Telling Stories through Art

It is said a picture is worth a thousand words.  We believe the same could be said for a piece of art or a particular artifact.  In working with our Artist in Residence, Miss. Lisa, we set out to tell stories of the past though two unique creations.

In our study about Calgary's history, we discovered that history is compiled of stories, and that the history we come to know depends greatly on who is telling the story.  Knowing that the story of this place began long before Calgary became a settlement, we believed it was important to include two stories, two perspectives and two ways of representing our learning.

Inspired by the stories of the Blackfoot First Nations of this region, we made traditional rattles that included a symbol of Aboriginal cultures.  Some display a sun, a medicine wheel or a tipi.  Others include a significant animal such as the buffalo or the turtle. 

When we learned about the first settlers of the prairies, we read many stories that helped us get a sense of what life would have been like before electricity, television and computers.  We wanted to tell the story of the past using materials and artwork that would be authentic to that time period.  Our first project was learning embroidery.  Lots of adults thought it would be tricky for us because our fingers are so small but we showed them that these little hands can do great things!

We chose a word that represented the stories of the past and embroidered this word, along with a picture, in our own embroidery hoop.  They turned out to be so beautiful, we decided to hang them in the hoops just the way they are!

Our final project was a collaborative piece of art - a quilt.  Each person in our learning community  created a quilt square using scrap pieces of material.  The images on the squares represent different parts of history that have helped to make this land, this place and this city what it is today.

Telling stories through art was a great experience.  It helped us to understand how stories of the past impact the present and can affect the future.  

Stampede School

Stampede Park was our classroom for an entire week and we loved every second of it!  

We learned so much about Calgary's agricultural history and the people who helped to make Calgary the city it is today.  

We met so many interesting people, visited so many amazing places and experienced so much.  Here are some of the highlights:

Stampede School Classroom

Meeting Cream Puff, the miniature horse.

Meeting Molly and her horse, Dubey. 

Drumming with Elder Leo.

Trolley ride around the park and up to Scotsman's Hill. 

Journaling in the infield. 

Aggie Days!

Elder Shirley showing us Fancy Dance.

Sketching

Meeting Doug.  He's a chuckwagon driver and a judge!

Visiting the Grain Academy

Meeting Mr. Foley and riding the lift onto the stage of the Grandstand Show!

There are so many wonderful memories.
 We were so full of gratitude to everyone who helped make our week at Stampede School so special!  

hiSTORY

"Study the past if you would define the future."

~Confucius

We began to explore the story of this place, our community, and the people who have helped to make it was it has become - the city of Calgary.  We wondered though, what was here before this place was Calgary?  What stories lived on the land long before the first settler built his home and the town began to grow?  

There were many different beliefs about the past:

"I think it was a desert with no trees and all sand."

"I think you would have seen mountains and lots and lots of grass."

"I think there were cowboys living here."

"I think there was just nothing but land."

"I think there were First Nations people living here."

Looking at the word history itself we noticed that it has the word STORY in it.  What is the power of story in history?  Does history change depending on who tells the story?  How can we learn from stories of the past?

After researching Calgary's past as a city and locating old photographs, it soon became clear that there were two perspectives, two cultures, and two experiences in the shared history of this land we live on.  One perspective being that of the Blackfoot First Nations who lived on this land long before Calgary was a city, and the other of the first pioneers who settled this land in and around the urban community.  

We loved learning about life in Blackfoot territory, the traditional ways of knowing, the stories and songs of generations, and the strong sense of community of these people.  We represented our learning about life "before contact" in a variety of ways including building, visual art, and storytelling.  

The buffalo continued to appear in our research of the First Nations and their traditional way of life.  We were fascinated by the many ways the buffalo provided for the Blackfoot people and were disturbed to learn that they were almost hunted to extinction by the Europeans who moved into the prairies.

"Why did the Europeans kill so many buffalo?"

"Why couldn't the Europeans live the way they wanted to and 

let the First Nations people live the way they wanted to?"

"Why did the Aboriginal people have to stop using the land?"

These were only a few of many insightful questions classmates in our learning community wanted to find answers to, so that we might better understand the relationship between these two groups of people and their cultures. 

We explored the story of Treaty 7 and the people who were involved in the agreement.

We thought Chief Crowfoot was a smart guy!  We also thought that some parts of the treaty seem unfair and that there were definitely pros and cons that came from the contact of two very different cultures.  

After contact between the First Nations and the North West Mounted Police, we learned that the Europeans wanted people to move to this part of Canada to start farming.  There were advertisements sent far away trying to convince other people to come to the prairies.  It was pretty cool to realize that some of these early pioneers who came on the train to Calgary were our ancestors! 

 After so many stories, pictures, discussions and other learning experiences we were so excited to go to Stampede School to learn more about the history of Calgary and the important role the Calgary Stampede has had in our city for over 100 years! 

Once Upon a Memory

What is a memory?

"A memory is something that sticks in your brain and heart and you always remember it."  ~ Neala

" A memory is something that has always been inside you and you will always remember it until you die because you remember something for a very long time."  ~ Daniel

" A memory is something you remember from a long, long time ago that is very special to you.  It could be a very sad memory, a very happy memory, a very excited memory - any kind of memory!"  ~ Eisy

The book Once Upon a Memory by Nina Laden inspired us to write lists of our favourite or most meaningful memories.  We loved the sweet illustrations (they look like The Quiet Book!) and how the author reminds us of what once was and how the past helped create what was to come.  

We watched clips from the movies Up and Inside Out.  This helped us decide what makes a memory a "core memory"; one that has an emotional impact, affects change and helps to make us who we are. We shared our memory lists with our friends, categorizing our memories into groups that included family/friends, school, new learning, firsts and change.

After our sharing circles, we noticed that many of our memories were similar to our friends.  Our memories not only seemed to fit into certain categories but many were very similar to each other.  We thought about this question:  If you could only choose a few memories from your life to share as part of your personal story, which would they be?

To organize our ideas in relation to this question, we began to develop personal timelines.

Like little historians, we used a graphic organizer to sequence the core memories of our lives in chronological order.  Each memory had a story to go with it - usually attached to a specific emotion or important moment of change. 

Coincidentally, the Grade 5/6 community was also talking about memories and had even watched the same clip from Inside Out that we did!  It was a perfect opportunity to share our work with others.  The older students asked us some great questions about the stories behind the memories and why we chose the ones they could see on the timeline. 

As we continue to learn how stories of the past affect the present and the future, our understanding of timelines and the moments in time that shape a person will help us to understand how they impact entire communities and cultures.  

"If history were taught in the form of stories, it would never be forgotten."
~ Rudyard Kipling

What's Your Story?

Everyone has a story and that story matters.

We have been exploring the different parts of our own personal stories.

What words would you use to describe your life story?  We used magazines to search for these words and added them to a silhouette of our face.  We wrote lists about who we are, what we can and cannot do, our likes and dislikes and the people who matter most in our lives.

 

Using the list of loved ones, we created a family tree and told our family stories.  It was so interesting to find out where our friend's families come from!  Some families have stories about moving from other places in Canada and around the world.  We learned about different family traditions and shared our favourite family activities.



We also learned about the story of our name.  We talked and wrote about why our parents chose our name and what the meaning of our name is.  Many of us were named after someone close to our moms or dads - a relative or a close family friend.  A couple of our friends were named after characters on television!

One of our favourite activities was creating a heart map, showing all of the things that take up space in our hearts.  We read the book My Map Book and used it as inspiration for our own creations.



Who we are, who we love and what we experience makes our story unique.
When we remember that everyone has a story of their own, our interactions become more compassionate, tolerant and gracious.

Building a Bug Hotel

As the autumn weather began to get colder, our concern for the small crawling and flying creatures of the school garden sparked an idea.  What if we could make a winter home for the insects and arachnids to use as protection during the cold winter months?  

The task posed an exciting problem to solve and we got to work on blueprints right away.

During the design process, many questions came about the materials we would need and the needs of particular invertebrates.  We decided to search for a local entomologist who might be able to answer some of our questions.  Dr. Swann from the University of Calgary wrote us back and gave us lots of useful information!  Below is a copy of the email we received (his answers are in blue):

Can we make the hotel out of sticks?

Yes,  make it big enough to put lots of leaves in to act as insulation. Insects use things like leaf litter like we would fibreglass insulation.  
How will our bug hotel attract the insects make them want to stay inside?

Insects will want to hibernate in a dark and cool place, they will find it if you put it outside along the edge of the building where leaves tend to naturally accumulate
Will we need a door?

No just an opening of some sort that will let them in but not so big that the leaves inside blow out
How big do we need to make it for all of the bugs that need to fit inside?

I'm not entirely sure because I've never made one either but I'd suggest about 30cm cubed
Where do they prefer to sleep?  

Insects prefer someplace that is dark and slightly moist --they don't want to dry out nor do they want to wake up too early because it is warm. So they want things cool but not extremely cold eg.
 -20C is too cold
What kinds of beds do they need?

Dry leaves and grass are great because of the insulation value
Do they need water?

No because they will mostly be hibernating/sleeping for the whole winter but they also don't want it to be bone dry.

Do we need more than one room inside?  One for the invertebrates that get along and one for the creatures who eat each other?

No you don't because most insect that use your house will be hibernating.  Insects that don't hibernate are very neat.  You might want to look up 'rock crawlers' on the internet.  They are native to the rockies, love the cold, running around in the space between the ground and snow all winter and are one of the few groups of insects I've never caught.  My goal for this spring is to catch some when they start running around on the top of the snow when it starts to melt in late March/early June in K-country (you have to have collecting permits to catch insects in provincial and national parks and I have one for out there)

To begin the building process, we worked in small groups to build prototypes out of cardboard.  Each group explored, tested and retested the stability of their structure, as well as its potential to meet the needs of various invertebrates and their winter behaviours.

 Most of our groups decided to make separate rooms for different species.  We also added natural elements to our models which makes the structure easier to camouflage and more inviting for the small creatures to use.

These are some of our reflections about designing and building our models:

"It was easy to decide who was going to do what.  
It was not easy to tape it together. I had fun." ~ Ivy

"First I made the instructions to the bug hotel.  It didn't really work out.  
Everyone did different things and it was difficult for me.  
I made an elevator for slugs and snails even if they are icky. 
 It's a bug hotel!" ~ Xander

"I learned that insects need to be on different levels.  I also learned bugs have to be in different rooms.  It was fun when we painted! ~ Landon

"We used a lot of tape.  It was challenging.  It was fun.  It was hard though.  ~ Landyn

"I learned that cardboard is strong.  I learned that working together works.  
I liked painting.  I liked helping. ~ Eisy

The last step in this inquiry into the world of invertebrates is to create the bug hotel that will go into the school garden as a permanent structure.  We are so excited to connect our learning to the real-world!  Come by the school to see more documentation of this learning - and the bug hotel, of course!