In French class, the Kindergarten students are making the most of the winter season by reviewing, learning and extending their vocabulary around all the winter clothing they need to put on when having fun outside.
The classes pretend to get dressed, naming each article of clothing as they do so, then go outside and build some forts in the snow before coming in for a tasty imaginary hot chocolate. The SK class is also working on their play La Petite Poule Rouge, learning their lines and having a blast practicing all the parts.
Our older students in Grades 4 to 6 are all in the final stages of preparing their class French plays. Grade 6 is working on Chat Angora, Grade 5 on Louis La Grenouille and Grade 4 on Comment y aller? The students have memorized their lines and are now fine tuning the theatrical aspect of each performance for a mini drama festival later this term which all parents and students are invited to attend. Final preparations include getting the staging done, dreaming about costumes and giving stage directions to each other in French.
In addition to their plays, the classes continue to work on the grammatical structures present in every one of the dramatic units and completing the "cahiers."
The Grade 6's are also doing more intense grammar practice, working with verb conjugations, possessive adjectives and more. Étienne is a French teacher who has turned these important grammatical concepts into rock songs and raps that help students memorize them. The 6's are his biggest fans!
The xylophone is the focus in Music class for SK to Grade 3. 
The students are learning to play the instruments with proper technique, to read music and perform different parts — bass, middle and melody. Improvisation is encouraged. The classes are jamming out to pieces such as Mary Had A Little Lamb and some very cool jazzy numbers.
Grades 4 to 6 are working with music composition and computers using the GarageBand software. For Grade 4 it's an introduction to the program and beginner melody writing. Grades 5 and 6 are composing short four part rhythmic pieces based on the word rhythms they've been creating in class. The students record their pieces using the software instruments and real instruments and then add an improvised melody.
In Gym class this term, all grades are flipping out for a gymnastics unit. Basic floor skills being developed include somersaults, tripods, cartwheels, headstands and handstands. Equipment use includes the balance beam and monkey bars with a focus on traveling in different methods such as slow, fast, high, low, forwards, backwards and sideways. Also developed is individual balance, ease of movement, motor control and coordination.
Our long swing rope hanging from the ceiling allows the students to take a responsible risk and the trampolines and big blue mats are perfect for practicing jumping and sticking those pinpoint landings.
For some extra fun, Jill is introducing basic yoga movements and stretches which develop a calm state, body positioning and balance. Also on tap is Mabin's own version of STOMP — music combined with body movement and dance which promotes an ease and fluidity of movement to music. The students will have the opportunity to practice some collaborative group work when they create their own STOMP routines.
In the Art room, the Junior Kindergarten students are currently working on a texture collage, in the process developing a better understanding of what "texture" is (how something feels or looks like it feels). The artists first added a variety of soft textured items to a carpet base and will look at hard textured items next. Upcoming is a papier mache puppets project.
The Senior Kindergarten students have continued to pursue their African animals interest in the Art Room and are proud to announce the opening of their new front hall display! The pieces on show are the efforts of several weeks worth of work. The group started with careful pencil, pencil crayon and thin line marker drawings of their chosen creature. Special features were noted such as claws, whiskers and manes too! Next, the artists used dye to colourfully paint the background paper. Brown, yellow, black or green construction paper horizon lines were added overtop of the dye depending on the area of the Savannah and even the time of day/night the particular creature preferred. The hand drawn animals were then cut out with care, placed in the pictures and glued in place. In some cases, details such as trees and grasses were added, while in others mud, rocks, and water reflected an animal's habitat choice.
Now the SK's feel they could learn more about African animals if they had a chance to build some. So... the class is currently working on constructing their own African animal of interest using boxes, tubes, crates and other sculpture materials. Papier mache will be used to add strength to the creatures before all that great decorating starts!
The Grade 1's are continuing to pursue their independent study project of choice. Adding to their classroom and CSI work on fish, turtles, sharks/sponges and snails, each student has chosen an art topic and designed their own project to help communicate their understanding of these creatures. The art topics available are Painting, Clay, Sculpture, Printmaking, Drawing or Collage based. Each student has been wo
rking with passion and inspiration to bring their research creature to life through one of these Art topics.
Grade 2 finished out the fall term by learning how to sew and will be applying those newly acquired skills to a larger soft sculpture project. In keeping with the class interest in animals (particularly Web-Kinz animals) and their new math topic "shapes", each artist will be working to create their own stuffed animal/creature toy. Look for lots of sewing, lots of stuffing, lots of decorating and lots of squishy fun!
Captivated by shadow puppets and their explorations with light, the Grade 3's are creating characters out of bristol board and then adding a moveable part with hand-held hinges. The students are adding colour by using cuts outs filled in with different coloured gels (transparent paper). These characters are really starting to take on a life of their own as the students use our homemade shadow puppet theatres to play and experiment. Next up, each artist will design their own little shadow box theatre.
Hand puppets are the focus in Grade 4. This project introduced an entirely new sculpture material to the students: foam. The children began the transformation of rectangular shaped foam blocks by carving away the excess material with scissors. Once a shape was achieved, the planning process could begin. Detailed sketches and material lists were created, visually describing the puppet they planned to make. Transforming the two dimensional ideas into three dimensional forms required a mature focus which the students enthusiastically engaged in. By concentrating and paying particular attention to detail, they were able to shape their ideas into reality. Creating the body for their puppet has initiated discussion about proportion and become more of an independent focus, with the children choosing various ways to represent it — carving foam blocks, creating sleeves and sewing fabric bodies.
Grade 5 is starting a series a self portraits using a learned technique. 
The next stage is adding colour and learning blending techniques that incorporate chalk pastel. Tying into this portraits theme, the class will take a trip to the Gardiner Museum to see the Gertraud Mohwald exhibit of clay portraits. After viewing and sketching the sculptures, the artists will participate in a clay session with a focus on creating a 3-D portrait using clay and ceramic shards. The students will apply their knowledge of facial proportions and use a creative process similar to Mohwald's.
The Grade 6's have just finished making Relief Prints. These were carved using tools from a material called "softKut", similar to but much easier to use than Linoblocks. The class demonstrated their knowledge of positive and negative space and applied past knowledge when deciding how best to ink and pull prints. The students were encouraged to experiment with the assemblages of prints, pulling "clean prints" and abstracted collaged versions. Up next is a Louise Nevelson inspired assemblage created from boxes and wood.
