This art project started out with a social studies lesson courtesy of the Simcoe County Museum:

The Wendat believed that everything in the world around them, from trees to
lakes to rivers to animals, possessed a soul or spirit, called an oki. Different okies
could bring good or bad luck in different human activities, from travel to war to
hunting or fishing to farming to gambling to relationships.
• Wendat people enlisted help from a particular oki by carrying a charm dedicated
to them. These charms could be highly valued and could be passed on from one
generation to the next. Charms could be made or could be found in the woods,
where it was believed that they had been lost by the spirit that made them.
Charms could also be obtained through trade from the Algonquins, who were
such good hunters and fishermen that they were considered very lucky people.
• Wendat people carried their good luck charms around with them. If they needed
help from their charm’s oki, they would speak to the charm and offer it beads or
pieces of tobacco as presents. They could also hold feasts for their okies to
make them more powerful.
• These charms will be made from clay. Clay was one material that the Wendat
used often to make important items like pipes and pots. They could embellish
clay objects by drawing designs on them using wooden sticks.

Then it was on to creating our own okies! Students learned how to start with a ball and use a pinch method to form features. They learned how to use slip to repair/prevent cracks. Students discovered that while an artist may start with one idea for a sculpture the project may turn into something completely different as the clay starts to form.

These charms are wonderful!

Sometimes a project that was supposed to teach one concept ends up covering multiple concepts.  This was one such project.

We started out looking at a variety of shapes and how we can move them. Students identified flips, slides and turns.  We then talked about language and learned to use the terms: reflections, translations, and rotations.

Students thought about where these concepts would be used in the real world.  One idea was in quilts.  This sparked a discussion about quilts and how important they were in the early settlers’ lives.

We decided to design our own quilt blocks. Students started with squares and began to fold along lines of symmetry to create new shapes.  They put these shapes together to create a quarter of a quilt block. This turned into a discussion about fractions.  Students identified fractions in their colours and shapes.

Students created 3 more identical squares and put them together using reflections, translations and rotations to create their own quilt blocks.

Our unit about the Early Settlers has begun with the realization that the boundaries of Canada were very different 200 years ago.  We compared maps from then and now and talked about where the early settlers of Simcoe County came from.  Looking at a map students realized that they must have gotten here by boat.  The questions began, wondering what that would have been like.

We began the exploration with a bit of drama, using the carpet as a boat and chairs as travelling trunks so that students could gain a sense of just how crowded steerage class would have been.

Then, students listened to an “imagery” reading and recorded their thoughts.

To show their understanding in a creative way, students created a tableau representing the boat trip.  While students were frozen in their tableau, their shoulders were tapped one at a time. This is when they brought their characters to life, making comments in role.

Look at each tableau below.  Can you guess what each character said as he/she came to life?