The Grade One students have been exploring and studying traditional Northwest Coast formline design. By studying formline design art pieces, students learned to identify traditional formline shapes, such as ovoids, trigons, u-shapes, crescents and circles. They practiced sketching formline shapes and using them to create their own designs. The students also used their critical thinking, cutting, and visual spacial skills to cut out and organize formline shapes onto a feather template. They were careful to place the shapes correctly and with appropriate spacing to create a balanced look. Finally, as a class, we learned about the significance of feathers, particularly Eagle feathers, to indiginous people and their culture. The students created personal goals inspired by the Eagle which they represented with a word placed on the back of their feather. The feathers were then assembled to create a class mobile.

The Grade Two students have been learning about the Metis culture, as it relates to their art form. The Metis are sometimes referred to as the Flower - Beadwork people because of their traditional use of beadwork and floral design in their art. The students viewed different examples of Metis Traditional Artwork, as well as more modern pieces by Christi Belcourt. Christi uses pointillism with acrylic paint rather than beading to create floral designs which have a similar look to traditionally beaded pieces. Inspired by Christi's work and the Metis' strong connections to the Buffalo, the students used a Buffalo head outline within which to do their artwork. Using their imagination and flower photos taken by Sheila Ross, the students sketched their own floral designs. They were taught pointillism technique and were given the option to fineline their piece. Students were encouraged to create balance in their work and to use carefully placed dots using their markers.

The Grade Three students have been exploring symmetry, design and pointillism. They have been inspired by the artwork of Metis artist, Christi Belcourt. Christi creates floral designs using acrylic paint and pointillism. She uses a wide variety of plants in her artwork that have been traditionally used by the Metis community for their medicinal and nutritional qualities. The students created and sketched floral designs using examples of plants photographed in BC by our own Sheila Ross. They were inspired by Christi to create symmetrical designs and balance in their pieces. The students then learned about pointillism and applied the dot technique to their artwork. Patience and focus were required!

The Grade Five students have been learning about indigenous Pictograph Art . They viewed and discussed photographs of ancient North American pictographs. They practiced creating their own messages using a legend of pictographs and their meanings. Later, the students created some of their own symbols and combined them with ancient pictograph symbols to create stories. Try reading their picture stories first, then see how close you came by reading their written interpretation. The background on which they drew their stories was painted using brown watercolour and Ceran Wrap, to create the textured look of a rock. The story and folkart borders were drawn in pencil and traced with black marker.