This week, from Sunday 14th – Thursday 18th October, our PYP team celebrate Arts Week!
This year, we have decided to take a new approach to celebrating the arts in our PYP department. Each grade level from Preschool 3 to Grade 5 has organized their own celebration of the arts and parents have been invited to join at different occasions throughout the week.
These celebrations reflect the many ways the arts have been integrated with our Units of Inquiry and include activities and presentations such as; gymnastic routines, dance performances, fitness games, interactive art workshops such as Tie – Dye and Mosaic, singing performances, presentation of a drama written students, cultural song and dance, the creation of a ‘Peace’ mural and many more!
In addition, the student artwork created during Unit 1 is also on display around our Main Hall.
Sunday 14th:
Grade 2: Inquiry ‘Patterns
Grade 2 have been exploring the Unit of “Inquiry ‘Patterns’. For their Arts Week celebration, they have been busy preparing Gymnastic routines with the PE Department. Students selected their own music and choreographed their own routines in groups.
Following their performances, Grade 2 students invited their parents to join them for a Tie-Dye workshop. Students had practiced different methods of creating patterns in fabric using Tie-Dye techniques in their art classes. During the workshop, the students worked together with their parents to make their own Tie-Dye t-shirts. The finished products were nothing short of amazing.
Monday 15th:
Grade 1: Let’s Stay Healthy
The first Unit of Inquiry for Grade 1 was ‘Let’s Stay Healthy’, so their Arts Week celebration showcased many different aspects of their learning about this topic.
First, the students put on an energetic and enthusiastic dance performance for their parents and teachers called the ‘Broccoli Song’ while they used amazing broccoli hats created by themselves. They also displayed what they had been learning in their PE sessions during ‘Let’s Stay Healthy!’: the many ways that children and adults can keep their bodies healthy. Then, they put on their own fitness class, by teaching their parents some fitness games they had prepared.
Finally, Grade 1 students brought their parents to their art station. In their art classes, they had been learning about the Italian artist Giuseppe Arcimboldo, who painted portraits of people using fruits and vegetables instead of their normal facial features. As part of the Arts Week, the Grade 1’s drew a ‘fruit face’ portrait of one of their parents and completed the paintings together.
Grade 5: Literature
The Grade 5 classes have been working on the Unit of Inquiry ‘Literature’. As part of their inquiry, the students wrote their own play: thought of the plot, created the characters, designed the props and prepared their own costumes. This play was performed on stage to parents during their Arts Week celebration.
Part two of the Grade 5 Arts Week celebration was a presentation of their artwork. In their art lessons, the students learned about the artwork of an illustrator ‘Warja Lavater’, who created a modern illustration of old tale ‘Little Red Riding Hood’.
Each student made their own accordion book inspired by the work of this artist. They chose a classic story or a fairytale and created a modern day illustration of that story within their accordion books. During their arts week celebration, students shared their artwork with their parents, then taught them how to create their own miniature accordion book.
Tuesday 14th:
Preschool 4: All About Me
Preschool 4’s first Unit of Inquiry has been ‘All About Me’ which was celebrated in many ways during their Arts Week event. First, the students of Preschool 4 took to the stage to perform a dance to the song ‘What I Am’. Every student was given the freedom to choose their own outfits to reflect different aspects of their personality.
Following their dance routine, the Preschool 4 students invited their parents to their classrooms to partake in some Arts and Crafts activities. Ms. Tyechia’s class got hands on with their parents by creating artworks using both of their handprints. Ms. Sinead’s class were introduced to the work of Pointillist painter Georges Seurat. Using cotton buds and paint, they created bright, dotty paintings around the shapes of the first letter of their names. The results were amazing and they definitely had a great time.
Wednesday 15th:
Grade 4: Conflict Resolution
Grade 4 have just completed their first Unit of Inquiry ‘Conflict Resolution’, so they embraced the opportunity to express their learning through the arts. Their Arts Week celebration emphasised the importance of peace. They performed a beautiful song,’Light a candle for peace’ prepared with their homeroom teachers Ms. Dada and Ms. Hadeel as well as their music teacher Ms. Irene.
Following their performance, the students and their parents were free to paint any symbol that represented peace for them and created a collaborative painting entitled ‘Peace Around Us’. They also worked together on a ‘Peace Mindmap’, answering the question ‘What does peace mean to you?’.
In their art lessons with Ms. Maire, Grade 4 students had designed and painted symbols of Peace using watercolours. They also learned how to make stencils from their designs, during their celebration, the Grade 4 students and their parents created a wonderful ‘Peace Around Us’ mural outside using spray paints and stencils.
Grade 3: Arts and Expression
Grade 3’s first Unit of Inquiry was ‘Arts and Expression’. During this Unit, the students explored the many ways we can express ourselves through the arts.
First, the students showcased an artistic expression in the form of gymnastic routines they had prepared in PE with their PE teachers Ms. Sylvia and Mr. Andres. They worked in groups to choreograph artistic gymnastic routines.
Music and Visual Arts were also integrated during this Unit, so during the Arts Week celebration, students invited their parents to join them in art and music workshops. In their art workshop, the students showed their parents how they can use line, shape and colour to express an emotion. They randomly chose an emotion from the box, then created an abstract painting expressing that emotion with their parents. Their finished paintings were so impressive!
In their music workshop, the students showed their parents how the various musical elements such as tempo and pitch can be used to express an emotion or idea, as well as how different instruments and music technology on the ipads can be used to express their feelings.
As a final touch to their Arts Week celebration, Grade 3 students showed that culture can also be expressed through the arts. Their homeroom teachers inspired the students teaching them a song and dance from their home country. Ms. Zita introduced Grade 3A to folk music from Hungary and they sang the traditional Hungarian song beautifully. Mr. Joe taught his class ‘The Siege of Ennis’, a traditional Irish dance which they performed on stage, before teaching their parents some of the steps.
Thursday 16th:
Preschool 3: Arts and Expression
Preschool 3 celebrated their art, music and dance skills during their Arts Week Celebration. They presented a song to their parents and invited them to join in their music and movement session involving singing and dancing together.
The Preschool 3 students and their parents then participated in different art stations. They painted together using brushes, sponges and stamps, and they created colourful collages using paper and pom-poms. Preschool 3 students have been learning about their different facial features, and so during their celebration they drew self-portraits together with their parents using mirrors.
Preschool 5: Communities
Preschool 5 students have been learning about ‘Communities’, so their Arts Week celebration started with a dance about working as a team to the song ‘We’re All In This Together’.
After performing their dance in the auditorium, the students then moved to the Main Hall to do a Mosaic art activity with their parents. They had practiced the technique of Mosaic with paper and with stone in their art sessions. During the Arts Week celebration, the students and their parents drew a design together and then they used colourful tiles to create a Mosaic.
