations and inspirations–and later, to read in the woods. Each student submitted just one favourite line in the poem below–in order of their last name. Even though the lines are random, the poem has unity.)

Dark green
The board shimmered not black, but evergreen

The humming wings of the fluttering bee
Soaring raven

Dandelion seed lightly flutters down through the breeze
A shadow moves through the forest

The sun is so bright you can close your eyes, face the sun and still be blinded
For a tree cannot stand alone

Boulders poking up from under the moss and dirt
The bright sunlight gleaming through the trees
Green moss crawls up the trees

Baby raven oh so fun waiting for it’s mom to come!

The forest is a quiet place to work
Pushed aside the cedar grows lonely

Trees tower like city buildings
The forest gets older

The sun peeks through the swaying trees.
Big bugs buzzing
Leaves glowing like emerald
Sun peeking through the trees

Twigs crack, birds sing, the story of the forest silent, until you listen
Salal covers the forest floor like a carpet

Each tree tells a story, each stone starts anew

Me and My Shadow

The Huzzahnians not in Band are in Art class with me–take a look at our latest project inspired by this teacher’s class.

We’re Cooking with Gas!

Cooking with gas is a favourite idiomatic expression of mine. It means you’re on fire–full of enthusiasm–efficient–getting things done.

And we are! The student blogs are loaded with great writing worth reading. These bloggers have only been at it for a month, but I think they are really getting the hang of it, don’t you? (By the way there is a lot of great reading beyond the posts listed here–take a gander, read a little or a lot, leave a comment, leave some more…but I digress.)

There’s something here for everyone (student names are linked to the post):

Are you interested in penguins? Do you know the difference between crows and ravens? Colt and Chelsey are experts.
And more on birds–Mya shares cool facts about owls.
Turtles, too. Jared has deep knowledge to share.
Are you a sports fan? Read about Bekkam‘s love of hockey and Colton‘s latest soccer goal.
Are you a skateboarder? Kyle, Jordan, and Jackson have reviews for you.
From rap to a capella, Sophie‘s got the history of music.
Want a little Halloween fright? Read Kehana and Summer‘s blogs.
Family pets? Reece is a fan of gerbils and Kenzie has dogs, cats, and chickens!
Do you want to remember the summer? Travel to Italy with Julia.
Have you done something that made a difference? Read about Tristan‘ s efforts.
Are interested in Minecraft? Max dishes the dirt on the latest 1.9 release.
Like TV shows? Nic tells you about his favourite.
Want a dose of creepy? Tommy has a post that will curl your toes.
Are you hungry? Try a yummy dessert on Caitlyn‘s blog
Looking to try designing video games? Griffin as a great post on Stencylworks.
Find out about Charlie‘s favourite book, Brianne‘s first books, and where Mara likes to read. Oh, and read all the other Me as a Reader autobiographies on the student blogs.
And of course you want to read some great monster stories with ink monster art by Dylan and Jack (and the whole gang–just look).

You can cook with gas, too. Read, think, comment!

image: 3D Frozen Flame – 2D friendly! by bufivla

Zoom Out

When I first saw the film below (and we called it a film, and it did wind reel to reel), I was in Mr. McGuffin’s Grade 5 class. It blew my 10-year-old mind. I still find it such a compelling translation of our understanding of the universe, such as it was in the late 1960’s. It is a wonderful device, that zooming thing.

So I got quite excited when I read about Zoom Posts from Dragon on Miss Wyatt’s Student Blogging Challenge blog. How clever! How fun! To make this creative commenting game work, you need to play by the simple rules:

Choose an image. (Creative Commons licensed and attributed, of course, if it is not your own photograph). Think of an image that is a starting point, something from which a viewer can move back to see more of the story.
Invite your readers to “zoom out” of the the scene to reveal what else they imagine is also a part of the story.
Commenters are obliged to read previous comments and carry the storyline is a sense-preserving way.
If you’d like a great example of how the story can evolve, check out this one about a Dr. Pepper can and this one about a keyboard.
Make sure you tag your post Zoom Post to make it searchable, and link to the Student Challenge blog.
And yes, you can comment on your own Zoom Post–but leave room for your readers, too!

So readers, what is the story here? Update! The tale is now told–Read the exciting of saga of Molly and the Chocolate Cake–now closed for comments as we have reached the end of the story!

Image credit: Miniature Dollhouse Food -Three Layer Cake by Stephanie Kilgast

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