Barbara Reid - Inspiration for Our Plasticine Art

You can link to her website here. Scroll doown to the bottom of the page to see work from students as well as watch her videos and get some project ideas. We used Prang Modelling Clay and a piece of stiff cardboard to work on.  Starting with the background, layers of plasticine are placed on top of each other to create the picture. We are pretty pleased with how they are turning out!

    

The 50th Day of School

We made it!  Today is the 50th Day of this school year.  We worked on various activities to strengthen our number concept.  

  

 We also slowly ate the 50 snack that we brought from home, working on subtraction as we went. 

 We reflected on the last 50 Days of School and set goals for the next 50.  

 Happy 50 Day!

We Remember

During the week November 5 - 9, the Grade 2 class completed several activities in honour of Remembrance Day.  

Mrs. Gillander was the substitute teacher in Room 21 one day and she shared her artistic talents with us to help create the stunning bulletin board display.  Cupcake papers were cut and painted for the petals and brads were used to hold them together.  Watercolour paints on special thick paper made a beautiful background. She also had a "Peace" stamp that set off each artwork perfectly. 

We had been working on a list of vocabulary words that relate to Remembrance Day and traditional parts of a service to prepare for our school's annual assembly.

Several children's books with amazing illustrations had helped further discussion and understanding of the topic. 

Learning resources supplied by Veterans Affairs Canada  were used in class and sent home to continue the conversation and reflection at home. 

The Grade 12 class led a program of music and information as a finale to Veteran's Week.  We will remember them. 

Outdoor Classroom Day

November 1 is known throughout the world as Outdoor Classroom Day. Reston School's Grade 2 class along with Mr. Schiltroth's Outdoor Education class took the opportunity to explore the Reston Memorial Park and learn about some of its features. A Scavenger Hunt saw the students in pairs and threes looking for information on the interpretive signs and recording it together. Although it was a little rainy, the students had a great time and learned about our own Outdoor Classroom!

 

Artist in the School

Reston School was pleased to have Dimitry Malman visit for a week to instruct us in Mosaics through the Artists in the Schools program.  We learned that making a mosaic takes time and patience.  

We learned how the large tiles are cut and nipped into small pieces and then everyone made their own picture or design on a square of pre cut plywood.  Next, masking tape was applied over the top of all the work so it could be lifted off in one piece to glue it down to the plywood later. 

The glue reminded us of white icing and we needed to put pressure on the pieces to be sure they were well stuck in.  The next day, we applied the grout, which reminded us of chocolate icing!  We needed gloves to wipe and polish the grout off the places it didn't belong and then let it set up.  

Next we used acrylic paint around the sides and then decided on a title for our Art Piece.  Then they will be on display in the hall later in the week!

Balloon Day!

As a wrap up to our Science Unit on Matter, October 22 was dedicated to the properties of gas with Balloon Day!  Too start things off, we talked about some things they would like to find out using helium and regular balloons along with some other materials that had been provided.   

 Then the experiments began!  Some students used vinegar and baking soda to create a gas that could blow up a balloon while others tested how much a helium balloon could lift. Later on in the day, some students tried building balloon powered lego cars and rocket balloons with a piece of string. 

We had read the Robert Munsch story called Where is Gah-Ning? last week and we wondered if 300 helium balloons could really carry a person away! A number of other Science books gave more ideas to try with balloons.   Rubbing them to make static, twisting and tying them to make different shapes and letting the air out slowly were all self- directed experiments that the students tried out.  It was great to see them working together and helping to solve problems. 

Writing descriptive words was next and we will use these words to make sentences later in the week.

It was a fun filled and educational day in Grade Two!