Explore Atlantic Canada!

As part of our Social Studies curriculum, we have been looking closely at Atlantic Canada and the landscape. Here is how I approached teaching the landscape through the arts....

Lesson 1 : Introduction
Discussion/mapping of where Atlantic Canada. Students will do a KWL chart.

Lesson 2: First Impressions
Teacher will print numerous pictures of Atlantic Canada.
Students walk around and observe pics. Students choose favorite pic. and stand by it, therefore, creating their work group. Using a sharpie and paper, students analyze the pic., writing down nouns and adjectives to describe what they see
Circle 5 nouns they feel most represent Atlantic Canada. As class, teacher lists nouns on chart paper.

Lesson 3: Inquiry into Atlantic Canada
Students rejoin group and ask questions based on their pictures
As a class compile questions and keep posted for reference throughout unit.

Lesson 4: Oil Pastel
Teach new medium: Oil pastels
Students are given B & W copy of their pic. and use pastels to color it in
Add any new nouns they noticed while doing this

Lesson 5: Descriptive Writing
Teach similes and do many examples
Refer back to list of compiled nouns
Using google, students search for Atlantic Canada images and paste into PowerPoint
Write a simile to describe the image
Discuss role of font, balance, complimentary colors and animation
Record students reading their simile
Refer back to original pic. and write similes about the landscape

Lesson 6: The Bluenose Schooner and other boats

As a correlation to our science unit, "Boats and Buoyancy" we started to look at various types of boats, and the construction of boats. Students inquired about boats using library books, videos and the internet. Our conversations led us into talking about the Bluenose Schooner - and it's importance to Atlantic Canada. It led to an interesting discussion about the dime and the location of the Bluenose on it.

After learning about the various parts of a boat, students used charcoal pencils and a grid to redraw the Bluenose. Emphasis was put into the actual design of the schooner, and art techniques of shading.

Transportation of goods by water and land were discussed and students role played the movement of goods by different forms of transportation.

Lesson 7: The MicMac and Acadia

We brainstormed about different types of boats, and one that was discussed with the canoe. This led us into a look into how the Micmac used birchbark canoes to travel. Students used butcher tape to make a canoe replica. We talked about how the Micmac traveled down the St. Lawrence River and eventually encountered early settlers. Students renacted these first encounters.

Lesson 8: Early settlers and quilting through fractions

Recreation time for early settlers were discussed and it led into the study of quilting and quilting bees. Students had the oppotunity to look at quilts and identify patterns and designs. This led us into a discussion on fractions. Students later created fractional quilt squares using halves, thirds and quarters!

Lesson 9: Atlantic Puffin

The students were excited to learn about the Atlantic Puffin. We read books about the Puffin, and listened to the Puffin on the internet. We looked at the work of George Seurat, who is a Pointilism artist. We talked about how we can convery shadow with dots. Students were given an outline of a Puffin and needed to use a Sharpie to shade in the Puffin. they turned out to be beautiful!

Lesson 10: Soundscape

This was really fun and involved a lot of creativity and collaboration for the students. We reviewed everything we had learned about the landscape of Atlantic Canada - rocks, fog horns, water, plants... We talked about what sounds they thought these features we would make (i.e. a rock may make a "plop") and then we discussed which of the features would be "loud" sounds and which would be "soft" sounds. I put a variety of instruments around the classroom and had students explore for at least a noisy 25 minutes with these instruments. We discussed "loud" and "soft" instruments. Students were then encouraged to become composers, creating a 20sec. soundscape about the landscape of Atlantic Canada. We had discussed how to create a clear beginning, middle and end - as well as having flow to their song. A truly fun and enriching experience!

Lesson 10: Conclusion

We read and learned about the art of Ted Harrison. We discussed his use of lines and colors and simplistic detail. We talked about what things would represent Atlantic Canada.

As a final conclusion to our unit, we wrote a song to the tune of "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" entitled: "Lobster, Lobster on a Dish". The whole class wrote the first verse together, and then small groups wrote the additional verses. We taped our song and played it for the school. Here are the great lyrics!

Lobster, lobster on a dish,
I wonder if you’re a fish?

Under the sea so deep and blue,
And it looks like you are new,

Lighthouse, lighthouse shining bright,
Guiding fishermen through the night!

Beluga, White tail, Orca whales,
Dancing with their giant tails.

Dairy, dairy, dairy cows,
Give me some milk I need it now!

There are lots of rocks out here,
Crashing waves are coming near.

Market, market sells so fast,
We have really good food at last!

The water is blue just like you,
Whales swim and they are blue.

Schooners, schooner floating away,
Rocking back and forth each day!

Lobster, lobster on a dish,
I wonder if you’re a FISH!!

Rock-A My Fingers!

I use this game as a fun way to review basic facts!

Discuss how students can move (we moved like animals and objects you would find in Atlantic Canada - ie. boat, seaweed, lobster...). Play music of your choice (again, you can tie it into a theme - we played "Great Big Sea" to correlate to our study on Atlantic Canada).

Students move as their object around the room while the music is playing, when it stops playing, they choose a person next to them and the teacher yells out basic fact sentences. The partners use their voices/fingers to see who is faster.

A really fun game!

Dancing Area and Perimeter

Finding Area and Perimeter:
This was an exciting lesson taken from the LTTA website.
Prior to the lesson, I used masking tape to make large geometric shapes on the floors.

Prior to talking about AREA and PERIMETER, we talked about what estimating and good estimating looked like. Students were given a partner and asked to decide who was the apple and who was the banana. They were to stand apart from each other and estimate how many crab steps, bear steps....it would take to get to their partner.
Students brought to the area and we talked about what an edge is.

I introduced the sound of a drum beating, and explained that they had to move in anyway they wanted, to the beat of the drum. When the drum stopped, they were to find a shape and stand on the edge of it. We did this a few times with varying drum beats.

Next, I introduced the sound of a triangle, and explained that when they heard this sound, they were to tip-toe around the edge of a shape. We did this a few times at varying lengths and beats.

Lastly, a shaker was introduced and they were told to try to cover the shape with their bodies when they heard the shaker. We spent about 20 minutes doing different arrangements of these 3 instruments.

We gathered around the rectangle and I told them that I was going to find the distance AROUND the shape by walking heal to toe with my feet. They made estimates, and then I walked around. We discussed how this is called PERIMETER and how my measuring tool was my feet. We talked about how somebody elses measurement might be different if they had smaller feet and what other measuring tools we could use. Students were then sent with their math scribblers to estimate, measure and record the various perimeters of the shapes.

After discussion, I asked students if they could think of a way to cover a shape. They came up with many ideas, such as using people sitting, standing, laying... We found the area of many shapes and discussed what AREA meant.

At the time, the students were working on stuffed 3D sea creatures (try to say that 3 times fast!). Before they could stuff their animal, they had to find the perimeter and area of the shape with a measureing tool of their choice!

This was a fun and effective way to teach students about area and perimeter!