Grade Four: Another Transition: How the World Works to How We Express Ourselves

Last Friday, illustrator Ross Kinnaird shared his artwork and skills with us, as well as his sense of humor. Although we have not ended our inquiry into energy, it was a good opportunity for the students to get started with the next unit, How We Express Ourselves.

Thanks, Mr. Brittain, for the photo!

During the unit, children will analyse and create visual art. In order to prepare for Ross Kinnaird's visit, some of the fourth graders responded to a poem that felt funny, cozy, and comfortable by experimenting with some of the elements of art (line, shape, color, space, value, form, and texture) to create a similar effect in an illustration:

Some of the fourth graders also had the opportunity to analyse art that has strong connections to the next unit's central idea: Creating and responding to art develops understanding of ourselves and the world around us. Using knowledge gained during the Rights, Responsibilities and Rules unit about social issues, the children observed artwork by graffiti artist Banksy and artwork by Pawel Kaczynski, recording their connections and other observations beside the artwork:

As part of How the World Works, children prepared for the summative task by experimenting with electrical circuits. Although they made simple circuits earlier (noting how energy is stored and transformed), using other energy output devices and batteries to create various series circuits and parallel circuits was an enjoyable challenge.