The Cycling Giants

After a long brainstorm session in the park, we voted "The Cycling Giants" our clan name. We also welcomed Hermmy - the hermit crab - to the family. Here are some highlights from the past two weeks:

Journey to the Moon 
We visited Gallery TPW to see the animated short film Journey to the Moon by William Kentridge, the South African artist. The film is a direct response to the 1902 Voyage dans la Lune by Georges Méliès', also shown in the gallery. We observed that Voyage dans la Lune is a little sped up and that everybody in it wears a funny hat! Some of us liked Kentridge's film better and some of us liked Méliès's better. Kentridge is famous for his use of charcoal drawings in his animated films. As a tribute to Kentridge, we used charcoal to put in drawing what we felt from seeing the show.

From 1902

From 2003

Chinese Moon Festival Celebration
Last Wednesday was the Chinese Moon Festival (also know as the Mid-Autumn Festival). On Tuesday, we took the TTC to Chinatown, in hope of buying two hermit crabs so that Hermmy doesn't get too lonely. Unfortunately, the pet store was closed! Instead, we learned to make wishes by throwing pennies into a pond facing away from the pond, we bought some nut-free moon cakes, and said "xie xie" ("thank you" in Chinese) to the lady who sold "little eggs" to us. We didn't like moon cakes all that much, especially not the egg yolk in the middle, but we all really enjoyed the story of the Moon Lady!

Beginning of Fall - Canning
Last Thursday, we learned about food preservation and tried our hands at making salsa! Unfortunately, only the teachers stayed late enough for the canning process. But, it's more important that we'll have lots and lots and lots of salsa for this winter! 

We had lots of tomatoes and peppers to wash.

Cutting open tomatoes ain't easy!

Nora took care of the red peppers for us.

We took turns grinding salt and pepper.

Don't forget about the tomato paste!

We took turns stirring, too.

Finished!

September's Main Themes: Community Building, Our Neighbourhood, Little Portugal"

Last week, we got to know each other and got to know the routes to the studio. We also started working on our sketchbook covers, visited MOCCA (before the exhibit was even opened officially!) and played soccer in Trinity Bellwoods with our friends from Dewson Afterschool!

For this first month, we will focus on community + community building.

GOALS

a) create a caring, supportive, inclusive culture

b) familiarity with + appreciation for our neighbourhood + Little Portugal

This week we will be setting out our group agreements. A collaborative brainstorm with ideas of how all the kids think we should treat other people will be able to be summed up to these agreements that we will go by during the year:

Universal Rights: Freedoms of expression (including the right to pass), safety & happiness, of every person, plant + animal.

Respect: Accepting everyone and everything's uniqueness and avoiding harm to them (people, plants, animals and things they all create).

Appreciation: Recognizing and acknowledging qualities and contributions to celebrate in everyone and everything around us.

Care: Putting care in everything we do (listening, speaking, playing, making, etc.) and when interacting with others.

We will also work on decorating our homebase, sketchbooks and art boxes, as well as take neighbourhood walks to local galleries and explore Little Portugal.

A typical day will look like...

3:30
Pick Up/Snack/Playground/Circle Time
4:30 - 5:30
Activity (Music, Drama, Art, Dance, Nature Walk, Sports, Etc.)
5:30 - 6:00
Pick Up/Free Time