While people around the world prepared to usher in the Chinese Lunar New Year, Jan. 23, as Year of the Dragon, the entire student body at Mile 108 Elementary School also got into the spirit of celebrating the fiery symbol in the Chinese zodiac.
The children did it through art, under the leadership of their art and science teacher Monique Corno who found ways to turn assignments into learning experiences, as well as creative endeavours.
Every class was given a unique project and the colourful results were pinned up in every nook and cranny of the school hallways and common areas. The contributions are all distinctly different, but the project succeeded in bringing the whole school together.
Grade 4 students carefully constructed Chinese lanterns from colourful squares of paper, but it wasn't only an art project. It was also a lesson in metric measuring, as the students were required to use their rulers and a bit of math to precisely measure intervals of their cuts.
When finished, the lanterns were strung in rows from ceilings and tacked on walls to make lively displays of these traditional Chinese decorations.
The Grade 7 class was given greater artistic licence in a pencil sketch project that involved finding a dragon image on the Internet and drawing it free hand on a different scale, either larger or smaller.
Corno says she was thrilled with the results and with the talent that was displayed. The drawings were arranged in a display to decorate a main hallway and catch the immediate attention of passers-by.
A stroll through the school brings people past another wall blanketed in vibrantly coloured dragon mask prints, which are the creation of students in Grade 1 and kindergarten. The project was geared to their limited abilities, but is no less impressive.
Grade 5 students were given the challenge of using shading to create a 3D effect on their drawings of fortune cookies. It was a simple shape to work with, and because it was in theme within an overall group project, it really sparked enthusiasm. On each, the young artists attached slips of paper with fortunes written and arranged them for display with pieces of traditional Chinese clothing and accessories found by Corno at the Value Village store in Kamloops.
While all students had the opportunity to contribute individually, Corno brought everyone together to create a several metre long paper dragon that clings to a hallway wall and greets all who venture that way. Each child was given a section of scales or other parts to colour and the pieces were all taped together to create the colossal beast.
The completed dragon, breathing fire from its mouth, is what greeted the students when they walked into the school Jan. 23, Chinese New Year's Day. They were in awe as they took in the collective masterpiece they'd created.
"It's caused some real excitement," says Corno. "They've been showing each other and their parents which section they did and there's a real sense of pride."
She adds children learned from all angles through what on the outside, looks like an art project. There was actually a lot of learning involved, she says, with students discovering much about Chinese culture and tradition.
No less important is that they've all contributed to a piece of mural-sized art and the process has served to unite children from Grades 7 through kindergarten.
"It's been lots of work, but I had fun doing it. There's not one hallway that doesn't have a touch of Year of the Dragon."
Chinese New Year is determined by the new moon and the lunisolar Chinese calendar. It falls on a different date each year, either in January or February, but usually on the second new moon after the winter solstice. It goes in 12-year cycles, with each year in the cycle represented by a particular animal with its own package of characteristics, expectations and trends associated with it.
