Famous Snowmen!

Well, our snowmen aren't exactly famous ... yet! But we're pretty certain they will be soon! For the month of January, our bird's eye view snowmen will be featured on a special bulletin board at the Strathcona County Library!

We had such fun this week creating our bird's eye view snowmen!

However, the project started in a boring manner. 

Very.

Very. 

Boring. 

Mrs. Beliveau asked everyone to draw white snowflakes on white paper. Hmmmph. Not exactly exciting, now is it?

However, soon the boys and girls were "ooooohhhh-ing" and "aaaahhhhh-ing"! Using watercolours, we were able to make our snowflakes appear, as if by magic! 

As our watercolours dried, we set to work on our snowmen. Using pastels, we traced the three balls of the snowman's body and used our fingers to smudge the pastels inward. 

After Mrs. Beliveau hot-glued the three snowballs together, including a little stack of cardboard in between to make each ball "pop" out, we were ready for the next step ... details!

Noses, arms, buttons, scarves, eyes, eyelashes, and even a set of kitty ears were added to give our snowmen personality!

Look how charming!

Tomorrow a lady from the Strathcona County Library is coming to share some winter-themed books with us, and will gather up our snowmen to post at the library. Be sure to head to the Strathcona County Library in the new year to see our kids' famous snowmen! They'll be there all January!

Project inspired by Ariel View Snowmen at tinyartroom. 

Share the Good News! The Christ Child is born!

This year's theme across our school division is Sharing the Good News with Joyful Hearts! What greater news to share than the birth of our Saviour, Jesus Christ!  

Today, the wondrous story of the birth of our King was re-told using beautiful prayers from the book "The Twelve Prayers of Christmas" by Candy Chand. Prayer and song was interwoven as the story of Jesus' birth was shared. 

The boys and girls in our class played the parts of the animals in the stable; the sheep, donkeys, cows and doves who were present that special night. We sang a peaceful song about the animals in the stable when Jesus was born. 

Jesus, our brother, kind and good,

Was humbly born in a stable rude, 

And the friendly beasts around Him stood,

Jesus, our brother, kind and good.

Our little "friendly beasts" were amazing. Absolutely radiant. From initial rehearsals beginning last month, to full costumed run-throughs yesterday and today, their consistent effort and energy was remarkable. 

Here are some special memories from concert week:

Many thanks to the patient mom who ensured our costumes were "up to snuff", and to the boys and girls in Grade 1, who captured the essence of the birth of our Saviour, Jesus Christ! This week marks the second week of Advent. Throughout Advent, we have been discussing how we are preparing our hearts for the arrival of Jesus. Students are encouraged to take time to pray and find ways to share kindness with others.  May your families be blessed with peace and joy this Christmas season!

Snow Day? Our fault!

It was our fault. 

We're pretty certain we caused last week's Snow Day. Whoops!

We had spent the week dreaming about a big dump of snow ... and then BOOM, piles and piles of snow arrived in Ardrossan! 

This is how it all happened...

Mrs. Beliveau kicked off the week by reading one of her favourite winter books, Dream Snow by Eric Carle. 

In the book, a farmer falls asleep and dreams his farm animals are covered by snow. The book has transparent pages with white "snow" on them. When the clear pages are lifted, we see the farm animal that was hidden under the snow. So clever!

We got right to work creating our own snow-covered animals, complete with clues! The boys and girls were dreaming of snow! Here was the criteria for our project:

In super-sneaky silence, the students wrote spectacular clues describing an animal of their choosing. Mrs. Beliveau's socks were completely knocked off by the complete sentences the boys and girls were writing nearly independently!

Then it was time to tackle the illustrations! Students drew their animal on a snowy landscape. 

Finally, we added a transparent page over our illustrations and got to work adding snow.

Look at the final product! 

Can you guess the animal that is buried under all that snow?

A baby chick!

The projects are complete and they are fantastic! So much for us to be proud of! 

Now the children will self-assess their work, based upon the initial criteria. This helps the students celebrate their successes and look for ways to improve as writers and illustrators. 

Come enjoy our bulletin board and see if you can guess what's hiding under all that snow!

And we apologize if our dreams of snow caused that big blizzard! 

Project inspired by Christina Bainbridge of Bunting, Books and Bright Ideas.