January 2021 Newsletter

“…The Atelier had to be a place for the individual (or collaborations) exploration of projects…a place for researching motivations and theories of children from scribbles on up, a place for exploring variations in tools, techniques, and materials with which to work.”

Richland Academy

Yarn and Water Colour Art Process Art
Good morning,
It is so hard to believe that we are already in January and heading into our colder weather and second term. I hope that you are enjoying a restful and joyful winter break. I have appreciated having so much time for hiking and plenty of space in my days to read, write and draw. Due to Covid restrictions our family has become skilled with virtual visits and have moved from indoor gatherings to family walks. I am so grateful that our children live close by. 
This month the children will continue with many of the now familiar learning frameworks like Counting Collections, Writing Workshop, Shared Conversations and Story Play. Our offsite program will be dependent on parent volunteers so please let me know if you are available. 
Our math program will continue to include playful exploration with composing and decomposing numbers to ten, oral counting to 20 and skip counting also to 20. In December the children began to show their mathematical thinking during Counting Collections using a graphic organizer. We will resume this work in January working towards accuracy with larger numbers. 
While the children will continue to learn about themselves and each other we will begin a study of family beginning with similarities and differences. If you have not yet sent a family photo it is not too late to send it in. This study will be integrated into story play, art and mathematics.
I am excited to share that our learning team of five teachers have received an art grant to deepen our professional knowledge and understanding of Process Art in an elementary classroom.  Process Art is art that is child-directed, choice-driven, and celebrates the experience of discovery. In process art, the final product is always unique and the focus lies in the creation of the work, not the outcome.
This will enable our learning team to grow their understanding about children and art while providing your children  with access to quality  art materials.  I also received some funds from the school and ordered acryclic, water colour and paint sticks for the school art room. While our team will have access to the grant, I  will be attending the February PAC meeting to ask for funding for art supplies for the school so that all students can benefit.

If you have some small shaped pasta in your kitchen
cupboard I am looking to add some to our art studio. So far I have elbow, spiral and mini tubes and would love to add more variety for the children We will dye the pasta some fun colours using water colour paints and food colouring.
I hope that you have enjoyed my little videos of your children in the classroom or forest. I have been honing my skills and feel better prepared to continue with this in January. 
Finally, we have a new student, Daniel, beginning on January 4th. His family recently moved to Nanaimo from Alberta. 
Thank you, enjoy the final few days of your break.
Mrs. McCaw and Mrs. Hilland