Eglinton Junior Public School Tangram Project 2018-19
Artbarn School has been involved with bringing colour to construction for the past couple of years. In 2018 we worked on the Dot Art Project with all the students of John Fisher P.S. to create dot paintings to enhance the green construction fence from the condominium development adjacent to the school playground. All the students had a chance to visit the “art studio” set up in an empty classroom and paint on the dots. We taught them about geometry as we worked on the unique designs together. They also all made a dot button that the students wore at the official unveiling ceremony spring 2018.
We were delighted to be asked to work on the Eglinton JPS project in October 2018 by Crosslinx/Metrolinx. Early in the project Linda McMaster met with Natalie Ardanaz from Metrolinx, the Principal Ian Wilson, Clare Gorman and a local Artbarn artist, Marina Nazarova before deciding on the direction of the project. Clare collected ideas from the teachers at a staff meeting and they suggested nature themes & Kandinsky. The tangram idea seemed like a good way to incorporate nature and include geometry for a robust math integration. For us, it was a good transition from the Dot Project.
From the outset we were determined that all the students should be engaged with the design process. We planned a tangram worksheet for the teachers and provided white card stock and good markers for all the 608 students at the school. We also found a short tangram video that the teachers could use. The teachers did an amazing job guiding their students and the wonderful artwork from each child was displayed in our temporary art studio set up in the atrium for the duration of the art making. These colourful tangrams were used plan the finished plywood pieces. All the students in Grades 1-5 had an opportunity to paint the clouds and also paint the coloured shapes. We painted the train shapes. The cloud shapes with tangrams on them will be installed on the exterior walls of the school facing Eglinton Ave. and Mt. Pleasant in June 2019.